What is the Setting of a Story? Tips and Examples

Every story needs a place and time, but how does an author decide on the setting? Is it just a backdrop, or is setting one of the most powerful tools a writer can use? (Hint: it’s the latter!)

In this article, The Novelry writing coach Melanie Conklin, award-winning author of children’s literature, explains everything you need to know about the setting of a story and how to make it work for you. Melanie will define story setting, explore different types of settings, and show you how to write an effective setting in your novel that readers will never forget.

Story setting: examples, meaning, and tricks of the trade

One of the most important choices you will make for your story is where—and when—to set the action. The setting of a story influences nearly every aspect of a novel, from the arc of the plot to the character’s actions and the overall mood. Your character will experience a very different plot in a World War II setting as opposed to a futuristic dystopian planet.

Even if your setting is contemporary—set in the modern world—there is a pointed difference between a small town where all eyes are on your character and a bustling city where they are swept away in a sea of humanity.

Your story setting doesn’t even require roots in reality. Sometimes, a fictional land is exactly what’s required to launch your characters on their journey. As Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Eudora Welty said:

Every story would be another story, and unrecognizable if it took up its characters and plot and happened somewhere else... Fiction depends for its life on place.
—Eudora Welty

Because setting is infinitely variable, it’s wise to pair your story with a setting that maximizes conflict, tension, and twists while evoking the deep emotion tied to place. What is the setting of a story? Let’s start at the beginning.

What is the setting of a story?

The setting of a story is the time, place, and specific location where the events of the story occur. You can choose whatever details you would like for these story elements—even multiple settings. Let’s see how each one contributes to your setting.

Setting via time

Sometimes known as the temporal setting, this is the era in which your story takes place. Stories can unfold in any time period, real or imagined. If you’re writing historical fiction, here are some key tips for you on how to effectively set your story in time.

Setting via place

The broad geographical environment in which your story is set. This helps set the stage for your story and welcomes the reader into your world. If you’re writing science fiction or fantasy, be sure to read our blog about effective world-building.

Setting via location

The specific location(s) of your story and the description you provide will be the set dressing for the reader. Do most of the scenes take place at a bakery? On the floor of a stock exchange? How about deep in the jungle, far from civilization? The options are endless.

Example: time and place in The Great Gatsby

The story setting of The Great Gatsby  is the summer of 1922 on Long Island, in New York City. The time period is the swinging 1920s, an era of both great material excess and abject poverty in America. The place is Long Island, a specific borough of New York City. The locations in the novel include both West Egg, home to the newly rich, and East Egg, where old money families reside, as well as a desolate stretch of road between these wealthy enclaves on Long Island and the island of Manhattan. All of these elements combine to create the dynamic setting of this classic work of literature.

Why is story setting important?

All stories have a setting. No matter what genre you write, the setting deeply influences how the plot and characters are perceived. As well as surrounding your characters and providing a backdrop for the action, the setting helps give context for the events of the plot as they unfold.

A story about a child getting lost in a modern-day supermarket takes on a completely different tone if they get lost in bad weather in Saskatchewan during a pre-internet time period. Your setting (and its description) creates the atmosphere and mood of your story, performing a vital function for your readers.

Just as you are influenced by the settings you inhabit throughout your day, your characters are influenced by their setting—and not just their current one. Remember, they have their own histories of moving through your story world, a context that influences who they are and how they behave.

When you’re writing the opening scene of your story, think of it as an invitation for someone to visit the world you’ve created. A compelling and well-crafted setting encourages your reader to accept that invitation and dive into your story.

How to write setting effectively

1. Use your imagination and all five senses

Whether the story you’re writing is set in the real world or a fictional one, always use your imagination to create a uniquely compelling setting. J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy takes place in Middle-earth, a fictional world the author created that is now familiar to millions of fans around the globe. Hobbiton’s tiny doorways and earthen dwellings form a unique and memorable environment to set a story.

Example: Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan

The Novelry’s own Katie Khan imagined a setting in outer space for her startling and evocative novel Hold Back the Stars, which will soon be a major motion picture from the producers of Stranger Things. This scene highlights the uniqueness of the novel’s story setting.

‘We’re going to be fine.’ He looks around, but there’s nothing out here for them: nothing but the bottomless black universe on their left, the Earth suspended in glorious technicolour to their right. He stretches to grab Carys’s foot. His fingertips brush her boot before he’s spinning away and can’t stop.

‘How are you so calm?’ she says. ‘Oh, hell—’

‘Stop, Carys. Come on, get it together.’

Her foot tumbles up in front of his face, and his face swings down by her knees. ‘What should we do?’

Max pulls his legs up to his body as far as he can, trying, through the panic, to calculate if he can change the axis on which he’s rotating. The fulcrum? Axis? He doesn’t know. ‘I don’t know,’ he says, ‘but you need to calm down so we can figure this out.’

‘Oh, god.’ She flails her arms and legs, anything to stop their trajectory away from the ship, but it’s fruitless.
—Katie Khan, Hold Back the Stars

If you’re struggling to imagine your setting, consider drawing a map! Even a very crude drawing can help you get a sense of the space your story will inhabit.

2. Modify a real-world setting

Remember, you’re the master of your domain! Don’t let the restraints of real life get in the way. Even if you’re basing your story in a very normal time and place, when you write setting, you can modify it to suit you. In Sally Rooney’s literary romance Normal People, the story takes place in the fictional town of Carricklea, Ireland, and at the very real Trinity College in Dublin.

Don’t be afraid to make big changes if that’s what’s called for. As long as your writing inhabits the setting of a story with confidence and authority, your audience will go along for the ride. 

3. Turn the status quo upside down

One way to create a fresh story setting is to intentionally subvert the norms of our current environment—taking something that’s a typical part of real life and changing it to the opposite. A setting that turns the status quo upside down hooks a reader’s attention. They will be curious about how this setting works and how it came to be this way, given it is so different from our own world.

Example: The Bone Shard Daughter  by Andrea Stewart

The Bone Shard Daughter by writing coach Andrea Stewart is full of floating islands, quite unlike Earth. This setting detail plays into the larger themes of the novel, and in this excerpt, the reader learns a bit more about this captivating place: 

I had ill luck. Soon after I’d told Mephi to stop blowing into the sail, the wind died down completely. We rocked in the waves, gentle as a baby’s cradle, the sun baking the deck hot beneath my bare feet. Mephi lay in the shade at the bow of the ship, curled on a blanket I’d laid out for him. Once in a while he turned over in his sleep, murmuring. If I laid a hand on his back, he quieted.

I sifted through my navigational charts and watched him, a hand at my sore ribs. I really had no idea what sort of creature he was. No one truly knew the depths of the endless sea or what lived in it. The islands all had a short, shallow shelf before they dropped off, vertical, into the depths. They all floated through the endless sea in their migratory patterns, so there must have been a bottom to each of them. My brother and I had often bragged of diving far enough to feel where the island had begun to narrow again. Every child did.
—Andrea Stewart, The Bone Shard Daughter

4. Mine your own experiences

Many writers set their novels in a place they have experienced firsthand, so when they travel, they observe closely, taking notes on the details of their immediate surroundings. Don’t be afraid to use details from your own life to build the setting of a story. That’s exactly what Gina Sorell did when writing her debut novel.

Example: Mothers and Other Strangers  by Gina Sorell

In this scene from the first chapter, Gina uses the very real setting of Rosedale, Toronto, to anchor a character she wished to associate with status, establishment, and belonging. The building is where Gina’s grandmother lived, and many of the details were taken from the time they shared together:

The snow was really flying now and I was thankful that I only had a short drive home. Driving slowly with my high beams on, I carefully wound my way out of my mother’s building, past the imposing brick mansions set far back from the sidewalk, and lit up by old wrought iron lamp posts. One of the oldest neighborhoods in Toronto, Rosedale was full of old money and little about it had changed with the exception of a few co-op buildings near its entrance. Unlike my mother, the tenants of her co-op building had for the most part at one time or another resided in the neighboring estates before passing their homes on to their children and opting for a smaller yet still prestigious address. It was the address, and the way that people reacted to it when she said it that attracted my mother. She could have lived in an apartment five times the size for the same money, but no one would have treated her differently then. No one would have assumed that she was one of them. It was why she never drove these streets, but walked them instead.
—Gina Sorell, Mothers and Other Strangers

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5. Reveal your character’s worldview

How your character sees their world shows the reader a lot about them. Some characters move through the story setting with annoyance and aggravation, remarking on every annoying detail, while others blend into the background.

When you’re writing, be sure to use your character’s feelings about their setting as a filter for the details you show—those details will amplify the reader’s experience of getting to know your character. 

Example: The Next Ship Home  by Heather Webb

‍The Next Ship Home by Heather Webb provides a gorgeous example of revealing a character’s worldview through setting details in a historical fiction narrative. In this example scene, Heather underscored her protagonist Francesca’s fear and sense of loss, as well as her bravery for embarking on such a difficult journey, by using descriptive elements and world-building that reflect the protagonist’s emotional lens. Heather says: ‘This kind of description enriches the plot and also pulls you into Francesca’s intimate world in an immersive way—something we’re always aiming to do for our readers in any genre, but especially in historical fiction, fantasy, or science fiction.’

Crossing the Atlantic in winter wasn’t the best choice, but it was the only one. For days, the steamship had cowered beneath a glaring sky and tossed on rough seas as if the large vessel weighed little. Francesca gripped the railing to steady herself. Winds tore at her clothing and punished her bared cheeks, reminding her how small she was, how insignificant her life. It was worth it, to brave the elements for as long as she could stand them. Being out of doors meant clean, bright air to banish the disease from her lungs and scrub away the rank odors clinging to her clothes. Too many of the six hundred passengers below decks had become sick. She tried not to focus on the desperate ones, clutching their meager belongings and praying Hail Marys in strained whispers. She wasn’t like them, she told herself, though her body betrayed her and she trembled more with each day as they sailed farther from Napoli. Yet despite the unknown that lay ahead, she would rather die than turn back.
—Heather Webb, The Next Ship Home

6. Use story setting to reinforce theme

Writers can also use the details of the setting to reinforce the story’s themes. In literature, themes are the larger concepts your story grapples with, such as inequality, grief, or luck.

Example: Me and Me by Alice Kuipers

In Alice Kuipers’s debut YA novel, this opening excerpt presents a stark contrast through the senses of hot and cold, creating the feeling of opposites colliding. This relates nicely to the novel’s narrative theme of deciding which life to be in and how to make choices. 

7. Introduce constraints to keep readers oriented

A key technique to ramp up the tension and conflict in your story is by adding constraints, such as locked rooms or closed circles. The more constraints, the higher the drama! Pile on time constraints or weather constraints—or throw in a locked room for layered-up intensity that will have your reader turning the pages!

Example: Hostage  by Clare Mackintosh

Hostage is a locked room thriller set on a 20-hour non-stop flight from London to Sydney. Being trapped on a plane certainly cranks up the intensity! Clare explains how she utilized description for this story setting:

I built on the already claustrophobic setting by zooming in on specific details, such as the dimmed lighting, and used passengers’ seat numbers to help the reader visualize where the characters were sitting.
—Clare Mackintosh

When Mike and Cesca come down from the pilots’ rest area, neither look as though they’ve spent six hours in narrow bunks, high up in the nose of the plane. Cesca’s make-up is immaculate, the only giveaway a tiny pillow-crease on one cheek. Mike takes a sip of coffee and lets out an appreciative sigh. ‘Everything going well?’

There’s a second’s pause. ‘Not for the guy in 1J,’ Carmel says darkly.

I leave her to brief Mike and Cesca, moving to the window, where the darkness reflects nothing but my ashen face. We’re somewhere over China, around nine p.m. UK time, and still hours before dawn in the East. Here in the cabin, the lights have been dimmed; a gentle suggestion to passengers to get some rest. I glance across to 1J where the privacy screen shields from view the blanketed figure of Roger Kirkwood.

What was he doing with a photograph of my daughter?
—Clare Mackintosh, Hostage

8. Story setting as antagonist

The setting of a story can also function as its own character! Often, this means writing your setting as if it’s an antagonist to make your character’s life even harder.

Example: Fiercombe Manor  by Kate Riordan

In writing coach Kate Riordan’s historical gothic novel Fiercombe Manor (published as The Girl in the Photograph in the U.K.), heavily pregnant and unmarried Alice has been sent in disgrace to have her baby in an eerie, isolated valley location. A combination of blazing summer weather and steep paths makes it physically difficult for her to escape, which Kate did very deliberately with her story setting to establish mood and amplify the book’s claustrophobic tone.

The heat was a tangible force pressing in on me from all angles. Even under the shade of the beech trees, once I’d started on the path, there was little respite. The dappling effect of the leaves left me dizzy and off-balance, and I had to rest half a dozen times, breathing heavily. The air smelt of rotting flowers. I wondered if I had turned a little mad attempting such a walk, or whether I just needed to escape the somehow denser atmosphere of the valley.
—Kate Riordan, Fiercombe Manor

9. Let your setting evolve

The setting of a story can also evolve over the course of the chapters. In portal stories such as Piers Torday’s The Lost Magician, the setting quite literally changes. In this wonderfully imagined reworking of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the door to the library is the entry to a magical world.

Realistic settings can also metamorphosize. Events can occur that physically change the setting, and the protagonist’s view of the setting can also change.

Example: Counting Thyme  by Melanie Conklin

In my debut novel, the main character is an eleven-year-old girl named Thyme. When she first arrives in present-day New York City, she hates it and only notices the gross stuff around her. Later, she notices the beautiful parts of real-life places around the city.

Don’t be afraid to mix and match

As you explore these various techniques in your narrative, don’t hesitate to combine them to maximize the intensity and impact of your setting.

Example: The Death at the Vineyard  by Emylia Hall

In this extract from the fourth Shell House Detectives mystery, we see many techniques at play in Emylia Hall’s writing:

One of my favorite recurring characters, Gus, is on his way to the titular Shell House. The feeling is of warmth and comfort, but also a faint undercurrent of unease... Perfectly in keeping with cozy mystery. Through setting, this passage reveals a character’s worldview (Gus: wry, self-deprecating, a bit of a worrier), reinforces the theme (the real story behind appealing exteriors, the ever-present combination of beauty and danger), and shows the setting as a possible antagonist.
—Emylia Hall

Gus tramps along the dunes, his torch picking out his path. The tide is on its way in, and he can hear the rolling surf. The Atlantic Ocean has been his bedtime lullaby for nearly two years now, but sometimes the sound of the sea at night-time makes him feel a bit edgy.

Gus can see the lights of The Shell House up ahead. It’ll be so nice to be inside with Ally, so nice to have a glass in his hand, so nice to be between four walls that aren’t threatening to collapse on his noggin. Maybe that’s the source of his unease; the sound of the sea is but a whisper of its true power, and lately Gus has come to believe that his little beach house could very easily become tomorrow’s salvage. A collection of split timbers strewn about the shore.
—Emylia Hall, The Death at the Vineyard

Let your setting add to your story

Remember, whatever your genre, you are the creator of the world your story inhabits. Never hesitate to modify the setting of a story to make it suit the tale you want to tell. Setting should add to your story, not thwart it. Go forth with these incredible insights from The Novelry’s writing coaches and create the world of your dreams!

Write your novel with coaching from Melanie Conklin

If you’re writing children’s fiction, particularly middle grade, and you’d benefit from some expert authorial guidance on the genre or how to organize your writing routine, you’ll find Melanie a warm and supportive writing coach.

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