In a post on the DIY MFA blog, Michael Bourne shares advice on making your setting a well-rounded character in your novel. “Too often, settings end up being just that: a sort of stage set on which the characters carry out the action of the novel,” Bourne says. If you want your setting to be more than a mere place, Bourne has a few ideas:
- Do your research. “To write well about your characters, you have to know them intimately, and the same goes for a place,” Bourne says. If you can, visit places that figure into your setting. Spend time observing and take copious notes. Research the history of the place to create backstory, which you can use to create a character arc for your setting.
- Give your setting a dramatic story arc. A dramatic arc requires stakes and risk. What does your setting need and what will happen if things don’t go right? The conflict here can underscore the challenges facing your main character.
- The setting’s story arc has to connect to the central plot of the novel. “It’s all well and good to offer your readers a storyline for your setting, but if it doesn’t connect in a meaningful way to the book’s plot, readers will wonder why it’s there,” Bourne writes.
- Grant your setting the subtle shadings of character you would grant a central human figure. “Readers are drawn to complexity of character, especially when that complexity leads to surprises and insights,” Bourne notes. Be prepared to show more than one side of your town.
- Your other characters must relate to your setting as they would a human character. “It’s not enough that you view your setting as a fully realized character; your other characters have to see it the same way, or else the reader never will,” Bourne says. Your characters should have unique relationships and perspectives on their setting. Is your setting a place of opportunity or despair? Trauma or rebirth? “Just like a real place, it should show a different face to every person who lives there,” Bourne adds. “And just like a real place, it should be in constant flux, ever at risk of losing its way or rising to meet its potential.”
