The Novelry on Writing Podcast: How the Setting Can Put Pressure on Your Hero

In this episode of The Novelry on Writing, authors and writing coaches Andrea Stewart and Lesley Kara dive deep into the art of crafting unforgettable story settings! Whether you’re writing a novel, short story, or screenplay, the setting is more than just a backdrop—it’s a dynamic tool to elevate your storytelling. In this episode, you’ll discover how to: 

• place your characters in unfamiliar locations to create tension and drive the plot  
• use natural elements to enhance mood and conflict
• reveal the hidden depths of your characters through their interactions with the setting  
• link the setting to your story’s theme for a richer, more cohesive narrative
• subvert expectations with your setting to surprise and delight readers  

Read on for the episode transcript!

Anytime that you have a character’s surroundings—like if you have them in their home—seeing where they live and what it’s like can tell you a lot about that character, can tell you a lot about their background and their past.
—Andrea Stewart

Introduction 

[Lesley Kara] Hi, I’m Lesley Kara. I write psychological thrillers, and I’m also a coach at The Novelry. And I’m here today with Andrea.

[Andrea Stewart] Hi, I am Andrea Stewart. I write fantasy and science fiction, and I’m also a coach at The Novelry.

[LK] Today, we’re going to talk about five ways to use setting to increase tension.

Unfamiliar location

[LK] The first tip we have is about positioning your characters in opposition to their geographical location. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that first of all, Andrea?

[AS] Yeah, sure. For instance, what you can do is put your character into a place they’re unfamiliar with. So, that fish-out-of-the-water definitely adds tension right away, where your character’s exploring a place that they’ve not been and they’re also trying to get by and also learning things about themselves and the plot at the same time.

[LK] Absolutely. And they’re cut off from their friends and their family and potential allies, so, as you say, they’re a fish out of water and they’re on their own. They’ve got to get by, haven’t they? On their own smarts, really.

[AS] Right. I know you were talking, too, about putting them on an island.

[LK] Yeah! Like in an Agatha Christie novel or something. They’re cut off from the mainland, the last ferry is gone. They’re there. Maybe there’s a killer... [laughing]

[AS] Right. I think definitely isolating people in a setting where they have to face certain oppositional things can add the tension.

[LK] Geographical location, as well, can be really relevant in terms of the actual story you want to tell. My first novel, The Rumor, it’s about the repercussions of a rumor and gossip. And I think if I’d set it in a big city, I don’t think it would’ve worked as well because people live in one place in the city, they work in another, they socialize in another. A rumor wouldn’t necessarily have taken hold. But in a very small town where everybody knows everybody’s business—that, for me, was the ideal place. So, think carefully, I would say, about the geographical location.

[AS] That’s right! It would’ve been different if it wasn’t set in a small town.

[LK] It would’ve been completely different. Completely different, yeah.

Use the elements

[AS] Our tip two is positioning the character in opposition to the elements.

[LK] Okay. So, by ‘the elements’ you mean the weather and things like that.

[AS] Right, right. In opposition to nature, for sure.

[LK] So, things like bad weather, storms, hurricanes, floods, fire... Pestilence, plague!

[AS] Yeah. A book I read recently, Breathless, was set on Manaslu, which is one of the tallest peaks in the world. And the main character was trying to climb to the peak while, at the same time, somebody is murdering people. So... [laughing]

[LK] Uh-oh!

[AS] Having somebody who is a murderer adds tension there, but it adds more tension for them to also be facing up against these killer elements.

[LK] Yeah. And, of course, weather can reflect the character’s state of mind as well, can’t it? You know, if they’re in a turmoil and there’s a storm brewing—I mean, it might seem obvious, and you don’t want to over-labor those sorts of things. But if you do them in a subtle way, they can be really effective.

[AS] Right. It definitely does that thing of making things more difficult for your character, where you’re throwing them into a situation where everything is harder for them. I think it reveals a lot about somebody.

[LK] Definitely. It does reveal a lot about someone. And so, I think that brings us on to the next point in terms of... Well, actually, we’re going to talk about theme being the next point, but I think we’ll talk about character first.

[AS] Yeah. It flows very well into that.

[LK] It kind of flows, doesn’t it?

Use setting to reveal character

[LK] So, in terms of using setting to reveal information about our characters, how can we do that?

[AS] Anytime that you have a character’s surroundings—like if you have them in their home—seeing where they live and what it’s like can tell you a lot about that character. Can tell you a lot about their background and their past.

[LK] Of course. Just the simple fact of the decor, you know, can tell you a lot about a person’s class and about a person’s likes and dislikes. How tidy it is, how clean it is, you know? If it’s a very fastidiously clean apartment and someone’s obsessively tidy, that tells you a lot about them, doesn’t it?

[AS] It does, yeah. It says a lot about their need for control. And then you can kind of infer that there must be something going on in their past that has led to that need for control.

[LK] Absolutely. I mean, we were talking earlier about B.A. Paris’s novel, Behind Closed Doors. You had some interesting things to say about that.

[AS] Oh yeah. The beginning scene is a dinner party and everything seems very sweet and domestic, where they’re having dinner with the guests and the conversation is flowing really well, but there are these clues that something terrible is going on underneath it all.

[LK] Between the husband and wife.

[AS] Right.

[LK] So that’s being revealed about their relationship, isn’t it? In the subtext of the conversation and the looks they give each other.

[AS] Yeah. And just the feel of that setting. Because on the surface, the people they’re having dinner with don’t notice anything’s going on, but as the reader, you’re kind of picking up on these little clues.

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Link the setting to your theme

[LK] Our fourth tip is to do with theme.

[AS] Yeah. So, setting can often be linked to the theme of your book. You see that a lot in speculative fiction, like in fantasy and science fiction, for instance, or dystopian. You’ll see that setting really kind of reflects the theme a lot of the time.

If you have an oppressive government and everybody is being watched, then you have these themes of breaking away from authority and freedom and things like that. 

[LK] And also, we were talking earlier about gothic, weren’t we? The element of gothic in terms of location, you know—the haunted house, the lonely house, the bleak moors, that kind of thing.

[AS] It’s always derelict and falling apart!

[LK] And you were saying that ties in with the theme, doesn’t it? Because of that sort of sense of decay and decrepit surroundings. A sort of moral decay...

[AS] Right. Definitely ties into the theme. So it’s not just the house that’s falling apart, it’s the people that are falling apart too.

[LK] Absolutely. Setting can do so much hard work for us as writers. We just have to utilize it, don’t we?

[AS] Right. It’s like its own character.

Subvert the setting

[AS] Our fifth point is subverting the setting to add unexpected tension.

[LK] So, we’ve been talking about using, you know, a scary old house or an island that’s cut off from the mainland, but what if it’s a very normal setting, a very benign setting? A domestic situation or a cozy day, sunny day? How can we bring suspense and tension from a setting that seems so ordinary?

[AS] Right. I feel like it can lull the reader into a false sense of security. I did that in my first book, The Bone Shard Daughter, where I have an island sinking on a sunny day. And it seems like everything is going along as normal, but there are a couple of hints that it’s not going to be a normal day. And the character’s thinking to himself: I didn’t think the world was going to end on this beautiful, sunny day...

[LK] Oh, that’s amazing. So, you can see that there are many, many ways you can use setting to enhance your story. And it’s something that you really need to think about as writers. Because it does a lot of hard work for you, doesn’t it? 

[AS] It does.

[LK] So, I hope that some of the tips we’ve given you today will be useful to you—and there are plenty more. We could have gone on for longer, I think, but hopefully we’ve given you a little bit of food for thought.

Closing words

[Louise Dean] Thank you for joining us today. We are so pleased to have you along for the writing journey, and we hope to see you on another episode of The Novelry on Writing.

If you’d like to learn more, visit us at thenovelry.com. From first draft to finished manuscript, at The Novelry you’ll enjoy one-to-one coaching from bestselling authors, live writing classes with award-winning authors and literary agents, and you’ll work with a publishing editor all the way for submission to literary agents toward a publishing deal.

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