Workshop: An Introduction to Writing for Children and Young Adults
Setting is either used as a backdrop and almost
invisible, or as a character itself. For example, the Hobbit’s landscape includes
a man versus nature conflict. Then as we discussed in Moon Over Tennessee,
setting can confirm a genre such as an Historical: establishes place,
historical framework, season, time of day, moods, atmosphere.
Again, when the reader is able to visualize
it that makes it authentic. The common place becomes memorable as in the
Borrowers. The setting needs to be authentic whether real or imaginary.
Three main categories help to establish
authenticity. First is Landscape: which includes climate, weather,
topography, land-marks, amount of daylight.
Once you’ve set the setting you don’t need to
repeat every time. You add touches throughout to keep the focus or can repeat
an important part often if it’s going to matter. For example if a tapestry on
wall hides the clues to a mystery, then it should be seen often.
To brainstorm some ways to choose your basic
setting here’s part one of an exercise I sometimes give my workshop students.
Write a brief few sentences about a character hanging laundry on an outside
line.
Seems pretty ordinary—perhaps even dull. At
the moment it is only a beginning point of a possible reality, giving perhaps
character and place, but not yet a voice; and perhaps curiosity, but not yet an
authentic emotional connection.
However, I have yet to have any sentence even
come close to matching another as each writer chooses the unique aspects that
interest them and apply to their story world.
The character:
boy, girl, man, woman, human or alien—what kind? Are they bored or anxious?
Normal chore or forced labor?
Hangs laundry: how?—By old-fashioned
string and clothes pegs, or by magic, or electronically? Is it a difficult chore
or easy?
Outside line:
where?—Isolated mountaintop, crowded slum, spaceship balcony, or cookie-cutter
suburb? Is it dark outside or light? Windy or not?
The chosen detail for each key focus brings
up several shapes to a simple sentence. By knowing a geographic habitat and
adjusting it to reflect our character’s story, we can take common territory and
transform it into new ground—even if it’s the familiar chain store on the
corner.
Action Steps:
1.
Do
a sentence for each of the characters listed.
2.
Which
details for each did you like best.
3.
Combine
all your favorite choices into one sentence structure.
Share: What is your sentence?
Read deep, marcy
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