Is the Setting in Your Novel Like Guests Entering Your Home for the Big Dinner?

What is the first captivating “thing” company sees, senses, and touches? Large bulbs of color that hang from your gutters. Important? Those lights help place, or ground readers in your setting. Later, those decorated gutters fall off on the new car of your daughter’s boyfriend.

The freshest of wreaths hangs on your door. Will that heavenly scent of warm mountain air welcome your visitors? Ouch! Those pine needles are sharp. Will guests recall the symbol of eternity long after they’re gone? Is the wreath important to the plot?

As soon as the front door opens, scents of cinnamon, allspice, and pumpkin bread greet your guests. Visitors study the decorations in the living room, and/or dining room. That five-foot silver tree from Sears catalogue sure sparkles. (Is all of the past sentence important to setting or plot? If not, cut!)

An old White Pages telephone book with each page folded into a triangle, (which resembles a pine tree), then sprayed with green paint, and sparkled with glitter, has been designated as your centerpiece.

Your guests want to know if there’s significance to the sprayed paper tree. Too early for backstory? That’s okay, you’ve hinted at something there. I suggest an inner thought as to why your protagonist won’t speak about the decoration now is enough. For example, God knows why that decoration was saved for fifty years, but not my second grade ribbon. Then have your hostess let her guests know she’s heard them. For example, “Later. I’m mashing potatoes. Help yourself to wine.”

That way, you’ve attached importance to the book, and you’ve encouraged your readers/guests to stick around for a while. Don’t forget the bleach-white table cloth, silverware, and fancy plates on the table, let alone stains or cuts on the chairs.

Obviously, you’re going for the vintage vibe in this story. So far, you’ve got a setting that resonates with a certain group of readers, or your genre. You’ve touched on sight, touch, smell, and inner feelings. What about sounds?

When I heard the following question from David #Farland, I had to stop, think, and analyze. “Can your readers tell more about your setting by things that are not mentioned?” For example, no decorations.

Once you perfect the place to introduce your story, remember to “block” the scene(s). Can readers see, feel and smell enough of your setting to ground them? Can their imagination move through the setting with ease? Or have you begun in the kitchen, gone to the back yard, then to the bathroom, (with new towels), gone to the front yard, back to the kitchen, and made your reader bounce around so much, they have no idea why you’re speaking about a swing set in the yard two houses east of you, let alone the stains and cuts in the chairs.

Can’t quite manage to write all this by yourself? Join RMFW.org and get the gifts of assistance you deserve!

With all sincerity,

Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Happy Kwanza!