Time to Write

The power of setting to make your story stand out

In the previous post I discussed how telling your story from an unusual point of view can make it stand out. The same goes for finding an unexpected (but plausible setting.

Of course, there are settings that keep coming up because in real life they are locations in which we expect conflict, dramatic moments, even life and death decisions:

• Hospitals
• Isolated or remote locations
• War zones
• Alien worlds
• Cross-cultural or unfamiliar travel settings

Then there are settings in which the draw is that they are the site of high drama where we normally don't expect it:

• Small towns
• Retirement homes
• Domestic settings (a home or a normally quiet neighhborhood)

When you're first planning your script or novel or short story, brainstorm as many possible settings as you can. Be as open-minded as possible. If you need some help getting started on a list, here are a few:

• a military academy
• a barbershop
• a company town (in which most people are employed by one company)
• the desert
• an expedition camp
• a forest
• a gallery 
• a hospital
• an island
• a junkyard
• a kingdom
• a library
• a museum
• a nightclub
• an observatory
• a prison
• a quarry
• a ranch
• a space station
• a theater
• an underground bunker
• a rural village
• a workshop
• an X-ray lab
• a yacht
• a zoo

Assuming you have a basic idea for the story, such as "a man running for office takes increasingly desperate measures to cover up the criminal behaviour of his past" (arguably no longer required for politicians these days, but we'll let that pass). The nature of your story will preclude certain settings, but play with some less expected locations and be open to variations in your concept. For example, making it someone up for some kind of leadership post rather than a political office, greatly increases the possible settings. The story could be about someone up for leadership of:

• a military or other academy
• an expedition
• a gallery
• a hospital department
• a prison gang (in which case the secret might be that he once was an undercover agent)
• survivors of some calamity in a bunker

Which setting feels like it would bring something fresh to your story? And of those, to which can you perhaps bring some experience (or be willing to do a bunch of research)?

Personally, I would be drawn to telling the story in a setting in which the stakes are not huge, like being up for the directorship of an art gallery. I'm drawn to irony, and it's ironic to what extreme some people will go with objectively relatively little at stake...even to murder (DumDaDum!).

If your story already has an unusual point of view, you will have to decide whether also giving it an unusual setting is a step too far, or an additional way to make it stand out without sacrificing plausibility.

The Bottom Line: To help your story stand out, consider placing it in an unexpected setting.

The power of Point of View

It's been a while. Things happened. Open heart surgery, pandemic, depression--you know, the usual stuff.

But I never stopped writing--well, not for long. And I still enjoy talking and writing about writing and sharing ideas. (And yes, I've made a note to update the photo...). Anyway, let's talk about writing!

This post was triggered by looking at an old (2005) book called Photo Idea Index, by Jim Krause. The blurb on the front cover reads, "Explore new ways to capture and create exceptional images with digital cameras and software." What struck me is how many of the core concepts he covers can also be applied to making your writing stand out.

The first thing he talks about is point of view: the angle from which you shoot your photo. The point of view from which you tell your story in a screenplay or novel or short story can also set your work apart from the overly familiar. We know there are only so many basic stories, like the love triangle, the quest for revenge, and so on. The challenge always is finding a fresh way to tell the story. Point of view can come to the rescue.

Let's look at an example, crime stories. The majority of the time these are told from the point of view of a cop or a detective. Especially in "cozy" detective stories, the protagonist is an amateur detective or a group that functions as such. A recent TV example is "Only Murders in the Building." But let's brainstorm some alternative points of view that might freshen up a traditional story:

    The victim (if a murder victim, maybe speaking from the afterlife)

    A witness who is pressured by the police to make a positive I.D., and threatened by friends or family members of the prime suspect not to do so.

    The victim's dog (hey, one of the rules of brainstorming is not to censor.

    A psychic who gets a message but has to piece everything together (this puts us back into amateur detective territory, but at least with a twist). 

    The murder weapon that passes between several people.

    A Coroner or Medical Examiner who finds new bits of evidence that change the conclusions about what happened, and how, as they build up. Or the viewpoint of the body as it yields the secrets of what took place.

    A mixture of viewpoints, either conflicting for a Rashomon effect, or a Kaliedescopic effect in which each new perspective adds a piece of the puzzle.

The Bottom Line: If there's a story you've been wanting to write but are concerned that it may be too familiar, consider telling it from an unusual point of view. 

Next time we'll look at the crucial part played by the environment of your story.