Journal 6

Module Overview

The Deep South at the cusp of the Civil War. Old New York in the

Gilded Age. A futuris!c dystopian wasteland. An empty café terrace

late at night. No ma"er when, where, or what, se#ngs ma"er. The

degree to which they ma"er depends, in part, on the style of the

crea!ve work, the tone, the characters, and the theme. Some

wri!ng relies heavily on se#ng (Edith Wharton’s The House of

Mirth could take place nowhere but old New York in the late

nineteenth century, for example), and some wri!ng uses it merely as

background to highlight characters and ac!on. But the se#ng is

always there, an integral part of the world of the piece. Module Six

explores se#ng, focusing on methods of building a world through

place and atmosphere.

To begin building a world, you must first iden!fy where it is and

what goes in it. Se#ng is more than simply locale. It also includes

!me—both !me period (present day, medieval !mes, the nineteenth

century, and so on), !me of day (early morning, dusk, midday), and

!me of year (summer, fall, winter, spring). Weather too is a part of

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!me of year (summer, fall, winter, spring). Weather too is a part of

se#ng—just ask any fan of George R. R. Mar!n’s A Song of Ice and

Fire series, and they will tell you what it means that winter is

coming. Se#ng also includes interiors, such as drawing rooms,

kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, and exteriors, including yards,

porches, and pa!os. The type of house a character lives in—be it a

grand planta!on home, a dilapidated Creole townhouse, or a

corporate apartment—is a part of the se#ng. Even the props (e.g.,

the furniture, the wall hangings, the photographs) inside that home

are a part of the se#ng, a part of what “grounds a story in place”

(Burroway 156).

Your world must also have an atmosphere because “without it, your

characters will be unable to breathe” (Burroway 159). To establish an

atmosphere, you take the se#ng and add tone. This is most

prominent, perhaps, in darker crea!ve works, such as “The Fall of

the House of Usher” (which you may have read in Module Five), or

“The Yellow Wallpaper” (which you may read in Module Six). In both

pieces, the authors use the se#ng (the House of Usher and the

room with the yellow wallpaper) to create a sense of impending

doom.

In movies, se#ng and atmosphere can have more of an overt

establishment with visual and aural elements, too. For instance, the

opening clip from Fargo (cc) establishes se#ng and mood right off

the bat, using music to help to build the atmosphere. The writer

does not have music; the writer has only words, and those words

must be concrete, significant, and carefully chosen for this world to

come to life.

Writers are encouraged to make their se#ngs and worlds

“believable,” which means that everything on the page—a character’s

ac!ons, dialogue, or thought, along with the se#ng itself—must be

congruous. To make it believable, your world must have established

rules. This does not mean laws, exactly, or even a moral code.

“Rules" in this context refer to what can and cannot happen, or what

does and does not exist in this world. For example, in the world of A

Song of Ice and Fire, dragons exist, as do giants, and it is established

early on that what dies is not always permanently dead. In Mar!n’s

world, white walkers, Red Priests, and magic can raise the dead. In

Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake trilogy, mutant hybrid animals

such as pigoons and mohairs roam the post-apocalyp!c land. But

even in realist wri!ng, there are worlds with their own sets of rules.

These rules might mimic the real world (dragons might be merely

mythical creatures and the dead might stay dead), but there are

rules just the same.

This week, you will defend your preferences for se#ng in a group

discussion. You will also turn in the next milestone of your final

project, in which you will analyze your classic and contemporary text

for their uses of storytelling elements, literary conven!ons, and

themes.

Works Cited

Burroway, Janet. Wri!ng Fic!on: A Guide to Narra!ve Cra%.

Boston: Pearson, 2007. Print.

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