This morning dawned peacefully and with the cool gray haze typical in May in my particular part of the world. This peace was short-lived. Thickly accented voices shouted to one another just below my bedroom window…and then I heard the metallic roar of a chainsaw. I watched in impotent horror as these interlopers proceeded to chop down the tree outside my patio. Chop. Down. MY tree. I could feel my heart racing and the hot tears of fury welling up in my eyes. I hated what they were doing and I hated that there was nothing I could do to stop them. In a matter of moments it was over…the scene of the crime wiped clean of any evidence, save one or two listless leaves blowing in the cool morning breeze. The carcass had been drug into a waiting, blood red truck, limbs amputated and hanging limply, the once beautiful form now lifeless. The workmen were proud of themselves. One even had the audacity to smile at me as I backed from my garage and drove slowly past. I ducked my head slightly. I didn’t want him to see my sadness. I was at once angry and shocked at my reaction, and slightly frightened by its intensity.
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If you have ever read Ethan Frome and shivered at the icy loneliness of a Starkfield winter, or read The Heart of Darkness and felt the dark foreboding of the foggy Congo, then you understand the power of setting in a text. Setting is often relegated to the position of the uglier step-sister of the elements of fiction…something that exists merely to make the really beautiful things like character and plot able to fully develop and mature, but not something all that important or interesting or attractive in its own right. However, this is a completely wrong viewpoint. I don’t know if setting is considered ‘sexy’, but maybe it should be…ok, maybe ‘sexy’ is over-stating it a bit. (Actually, as an aside, I absolutely despise it when people use the word ‘sexy’ to catch the reader’s attention when that isn’t really what the author means at all…but that is a subject for another blog post…maybe one about vocabulary…) Let’s try this from another angle: Consider this…your character and plot must be plausible in the location and time period in which your story is taking place. If they aren’t, it doesn’t matter how good the plot is or how endearing your protagonist is, because they won’t ring true if the setting does not support them. How often have you been relaying the plot of a recent novel you read and your friend stops you to clarify, asking, “Oh, where (or when) does the story take place?” Clearly, place matters. Setting matters. Sitting in our favorite little coffee shop, ostensibly doing homework (or in my case grading), my girls and I silently sipped and stared at our respective screens…or at least I thought so. After a time, I noticed my daughter staring at the rows of mugs lined up hanging from pegs on the wall. I didn’t say anything to her for a moment but then I couldn’t stand it anymore…and I nudged her and my eyes asked the obvious question. “Oh,” she said, smiling in sort of a self mocking way, “I can’t get over that one cup…see it?” Well, she does have a slight touch of OCD when it comes to things out of place, and when I looked at the wall I could see what was bothering her—one cup. Turned. Out of place. Wrong. I laughed, shook my head, and said in my best motherly voice…”get back to work.” |
Wendy Picard GorhamWendy lives and works in the midst of words everyday--English teacher by profession, and writer by passion! Archives
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