When I watch a movie, the scenery goes by like speeding by city blocks in a car. It isn’t real. Instead, it’s just scenery. Part of the challenge in writing is making setting real, not just scenery.
What About Setting?
Think about a walk through your home. If you only saw this in a video, it would only be scenery. Well, maybe a bit more because it is a place you are familiar with.
Now walk through you home. This is more than visual. There are sounds. Aromas drift by. Your attention might focus on a favorite item opening up memories. Your home is a real place.
Which experience would give you as a reader greater involvement in the story? Which one would make the story seem more real?
Making Setting Real
In writing a rough draft of a novel, setting usually is just scenery except for times when the plot depends on it. This is fine. The main foci for a rough draft are usually characters and plot.
Then comes the rewrite. This is where setting comes into its own. Perhaps your main character is making bread. The dough has a smell, a feel, a look both as it is mixed and as it is kneaded. Later comes the aroma of baking bread. This changes as the bread gets closer to done.
Perhaps you main character is going someplace. If it is a city street, there are city sounds of people, vehicles, activities, smells. If it is a walk in the country, there is the feel of the dirt, smells, sounds of wind and animals, weather.
Adding some descriptions about these or other aspects of your setting brings the reader into the story.
How Much?
Just as too much backstory can put the brakes on your story, too much description can do the same. The idea is to add just enough to enhance the story.
Going back to a road. Does the road meander down a valley? Perhaps it is a straight highway through a desert. Is heat shimmering above it? Just a mention of this influences your driver. Are they paying attention or looking out the window and getting into trouble?
Getting It Right
This is where actually being in a place really matters. How can you add the sensory details if you’ve never been there? You can’t. How can you know what details really catch attention if you’ve never been there.
Even if all you do is take a walk through a similar place, it let’s you get it right. The reader can tell.
