What’s a Story Without the Setting? - Part Four

Photo Courtesy: Ronnie Bergeron

This is the last week we will explore setting in the book. These exercises will show the values of characters in a different people and help establish a chronological order to your novel.

Setting Exercise Seven
Objective: To show the values of characters in a different period

It is 1890, in a small town in the Midwest. A man is standing in the town square, screaming obscenities about his neighbor and closet rival. The man has been drinking, but he is not drunk.

Write a few sentences describing how each of the following people would react to the raging man. Keep the era in mind.

1. The sheriff
2. The schoolteacher
3. The man’s rival
4. The man’s wife
5. A boy of 10
6. The local minister

Setting Exercise Eight
Objective: To put a scene in proper chronological order

Part 1
Read the following passage involving a blind date, keeping chronological order in mind.

Steven was supposed to pick her up at six that evening, so Lilly spent the hour before then dressing and putting on her makeup. He had called her that morning and specified that she shouldn’t get dressed up, but Lilly rationalized that a silk shirt and long black harem pants weren’t really dressy. She wondered what sort of restaurant he was taking her to.

She answered the door when she heard the doorbell ringing and stared out the doorway in confusion. There stood a tall, angular man in jeans, a flannel shirt, and most peculiar of all, a black Stetson. “Lilly? I’m Steven. Ready for the rodeo?” he asked, helping himself to a beer from the fridge.

Lilly stared at him open-mouthed. “I’ll…I’ll have to change my clothes,” she stammered. “I thought we were going out to eat.” Steven had told her something about dinner, and she had assumed he had meant a restaurant. What sort of dinner could they get at a rodeo? Hot dogs? And why a rodeo? He hadn’t told her anything about that, she was sure.

The night before, when Clara had told her about this guy Steven, Lilly had been charmed by Clara’s description. Clara had said he was tall, dark and handsome, but she had not said anything about cowboy gear. Now, Lilly saw that Clara had been right in a way, because Steven was handsome, but he was not at all what she had expected.

Later, at the barbecue in the fairgrounds, Lilly found herself enjoying the chicken, beans and corn on the cob when Steven laid his hand on her shoulder. “Time to go back to our seats,” he said. “That rider I told you about drew Nightmare, and I just made a bet with a friend that he wouldn’t go the full eight seconds.”

Lilly nodded and followed Steven back to the grandstands. The rider he had pointed out earlier was strutting about behind the chutes as if he owned every single bucking horse there. “You’re right, he does look conceited,” Lilly said.

Part 2
Yikes! Are things ever out of chronological order here! Rewrite the passage so that the timing is logical and the writing does not constantly shift backward and forward in time.

Setting Exercise Nine
Objective: To establish the time lapse between two scenes

In the kitchen at breakfast, Bill, with his briefcase in hand, announces to Mary, his wife, that he is leaving her and the children. Later, Mary tells her children what has taken place.

Your job is to write these two scenes, clearly establishing the setting of the second scene. Try to provide answers for these questions: Where is that second scene taking place? What time is it in the scene? How much time has elapsed since the scene with Bill? Has anything changed during that lapse in time?

What’s a Story Without the Setting? - Part One
What’s a Story Without the Setting? - Part Two
What’s a Story Without the Setting? - Part Three

For more helpful tips and exercises, visit www.sterlinghouse-bookstore.com and check out:
Writing Aerobics I by C. Sterling and M. Davidson

Agree? Disagree? Tell us at editor@writersnewsweekly.com or join the discussion on facebook.com.