Regardless of where you set your story, your writer’s view of place should be informed by your theme goals and your character’s point of view. In a post on Writer Unboxed, Lynne Reeves Griffin shares her advice on reinforcing theme through your scene descriptions.
During a writing workshop Griffin attended, the instructor had the class write a scene from two points of view – the first using only pleasant details, and the second using only menacing ones. “It was a lightbulb moment for me,” Griffin says. “I had known that in order for themes to emerge from setting, a story has to, in some way, rely on its setting. But I hadn’t fully considered that place and its unique elements could influence the story such that it would be drastically different, or might not exist at all if it took place somewhere else.”
In her next work, she developed her setting – a house – into a character. “I played with the questions: What if a home in the story has its own persona? A vibe it gives off that creates story conflict between two characters?” she explains. “I deepened character by making inextricable links to place and plot. In every scene, I paid close attention to highlighting how the environment could raise what was at stake for my protagonists, making conflict and tension visible on every page.”
