WE NEED A SETTING....

Recently I read a 'best selling psychological thriller' and even though I was told the story was set 'just out of Manhattan' I honestly couldn't tell. I have never been to Manhattan, or anywhere in the United States, so I would have liked a bit of description...a setting as you will.  The story could have been set any where and basically anytime.

However Manhattan itself wasn't the central setting, the main character's home town and the area surrounding it was. In fact this was such a major part of how he became who he was, how the 'supernatural' aspects came about that it was vital to the storyline.  And I so couldn't see it.

There was hardly any description at all. Nothing that I could see or feel so I could begin to understand his character...

Not that I wanted pages of description. Paragraphs of purple prose describing the wooded hills and the meandering stream...but I needed something.

It is so easy to do. We all know when we watch a TV show and we see an inner suburban house, cheek by jowl with it's neighbours....the small front yard is overgrown, the lawn (that isn't yellowing and dying off) is strewn with a couple of kids bikes and a football. The front door stands ajar and assorted shoes and school bags litter the hallway. We form an opinion.

A few images and we can see the people living in this house. There are children, more than one, the parent (s) don't have enough time or money or patience to tidy up all the time. There could be a reason. 

Single mother, working two jobs, with latch key kids. 

Young family and one child ill in hospital.

We don't know BUT we have set up a scene which gives us an inkling of who lives here and what is happening.

Setting is so important...not as I've said before, not reams and reams of it so that the reader's eyes glaze over and we skip three pages looking for when the action begins.

However we need to see where the characters are...especially if the home / surroundings / town / is a major part of the story. Almost a character in itself.

What if a man returns home to find his wife missing?

What would you think if the house was neat and tidy, nothing missing, no suitcases or clothes gone, toothbrush and handbag still there....but no wife? 

Would it be worse if there were obvious signs of a struggle? Broken furniture, papers tossed, smashed mirror and a few (convenient) drops of blood?

What if the table was still set? Morning newspaper set out, cup of tea (cold by now) and a half eaten piece of toast?

The facts are still the same--his wife is missing. The setting is the same, but with a few bits of description, we have three totally different scenarios.

It doesn't take much to add a bit of texture. Some insight into where our characters live, who they live with, what their homes look like. 

Especially, in the book I just read, where the man's home in which he grew up was such an important aspect of why and how his character was formed. 

All we need to do is get that picture out of our head, and onto the paper. So often, easier said than done. 

Vicki