Comments on Nathan Bransford, Author: What Makes a Great Setting

Wonderful post! Thank you. http://davidjace.blogs...

2010-12-06T10:24:20.661-08:00

Wonderful post! Thank you.

http://davidjace.blogspot.com/2010/12/setting-up-for-giant-leap.html

A recent book that I think does setting really, re...

2010-05-31T06:45:40.694-07:00

A recent book that I think does setting really, really well is All the Living by C.E. Morgan. I was THERE for the entire book.

2010-05-31T06:43:04.065-07:00

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At the risk of getting lost in a sea of comments, ...

2010-05-30T06:43:29.602-07:00

At the risk of getting lost in a sea of comments, well said. Like all devices in writing, if the reason for its application is more than superficial, settings will almost always engage the reader.

A striking setting becomes a great asset- like the...

2010-05-30T01:02:05.392-07:00

A striking setting becomes a great asset- like the Yorkshire moors in 'Wuthering Heights' or the desert planet Arrakis in 'Dune'. Another element that enhances the narrative

I loved L.M. Montgomery's settings/ I also agr...

2010-05-29T19:49:38.813-07:00

I loved L.M. Montgomery's settings/ I also agree about Robert Heinlein's Moon is A Harsh Mistress. I need to work on setting in my mid grade book. Fortunately I have Lupe Fernandez in my critiques group. He is a master of description and through his critiques, my setting are getting better. Namaste

I loved L.M. Montgomery's settings/ I also agr...

2010-05-29T19:49:19.799-07:00

A thought on setting & e-books: When my husb...

2010-05-28T17:09:23.113-07:00

A thought on setting & e-books:

When my husband read Dan Brown's The Symbol on e-book, he kept looking up the various locales on the web...he said 'I wish this e-book came with direct hyperlinks to the web'. He found the pictures really enriched his enjoyment of the novel/setting.

I can easily foresee this happening some day! Is it possible e-books will transform our idea of setting? Will novels become more like multi- media events? ('Here's the soundtrack to my novel')

Just a thought.

C. Sansom's Shardlake mysteries really put one...

2010-05-28T15:13:35.131-07:00

C. Sansom's Shardlake mysteries really put one in Tudor England, and not a prettified Tudor England, either.

Of course Middle Earth, but the book is as much about the setting as it is about the quest.

Corelli's Mandolin.

Agreed on all points. My three examples would be ...

2010-05-28T14:58:08.333-07:00

Agreed on all points. My three examples would be POISONWOOD BIBLE, THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS, and ANGLE OF REPOSE. It's been years and years and years since I read any of them, but I can't think of the stories or the characters without also seeing vivid moments of the setting.

I read M.T. Anderson's "Feed" recent...

2010-05-28T11:34:45.644-07:00

I read M.T. Anderson's "Feed" recently and that setting is stuck in my head. Especially the park where lovers stroll through acres of raw sirloin. I'm currently reading the first of his "Octavian Nothing" books. It starts with: "I was raised in a gaunt house with a garden; my earliest recollections are of floating lights in the apple-trees."

Great post. Sounds like common sense, although it&...

2010-05-28T10:18:58.783-07:00

Great post. Sounds like common sense, although it's the kind that is all too easy to forget. This has been helpful.

Do you have to like the setting for it to be effec...

2010-05-28T10:14:50.253-07:00

Do you have to like the setting for it to be effective? I would hate to live where Stephanie Plum in the Evanovich series lives. Sounds like a dreadful place.
Would like to live in Laura Joh Rowland's world, though.

Arioch looked up toward the azure sky. His eyes fo...

2010-05-28T10:01:46.157-07:00

Arioch looked up toward the azure sky. His eyes followed a wind-driven cloud. “We will see light thrice and darkness two times and see them as they come into each other.”
The skies began to burn, faintly at first, like sunbeams playing in the waters of a blue sea. And then a soft crimson glow tinged the sky. A blush began to fall on the cheek of darkness in colors of crimson and gold. Candida looked to the zenith, east and west, and like the flames from a fiery sword, sunset cast its broad band across the heavens. The red fiery glow burned along the horizon until it faded away.
Soft purple clouds sailed over the sky, and through their vapory folds, winking stars shined white as silver.

This is really, really good. I might just email my...

2010-05-28T09:47:02.143-07:00

This is really, really good. I might just email myself that, makes one think.

By the way your fantastic advice re. non-fiction proposals really helped - I had to cut relationship with the big agent short as the percentage they wanted was above and beyond. Sad, and not pleasing. Considering going to the publisher direct which is probably a big nono.

Great post, NB. Fantastical/Sci-Fiish settings (e...

2010-05-28T09:04:33.233-07:00

Great post, NB.

Fantastical/Sci-Fiish settings (e.g., HP, THG)are easier to do, IMO (though by no means easy). That's why I'll second Duncton Wood b/c it took an ordinary-ish, everyday setting and made it fantastically alive.

PS - What happened to Snoopy?

This isn't of substance, but I love how you we...

2010-05-28T08:42:19.163-07:00

This isn't of substance, but I love how you weave examples of books into these posts. I would never have thought of And Then We Came To The End as a book with a strong setting, but you're right that in a lot of ways, it was.

Favorite setting in a book: Cold Moutain. I could...

2010-05-28T07:48:53.548-07:00

Favorite setting in a book: Cold Moutain. I could hear my own feet on the cobblestones.

I love settings too! I think that's why most o...

2010-05-28T07:32:09.955-07:00

I love settings too! I think that's why most of what I write tends to take place in a world and time far removed from my own.

I definitely agree with the plot being inherent to the setting--that's why the current WiP I'm working on takes place during a time of transition in Japanese history--the era when East and West met and the issues and conflicts arising from two different cultural ways of life.

I really love it when the entire world, (Character...

2010-05-28T07:08:39.181-07:00

I really love it when the entire world, (Characters, language, slang, locations, everything) sucks you in and won't leave your mind. I just recently read a six book series that was so vivid I actually caught myself using terms from the book in real life. Crazy huh?

CV

I think the setting should always reflect the char...

2010-05-28T02:11:13.804-07:00

I think the setting should always reflect the character's mood, and as the MC's mood changes, so should the nature of the setting. I like settings that tempt me to enter with their mystery and beauty. I like fragrant natural settings, but also grand, gothic buildings with many rooms to explore where exotic treasures and the unexpected are lurking. I read a book a long time ago about a huge castle-city that grew and changed as if a character in the story. This sprawling structure dominated the story and the title and evoked a powerful sense of place. Was it Gormanghast?

I concur with what Josin has said, too.

Mr. Bransford said: "There's a personalit...

2010-05-27T22:55:40.319-07:00

Mr. Bransford said: "There's a personality outlook that throws us off kilter and makes us imagine how we'd react if we were placed in that world. And it makes us wonder whether we have the makeup to thrive within it."

That is fantastic.

I think the mark of a really great literary world is this: not only can we (and if they writer is really good, must we) imagine ourselves there but we don't really leave it when we are finished with the story.

We take it home with us, we dream about it. In those instances where it becomes so dear that we can return to it with a single thought and feel the tension or the beauty or the wonder there then it's truly a gift from the writer to us.

The best of those worlds can surprise you by popping into your head at the oddest times. I, for one, processed this yesterday as returning in my head to that galaxy far far away and comparing a medical test I was having to Han Solo's spa experience on Bespin...I could almost smell the Ugnaughts!

Characters can make you love a book but I think it's truly great atmosphere that pulls you in and makes you live it.

Thank you for this post- I'll be thinking of it as I revise.

Totally forgot about these two: The Citadel and t...

2010-05-27T20:40:36.571-07:00

Totally forgot about these two:

The Citadel and to a lesser extent Charleston in Pat Conroy's Lords of Discipline and Eatonville in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

It's nearly impossible to picture either of those stories in a different setting. The place informed and influenced the characters.

Any setting that offers the unexpected. It can be...

2010-05-27T20:30:28.113-07:00

Any setting that offers the unexpected. It can be outer space, another dimension, or an any American inner city.

Recognized the Mono Lake photo right off! I was th...

2010-05-27T20:20:23.533-07:00

Recognized the Mono Lake photo right off! I was there a couple years ago and took a (far less cool) picture from the same spot.
A book whose setting made an impact with me is Beautiful Creatures (by Garcia and Stohl).