See Your Setting As A Film Set

For some authors, describing a setting is a challenge. Action, dialogue and conflict all flow easily from the imagination to the page or computer screen, whereas the minutiae of the room or scenery proves tricky to say the least.
Here is an exercise to help with those details which bring a scene to life for the reader.

Choose a picture. This can be a photograph, a picture in a magazine or newspaper, a book cover or you can even pause a scene on a DVD/television programme. Now ask yourself the following:

• If it is a building or room, who does it belong to and where is it situated?
• If it is a landscape or townscape, where is it?
• Make a list of the various elements in the picture.
• Now describe each one - colours, shapes, position, fabric or substance made of.
• Add any smells there might be.
• What might a character hear in this place?

For the second part of the exercise, write a brief description of the setting. It might help to set a kitchen timer or something similar.


For the third part of the exercise, write a scene between two characters in that setting or who are concerned with it in some way. Imagine the scene is happening on a film set. How do they interact with their surroundings?


You could also describe the setting from the point of view of a person who likes the place and then an alternative word picture from the standpoint of someone who doesn't like it.


You don't have to stick rigidly to your picture. Let the ideas flow and go where they take you.




Good luck! Heather King