Southern Writers Magazine January/February 2019 Southern Writers_JAN-FEB_2019 | Page 9

- Settings on S O S Steroids by DiAnn Mills A h, setting, the frail stepchild of fiction. How often we neglect this vital member of story, insisting character, plot, dialogue, and emotion are so much more important. We dress her in rags, have her clean the chimney, then criticize her for lack of purpose. Setting is the environment where story takes place. A strong setting challenges character, plot, dialogue, and narrative by adding a twist in the character’s journey to reach a goal. True setting makes the character’s goal harder to obtain. Consider the setting of your novel as an antagonist. Assign traits that defy the protagonist’s goals and raise the stakes. Stop the character from moving forward by establishing a barrier that ensures temporarily defeat. The adversity of setting can be obvious or hidden but include it in ways that forces your character to acquire new skills, make tough decisions, and accept responsibility for those actions. This is a process that builds momentum and challenges the protagonist to think and work harder to survive. Without conflict and tension, the reader is cheated and finds it difficult to stay engaged in the story. An example of an antagonistic setting is a protagonist who has a manicured garden enclosed by a ten-foot stone fence. The area is her source of tranquility, and she spends hours there. A villain follows her into the garden and traps her inside. Her peaceful domain now becomes her torture chamber. To reveal setting, look to characterization, plot, dialogue, narrative, symbolism, and emotion. It’s fresh, alive, and full of spirit. Establish the time, date, season of the year, and the culture of the characters in the story. Use sensory perception to root the protagonist into the surroundings. Show just enough points for the reader to envision how the setting looks, smells, sounds, and tastes, and feels. If the writer tells too much, the reader will skip the description and move on to the action, and the reader might miss a detail. When the character experiences the setting and the adventure contained there, the reader will experience it too. If the protagonist’s journey is easy, the reader will lose value for the story and the writer. A character who lives in the setting will not make the same observations as a visitor. Note the emotions that differentiate a seasoned character from a novice in a specific environment. The seven universal emotions, according to Tonya Reiman in The Power of Body Language, are surprise, fear, anger, sadness, disgust, happiness, and contempt. Move your characters around in the setting and initiate those universal emotions. Use active verbs and muscle-laden nouns to show more about your character. The setting in your genre gives the plot power. Romance Consider a romance set on a Caribbean island. What looks idyllic with sun-kissed days on white-sand beaches and nights filled with the perfume of exotic plants can turn into a nightmare when a tropical storm threatens the safety of young lovers. Suspense A suspense novel builds momentum when the protagonist chases a villain into a dark building. Or the protagonist discovers his boss is a villain. Southern Writers    9