Writing Active Setting Book 2: Emotion, Conflict and Back Story: Writing Active Setting, #2

OVERVIEW

In strong writing there is always an overlap of craft techniques and therefore more integration of the whole. Nothing lives in isolation. For those who have read Writing Active Setting: Book 1: Characterization and Sensory Details, you will notice that Emotion as explained in this book enhances what you learned about Characterization in Book 1. This is necessary both for combining the elements into a seamless unit and for helping you assimilate by repetition.

We’re looking at very different examples in this book, so you don’t need to read Book 1 to understand and embrace the concepts here, but these concepts build on one another as blocks laid one on another create a strong structure. The more you learn about writing Active Setting, the more you will be able to add depth and texture to your writing as you explore opportunities to use the material.

––––––––

Part 1:

USING SETTING TO SHOW EMOTION

INTRODUCTION

Setting to show emotion is one of the most powerful, although underused by newer writers, tools of Active Setting.

Most readers consciously or subconsciously read for the emotion of your story. They look to the cover to clue them into whether a story is humorous, light, dark, edgy, etc. Within a story though, emotions can run the gamut from light (happy, relief, joy) to dark (anger, fear, terror) as you lead your characters, and thus the reader, on your story journey. There’s enormous energy created on the page by consciously choosing words to ratchet up the emotions you want the reader to experience as your characters move through your story.

Let’s jump right in and explore how some amazing authors, writing in a variety of genres, use Setting to show emotion.

Outside, the wind was howling and another line of black clouds was trooping over the city. Big slabs of bruise-colored clouds. — The Coffin Dancer — Jeffery Deaver

In the above example, Deaver, a suspense/thriller writer, uses weather to clue the reader into the tone of the story by foreshadowing that things are not only bad but looking as if they are going to be getting worse. Weather in Setting, along with specific word choices to describe that weather, is one of the easiest ways to orient the reader to the mood of a scene.

What would have happened if Deaver had not been as meticulous in his word choices?

Outside, the wind blew and another line of clouds was moving over the city. Big clouds.

Any emotion? No. We see clouds, but the seeing of those clouds does not enhance the emotion of the story in any way. Look to the descriptive words being used as many writers depend only on their adjectives. Instead consider powering up your verb choices to get more emotion into a Setting description as opposed to simply relying on your adjectives. Clouds hunkering over the horizon are a stronger image than big clouds on the horizon or fluffy clouds on the horizon.

NOTE: Settings, used well, help pull out the emotions you want the reader to experience on the page.

Let’s look at another example of Setting, with and without emotion.

... I stood staring out the sliding glass doors. The backyard looked melancholy in the late autumn, the foliage thinned out and the high fence depressingly obvious. The gray pool cover was spotted with puddles of rainwater. The warm colors of the big room were more pleasant, and I roamed around it picking up odds and ends as I stretched chilled muscles. — Shakespeare’s Champion — Charlaine Harris

In the above example the initial mood shown by examining the Setting outside the sliding glass doors reflects the emotional tenor of the POV character in this scene. Pensive. Melancholy. Depressed. Later in this passage the author changes the tone by having the character become more active. Warm. Pleasant. Because of these few Setting sentences the reader is prepped for some change in the story from low-key and somber to the feeling of safety within the room. This mirrors what is being set up in the story because within a page danger will approach the house from outside, an outside Setting the reader is already aware of and already knows is dark.

What would have happened if Charlaine Harris had written:

I stood looking out the sliding glass doors at the backyard. The autumn trees looked bare, showing the fence in back. The pool cover was covered with water. The warm colors of the big room were more pleasant, and I roamed around it picking up odds and ends as I stretched chilled muscles.

See? The reader gets a visual of the backyard but no sense of emotion. There’s no contrast between what’s happening outside and where the character is inside.

Setting can do so much to set the mood or theme of a story emotionally which in turn makes