Honestly, setting has always troubled me. Way back in the day, I read some writer’s lament about an old manuscript of theirs that tried to tell sweeping war epic but failed to be anything other than silly. The point was about ‘writing what you know,’ one of the more important clichés. When an author starts typing away about something outside the realm of personal experience, factual mistakes are guaranteed, and the only question is how many there will be.
I took this law of writing to imply that the safest settings were alternate worlds, born entirely out of one’s mind and thus safe from criticism about things like actual driving distances or US court procedure. My first two books were set on the continent of Shivell, and my third was set in an expansive and equally imaginary empire. Because of their locales, those books qualified as epic or heroic fantasy. Urban fantasy, meanwhile, is the moniker for magical books set in the real world, or something quite close. In my new genre, I have to write about cars and planes and all sorts of things that can actually be checked. But real-world settings, as complicated as they are, can be opportunities to teach something, excuses to do research, and thematic hooks.
Specific settings are excellent at conveying tone, metaphor, and plot. What’s more interesting than two people talking? Two people shouting across an empty road. Think about the lightsaber battle between Obi-Wan and Anakin at the end of Star Wars: Episode III. The lava made the scene.
Anyhoo, next week we’ll cover characterization.
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