Today's Tip is brought to you by our prompt guru, Comicfan. Thank you for this wonderful little lesson on setting the scene for a story! If YOU have a tip for a future blog entry, let Trebs or Renee Stevens know!

The Scene

Ever notice how important a scene is? I don’t mean the action; I mean that place it is located in. Sometimes it can add to the overall sense of what is happening or it can make it a tragedy. It isn’t very hard to have a story go wrong by the location of a story. It can be as integral to the story as the main characters themselves.

I was reading a story that seemed to be the everyday tale, a young girl going shopping with her mother. The horrifying thing was she walks into the middle of a murder in the changing room. The location was so scary due to the normalness of the whole thing. Here is this chick rocking to the music blaring on her iPod thinking how great it is that the store is so empty and then walks back to try on a skirt only then she finds the first body. The shock value is what did it, but that works in the story she was writing.

However I was also reading another piece for my writing group. This one wasn’t so perfect. Here was supposed to be this really romantic dinner that ends in a proposal. He had the main couple get dressed up and go to Denny’s. He drops to his knee to propose while waiting for the pancakes to arrive and the waitress asking if they wanted refills on their drinks. I started laughing and asked where he got such a funny idea. Then realized this wasn’t supposed to be funny.

Romance doesn’t happen at the kid’s birthday party, and you don’t send your character in search of peace and quiet into the middle of a fraternity party. The setting can enhance your story if you put the effort in. You have two characters who want a romantic time. Where do you put them? Will it be the expensive restaurant or will it be a picnic basket on a blanket in the park? Say halfway through the meal there is to be a fight. Now the restaurant offers you witnesses and the chance to hide a character maybe in the bathroom. If the fight happens in the park again possible witnesses but you also have the weather which can become stormy mirroring the character’s emotions.

Also remember that a location can be used against what is expected. Take for example the humble library. For most it is a place of quiet and solitude, a place for knowledge, books, and the soft tapping of people working on computers. However, into this realm of silence you can also have the sexy librarian, the assistants, the sexy stories, and possible sex in the stacks. The room of odd objects at some college libraries, slave documents, original copies of manuscripts, and who knows what else.

The main thing to keep in mind is make sure everything in your story works. The setting can be as important as the characters. It can be there to support them or it can overshadow them. You as an author just need to be aware and see if everything fits.

Good Luck.