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.
