Stories can take place all within a matter of minutes or, span out over years, lifetimes. They can remain in the area of a square foot, encompass the entire planet, or reach far beyond into outer space or even beyond the mind. As the writer, you must chose how you want the story to unfold, where the characters are located and paint the picture so your audience can visualize the setting. Or, settings. You might want the reader to be far removed, looking down from the clouds as the characters move about. Or maybe you'd like the audience to be seated right next to your protagonist -- possibly become the protagonist or, better yet, antagonist!
Recently a couple of our writing group members met for coffee. During the casual conversation, the discussion evolved to one about place and setting. How appropriate seeing our upcoming craft chat will be about just that: place and setting. The frustration one writer was experiencing was borne from moving rapidly back and forth in the story, jumping from one part of the nation to another, sometimes having events occurring simultaneously yet in different chapters. How, the question surfaced, do you keep your audience engaged? The idea of placing time and location stamps throughout the story was suggested.
What ideas do you have? What have you done in your own stories? What have you seen other authors do in similar situations? What worked for you or didn't? Take a moment and share your thoughts by clicking on the comments link. Remember, your email address will not be published, however it is necessary; otherwise our spam detection bot will toss it into the trash.
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