What I mean by having writing fun with settings is finding places you can explore and see what fun you can have if you develop a story around them.
Fun Ideas for Settings
Here are some ideas to use if you just want to have fun writing about settings.
- Research a location you’ve always wanted to visit and see what story ideas your research sparks.
- Scroll through photo sites, like Pixabay, using search terms for locations you’d like to see, especially sci or fantasy landscapes.
- Scroll through photo sites and write a quick scene set in the first setting that captures your interest.
- Make a list of settings you personally hate. For example, I don’t like hospitals. Try writing a scene with a character who hates being in this setting. Then write one with a characters who loves it.
- Do the same as above with settings you love.
- Select a setting where you’d feel uncomfortable. For example, if you’re an urbanite, choose a small town. Write about what you would dislike about the setting. Write about what you might like.
- Write about some of your favorite locations from childhood.
Since setting can also mean a period of time …
- Research a favorite time period.
- Write about which seasons is your favorite and why.
- Write about which holiday is your favorite and why.
- Write about the best event or year in your life.
Fun Ideas for Settings within Your WIP
Like I said last week, sometimes you need to have fun with your writing, but you can’t leave your WIP for very long because of a deadline. Here some suggestions for having fun writing settings within your current project.
- Determine if you can move a scene you’ve already written to a new setting. For example, your main charcter’s (MC) best friend works at a candy store and you haven’t set any scenes there yet.
- Examine your overall setting to see if there are locations within it you’ve overlooked. If your overall setting is a business within a skyscraper and most of your scenes take place in offices, see if you can set some in an elevator, the cafeteria, a stairwell, or even a bathroom.
- Examine your settings to see if you’ve taken full advantage of what they offer. If your MC has a fight with a henchman in the kitchen of a restaurant, make sure the two opponents are using what’s in the kitchen–grabbing a chef’s knife, hurling a bowl of salad, throwing eggs on the floor.
For more tips on writing settings, click here. I’d love to read your suggestions for having writing fun with settings.
I like your Fun Ideas for Settings. As an artist who paints and photographs on location sometimes, I have landscape paintings and photos that have helped me create places in my stories. Each one evokes different moods, depending on lighting and weather. It’s fun to look at those pictures while I write because they always “take me there,” which helps me write better location scenes without leaving my house. And because many of my stories take place outdoors, those landscape pictures are invaluable.
If you can’t visit a location, photos can enormously help you get into a setting. For any setting, I like to see how the light, natural or artificial, affects on it.
These are great ideas! My published series takes place in mountains for the advantage of scenery and natural disasters, but these ideas are imagination-spurring for future WIPs!
Nature is the perfect setting for throwing in the unexpected.