Setting, Scene – Fiction 101 Continued

Ok back to fiction writing 101….so you finally came up with a story to tell (see previous post on plotting…) now you need a realistic setting. For instance, if you are writing about a fairy princess,

you can’t really set the story in North Dakota. Why? You ask…. Because have you ever heard of fairies in North Dakota?….Buffalo maybe, but no, you need a forest in Ireland or maybe Louisiana if the fairy thing just has to happen in the states. “One day I was visiting Uncle Bodien so we could make some boudin, when we stumbled upon a bunch of fairies under a bush, and yes we were sober but without boudin…” Ok there may be a lot of problems here, but let’s just concentrate on one, the one where we cannot form a mental picture of the forest or the swamp, not only must your audience form a picture, they must feel those intricately woven green leaves, the dampness of the dew, and those little glimmering fairies too, if your fairies glimmer. Secondly, you must indeed: “write what you know.” Yes, it is true. If you want to have someone knocked off on an exotic Hawaiian beach, it’s gonna be pretty hard to make it believable if you have never been outside of Post, Texas. What is the beach like? The sand? The heat? Is it crowded? With who? Is Megan Fox there – cause if she is, there is absolutely no reason for any other female in the universe to show up. The second best thing, if you can’t experience your setting in person is You Tube. Maybe try ID TV if it is murder, and there happens to be a case, and it’s like yours… Scene is important folks, scene as in setting and not “making a scene” like the episode where you are in the grocery store when a rude woman cuts in line in front of you, then you grabbed the woman’s hair and she did a martial arts pose, then the both of you knocked down the magazine rack with the sultry, scantily clad Megan Fox on the cover of most of the magazines now scattered across the aisle and covering up the energy drinks… Ok so when is the court date and maybe you can write a jail expose…. No, just kidding, don’t forget scene – setting – background, create a scene, don’t make one. Create one that people can feel, now get to writing those stories!