One of the points I’ll be emphasizing as we go through this series is that you should develop your own process, and adjust these tactics and tools to fit your style. I’m of the mindset that you can do setting, character, or plot (which we’ll talk about next week) in any order that makes the most sense to you. You might be wondering which should you work on first, your character sketches or your setting sketches?īoth character and setting sketches are fundamental to the planning phase of the creative writing process, but the order in which you tackle them is really up to you. Last week, we talked about how character sketches can help you flesh out the characters in your story, and this week we’re going to continue the discussion by talking about how setting sketches can help you craft a unique and compelling setting. Character or Setting Sketch-Which Comes First?
Horror stories are great examples of setting because they create an atmosphere of fear that is almost palpable it’s what makes them, in their own unique way, such gripping stories, whether you’re working with a haunted house, a zombie apocalypse, or a ruined castle.Īs with character sketches, I like to start with visuals using Scrivener’s cork board interface. Settings also create an atmosphere and tone of your story. You can discuss a setting objectively, as an author, through the lens of your own experiences, or you can take the same setting and examine it through the eyes of a character. What it looks like, smells like, feels like. What Is a Setting Sketch?Ī setting sketch is an outline of a fictional place. In this post, we’ll go over a classic method to help you flesh out your settings early in the process so that they can become a vital part of your story. However, all settings have to start somewhere. In order to write compelling stories that draw readers in, you have to not only know your setting intimately, but be able to manipulate that setting to bring out the best and worst in your characters.Ī good setting can take on personality traits of its own, and some tend to think of a setting as another character in the story. People (and characters) are a product of their environment, for good or for ill. Illustration by Guy Moll (creative commons).