Last week, I asked you to vote on a plot for the protagonist and antagonist pictured above. I had a tie between the puzzle and the quest. So I chose … the puzzle because that’s what I write. But a puzzle, or mystery, does not have to be related to crime. It’s any problem the protagonist must solve and the antagonist wants to prevent him from solving. Now comes the last block to build a story. What’s their setting for a YA story?

I list some traditional and not so traditional choices, but the main setting should be a place where the protagonist and antagonist come into regular contact. And it should be easy to introduce other characters. We also have to decide if our main characters are high school or college age because that also will affect the choice of setting. Feel free to choose more than one. For example, both characters could work a local pizza place in a small town.

• Small town
• Big city
• Public high school
• Private high school
• State university
• Private college
• Restuarant
• Riding stable
• Charter boat service or other service in a vacation town
• Library–personal favorite because I worked in libraries for ten years
• State house in state capital–another personal favorite because my niece just got a job working as a legislative page. Sounds very interesting.
• Garden center
• Farm
• State park

To see the previous prompts for building a YA story, click here.

Let me know your choices in the comments!