Istoryan Writers

[diem]

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[color=navy]What is Setting?

The setting of a story, poem or an article is the time, location and circumstances in which a particular event you're writing about takes place. In broad terms, the setting provides the main backdrop for your story or article. It is also referred to as milieu, to include a context (such as society) beyond the immediate surroundings of the story or article. In some cases in writing fiction, the setting becomes a character itself and can set the tone of a story.

Setting often influences the overall tone or "mood" of a story or article. More specifically, the term "setting" can also refer to the time or location of a single scene in a larger story.

In a stage production for theater, the term "setting" can also refer to the actual scenery itself.

What Writers Say About Setting

"“You may take a certain atmosphere and get action and persons to express and realize it. I’ll give you an example–The Merry Men. There I began with the feeling of one of those islands on the west coast of Scotland, and I gradually developed the story to express the sentiment with which that coast affected me.”
---- Robert Louis Stevenson (If you're curious, you can read Stevenson's "The Merry Men" http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/merrymen.htm"]here[/url])

"In real life as well as in fiction, setting tends to form character."
"You should have a rich lode of factual information on hand before you begin to write, and should know how to sprinkle in those facts a few at a time... [though] you must never deviate from verifiable facts."
---- Jack M. Bickham, from "Setting" (Writer's Digest Elements of Fiction Writing book series)

"In the five elements of Fiction... Setting is the Where and When..."
---- Mike Klaassen, The Major Elements of Writing Fiction, www.helium.com

Writing the Setting:

The setting can be an important part of the story or article but too often, the setting is a VISUAL description when it can be so much more than meets the eye. One can create a setting using other human senses: Taste, Smell, Hearing, Touch as well as Sight.

Writing Workout#1: On Setting

Close your eyes and focus on your present surroundings. Listen for the sounds around you. Sniff out the smell, scents and stinks. Can you taste anything? Reach out with your hands, every inch of you skin to feel around. Can you touch anything? What is it and what does it feel like?

Open your eyes. Make FOUR columns or rows on your page: TASTE. TOUCH. SMELL. SOUND. For the next few minutes Write down all the words, images, phrases that occurred to you about the room as you had your eyes shut.

Here is what I've made during a free hour at work in my office.

TASTE : My mouth is salty from the remains of a breakfast with stewed spicy tahong.

SMELL : The air is bland, empty of smells.

TOUCH : Under my fingertips, the surface of the keys of my keyboard are smooth from the oil of a thousand typing sessions. The arctic breath of the air conditioner lands on me, cold and constant.

SOUND : 93.1 SMASH-FM blares out a rock song from the radio.

Please share your sensations

[diem]

Does anyone know what an emotion writer is?

[color=navy]I couldn't find a dictionary or Wikipedia reference on who an 'emotion writer' is but I guess it would be simply a writer who writes on emotions or who writes in emotional outbursts and expressions, similarly what EMO music is to the music scene.

I think si galenostiel can be considered as an emotion writer. Here is an excerpt from her "Pain, A Short Short Story".

Pain. It came at her so suddenly that she didn't have time to brace herself for it. She frowned and clenched her fists at her sides. She wasn't supposed to feel this…this hurt.

She felt suddenly helpless. This couldn't happen, this just couldn't! She thought she'd handled herself pretty well. She'd kept her distance and hadn't committed her heart. She had actually prided herself at being so mature about it. But this, this pain…


Please check out more of istoryan writer galenostiel's 'emo' works at http://talltales.i.ph/blogs/talltales/

[splendid moonlight]

I think an emotion writer may be someone who, consciously or unconsciously, *thinks* he cannot write unless overwhelmed with certain emotions. They have to be very deep in their own emotions, almost drowning in it or floating above its surface, before they start writing. Some of them write very good stuff, but they hardly practice to improve their writing skills. Just my two cents. Although now that I think of it, emotionAL writer may be the more appropriate term for my description instead of emotion writer.

[galenostiel]

whoa, thanks for the plug, diem.

updated http://talltales.i.ph/"]Tales of the Damned[/url] with a partial chapter one, by the way.

well, sometimes what Luthienne said does happen to me, but usually it's when writing poetry. i need to be "in the zone" so i don't write poems as often as i should. although i have been trying to challenge myself in a sense that i won't wait until something happens to make me feel that emotion, rather, i put myself in it so i can write. create imaginary scenarios and feel the emotion from there. heheheh.

[DebutsAndIDos]

[color=navy]^^Good luck and God bless on that, DebutsANdIDos. What I suggest you can do is reserve at least an hour a day to keep your nose to the grind and polish your writing skills

I've been studying bisoy's blogsite "mywritingexercises.blogdrive.com" which contain plenty of activities on creative writing. I find what the site is all about is great and I think I could make something like that for everyone here in istoryan writers.

I've decided that, from time to time, I would prepare and post discussions on elements of creative writing in prose and poetry. Along with these discussions will be Writing Workouts that I hope everyone can use as practice and post their results in this thread

[b]Let us begin with "Setting".

Thanks! I am doing just that right now. My summer project is a seminar/ module for youth development which I hope to implement when school starts. Im always been more partial to features writing than to creative writing.

Here is my 'Sensations':

TASTE: My parched mouth tastes like cotton. Im too engrossed (read: lazy) to stand up for a drink although I really should.

SMELL: The sugary Krispy Kreme donuts on the table keeps me from dozing off, giving my teammates the semblance that I am still awake and working.

SOUND: Songs from the latest American Idol episode blare through my headphones. I'm trying to drown out the speakerphone crackling with the a conference call, hastily convened to resolve a critical work issue.

TOUCH: My fingers, sticky from the last Krispy Kreme, keep pounding my laptop's keyboard. I really should get up for that drink now. My stiff neck and slouched back have been screaming for a stretch for a while now.

[thisbe.ara]

hi kuya diem, here are my sensations

TASTE : My tongue is still fresh from the hot and bitter coffee I just sipped earlier.

SMELL : Fresh from a recent monthly cleaning, my office, which is right next to the guest comfort room, smells of a mixture of toilet bowl cleaners, air fresheners and liquid soap. I think I am about to throw up.

TOUCH : The keys of my laptop are the usual smooth feel as I punch my fingers to its familiar touch

SOUND : The effortless (personal opinion) rendition of the timeless classic, "Love will lead you back" is played in my officemate's Winamp player.

[shaxyra]

shaxyra's sensations:


TASTE : The minty taste of of my Colgate toothpaste freshly lingers in my mouth. Ahh.. I feel so clean.

SMELL : Jasmine Scent is everywhere, but I'm unsure though if I'm sensing it for real or just feeding my hallucinations due to somebody's absence.

TOUCH : I'm in a different computer and the keys are smoother and softer hence, unfamiliar.

SOUND : Defeaning silence for the first time surrounds the office and I guess it's better than my mother's never ending sermon of sorts for not coming home last night.

*this is soo fun!*

[diem]

[color=navy] Maayo, maayo! Thank you participating Debut, Ate Thisbe, and Shaxyra! Good effort!

Two things I have noticed.

1) We might need to work on our "smell" adjectives and vocabulary. There is some need for improvement in that area.

2) Apparently, most of us who have done this workout have done it in the middle of the work at the office!

In consideration of #2, I suggest that we continue doing this workout for the week and the weekend. Try it in other surroundings, at home, at your favorite hangout or some random place you find yourself in.

You can also apply this exercise to an object, such as a toy, a meal, or anything What's important is we train ourselves to depend on our other senses, other than sight and emotions, in defining a certain setting or thing in writing.

Please also store this Workout as a future practice or warm-up before any new writing project.

To the other iStoryan Writers out there, hope you can also participate in the workout and post your sensations here!

Please also feel free to post in Filipino, Bisaya other than English.

Will post the next discussion and exercise by next week, still same on Writing the Setting!

[diem]

[color=navy]For the weekend or for your spare time, read on how other writers establish "Setting" in their works.

I provided samples. Please click on the links provided below:

For the Story Writers:

William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily, Dry September

For the Poets:

Emily Bishop's Poems
Roosters, The Man-moth, The Moose

For Essayists, Feature Article Writers and pratically everyone!

Helen Keller's My Animal Friends, Magic in Your Fingers and Three Days To See

[shaxyra]

weee! thanks diem.. i'll write one as soon as i get home