A Writer's Guide to Active Setting Read Online Free

uses her descriptive phrases to create the world of New Jersey bounty-hunter Stephanie Plum. The author does not leave it to the reader to guess about the neighborhood; she uses key details to make it come alive.
    It was a sunny April day. [
Orient the reader to time of year and a general sense of time of day. It’s not night or early morning, given that it’s sunny. Also, this acts as a contrast to what comes next, which makes the reader take notice.
] But Stark Street looked dreary. [
The author “tells” (versus shows) what the POV character thinks about the Setting, but then goes on to show with specific details. Telling alone is shorthand, and too much of it holds the reader at a distance from the story. But when telling is used with showing, it can be effective. By telling us, Evanovich gives us a direction from which we can interpret what we’re going to see next on this street.
] Pages from a newspaper cartwheeled [
Action verbs, as opposed to passive “to be” verbs, make stronger, more concrete images in the reader’s mind.
] down the street and banked [
Action verb.
] against curbs and the cement stoops of cheerless row houses. [
Specific types of houses—these are not bungalows or 1980s ranch style homes. The reader can start to see the Setting more clearly by this small detail.
] Gang slogans were spray-painted on brick fronts. [
Very specific details showing the neglect of the area and how the buildings were made, which offers a distinct image. Change this one detail, from brick to concrete or faded lap siding, and you have a very different image of the houses.
] An occasional building had been burned and gutted, the windows blackened and boarded. [
By repeating the terms—burned and gutted, blackened and boarded—the author hammers home the images in this specific world.
] Small businesses squatted [
Action verb.
] between the row houses. Andy’s Bar & Grill, Stark Street Garage, Stan’s Appliances, Omar’s Meat Market. [
Notice the male names most common in the 1950s. This tells the reader these are small, family-owned, and probably older businesses.
]
    Now what if Evanovich had simply written:
    INITIAL DRAFT: It was a sunny April day. But Stark Street looked dreary. We looked for Omar’s Meat Market and found it.
    The reader would have felt rushed, and, while knowing they were on a particular street in New Jersey, since the story is unfolding there, they would not have any sense of this world. Instead of seeing the world of Evanovich’s story, the reader could be inserting images from a Kansas town or a French city, especially if the reader had never been to New Jersey.
    Without clues, the reader will default to what they know already and may get an erroneous Setting image. One paragraph was all that was needed to anchor the reader to the world of the characters and make the Setting come alive. Evanovich does not use a lot of Setting in her stories, but makes sure that the reader experiences the world of New Jersey bounty-hunter Stephanie Plum at least once or twice in every story.
Pacing and Setting
    If the character is returning to a place that hasn’t been described in depth previously, the reader will not be as open to a slower pacing on the revisit so you can describe Setting. The reader has most likely created her own visuals, because a reader needs to see the characters in some context. This is a small but important point, and an error many new writers make.
    Beginning writers often:
wait until it’s too late to describe and orient the reader as to place;
or totally forget that the reader has no idea where the character is in the story, because the location has suddenly moved from a known to a new, unknown location.
    If I write,
Joe left his home and went to the city
, the Setting is so vague that it leaves you clueless and frustrated. But if I write,
Joe left his beachside cottage and drove into Lake Forest City, a northern suburb of Seattle
, the addition of a few specifics gives you