Creative writing - Mike Sanders 2014

Writing setting as action
Potent setting
Character, setting, and types of stories

As noted earlier, in eras past, it used to be the norm for writers to use several pages to describe setting. The rises and falls of multiple families and estates seemingly had to be disclosed before a reader could finally reach the action at hand. And that was okay at the time. Readers were more patient then. In fact, it was what they wanted.

Yet readers change along with everything else, and today, anything you publish must compete for attention not only with TV and movies, but also with video games, the internet, and myriad other distractions. Readers want to get on with the story, and the younger the readership, the less patience you’re going to get. As a writer, therefore, you need to invest the reader in the world you’ve created not only with descriptions of the landscape, but also with interesting characters as they move through that setting. In other words, you need your setting to become part of the action of your characters.

Let me show you what I mean. Here’s the opening of a creative nonfiction piece called “’Reunification by Bayonet’?”:

“A reliable scout has informed me Generals Lee and Grant would like to join us.” These words, spoken aloud in a clear welcoming voice on an overcast morning, came neither from a soldier nor politician of the Civil War era, but rather served as the first lines uttered by site President S. Waite Rawls III at the grand opening of the Museum of the Confederacy’s new state-of-the-art satellite facility in Appomattox County, Virginia on March 31, 2012.

Members of the audience cast their heads in every direction, albeit in vain. The legendary leaders Mr. Rawls announced did not appear directly or, as a famous Civil War battle account once related, rise “like demons out of the earth.” No such luck. However there did occur a ruckus of some sort off in the distance behind the couple hundred or so of us gathered on the comfortable grassy area outside the museum to witness its dedication. The noise grew louder, a shuffling of feet, and a line of men, marching shoulder to shoulder, swung into view on the asphalt road leading up to the building.

In fewer than 200 words, you know where and when you are, the state of the weather, some of the people in attendance, and the purpose of the occasion. The announcement of the historical generals is an effective lead, only it turns out they are Civil War reenactors. The cloudiness of the weather metaphorically mirrors the ongoing problematic politics accompanying that war and a storm of sorts that breaks open overhead later in the piece. Thus, setting and action are woven together in such a way that they afford readers an idea of place while also giving them notions of who’s on hand and what’s transpiring.