Product Description

Even if you have great characters, outstanding dialogue and a gripping plot, your story isn't complete without the appropriate setting. Setting is the unifying element in most fiction, working in concert with plot, characterization and point of view. Here you'll explore how to use setting as the basis for creating dramatic, engaging stories. Focusing on detail, language and observation, Jack Bickham's invaluable instruction will not only improve your ability to create a strong setting, but also enhance your writing skills as a whole. You'll learn:

- the function of setting within the fiction writing process
- how setting works with plot, characterization and point of view
- the effect of setting on unity
- ways to generate story ideas through setting
- techniques for creating setting
- how to use setting as a thematic device
- methods for using setting to stimulate your reader's senses
- how to incorporate factual information for texture and authenticity
- exercises for improving your powers of observation
- tips for recording ideas, events and descriptions using notebook entries

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #214065 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Amazon.com Review
There's nothing more tiresome, either at the outset of a novel or thrust into the middle of one, than a lengthy description. So the sky was blue and the clouds a billowy white and a sheepdog lolled in the middle of the dusty lane. Get on with it, already. This is not to say that setting is not of utmost consideration to a fiction writer (or to any other writer). Jack Bickham applies the tip-of-the-iceberg theory to setting: "You should have a rich lode of factual information on hand before you begin to write," he advises here, "and should know how to sprinkle in those facts a few at a time." In Setting, from the Writer's Digest Elements of Fiction Writing series, Bickham explores the ways in which the setting one chooses affects the other elements of the story. "In real life as well as in fiction," Bickham warns, setting "tends to form character." The setting you opt for will determine what else you may and may not include in your story. Bickham has advice on how to communicate your setting to your readers, how to research a given setting, and how setting varies according to genre. He includes a "setting research form" that would be a nifty thing to take along when you're on the road. And remember, he says: "you must never deviate from verifiable facts." Even if the southern town you've chosen is completely imagined, you must never let the crape myrtles bloom before late summer. --Jane Steinberg

About the Author
Over the course of his esteemed career, Jack Bickham published more than 80 novels and instructional books, including Writing Novels That Sell and The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them). A former creative writing professor, he instructed thousands of writers through his classes, seminars and Writer's Digest magazine articles.

Customer Reviews

Rating the Elements of Fiction Writing series
I've read all the books in the Elements of Fiction Writing series and this is how I'd rank them.

"Scene & Structure" "Characters & Viewpoint" "Beginnings, Middles & Ends"

The above three books are invaluable -- must reads. They are the best of the series, in my opinion, and are packed with good information on every page. Well-done.

"Conflict, Action & Suspense" "Description" "Plot" "Manuscript Submission" "Setting"

The above five books are good, solid reads. Again, they contain good information and cover the subject decently.

"Voice & Style" "Dialogue"

To me, the last two books need to be rewritten. They are by far the weakest of the series. Both suffer from an annoying style, particularly Dialogue, and both are very skimpy on real information. Neither one is very helpful.

This is the order in which I'd recommend reading them.

Keeping the Focus
Another Writer's Digest book that offers a multitude of ways ensure that your reader has a visual and sensual focus on place and time in your stories. The author not only tells you why setting is so important in supporting the plot and characters, but gives pleanty of exercises to help you create a clear picture of where and when your story takes place.

Invaluable Information at so little cost!
As a "mature" student I was in awe of the insights the author was giving us which he has obviously learned on the anvil of experience. As an avid reader I was able to relate to his comments and advice and found myself nodding in agreement. This book is easy to read and full of practical advice, and examples, just the book for budding writers.