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Monday, March 1, 2010
Setting Up Settings
I lack in many areas of writing, but where I lack the most, I believe, is in settings. In my rough drafts (which is all I have so far) I don’t describe what my characters are wearing, where they are standing, or anything about their surroundings. What’s more, I don’t even see these things in my mind. Some of it, maybe, if I step back and think about it. But most of the time, nothing.
You may remember I blogged not long ago about finally embracing plotting. My tool of choice is the storyboard. Imagine my surprise and delight in realizing I can use this same storyboard to create my settings. I’d like to say I came to this conclusion on my own. But no, it came from a witty and knowledgeable source. Ms. Anne Lamott.
I’m currently reading Bird By Bird by Ms. Lamott (aren’t you proud of me, Janga?) and am loving it. Can’t recommend this book highly enough. I found this nugget of wisdom in the SET DESIGN chapter.
Ms. Lamott goes on to recommend asking anyone you can to help describe settings you may not be familiar with. In one of her books, she wanted to design an extravagant garden. She, like me, has no skills with plant life, so she sought out experts for help. By the time the book was published, she’d done so well, readers approached her wanting to talk gardening.
I realize this is common sense and somewhere deep down I knew it. But I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Then I got an idea. I could add this information to the storyboard. Marn has often raved about using spreadsheets for storyboarding, but I’ve fought the idea tooth and nail. I use spreadsheets all day at the day job and couldn’t imagine using them for something creative like writing.
But I’ve changed my mind.
I could easily add a smaller box under every scene box with some description. Where the scene takes place. If it’s cold, wet, dark, loud. And an added bonus with spreadsheets, my cat can’t eat them. (Shredded it, he did. The little turd.)
I haven’t actually applied this idea, I just had it about 48 hours ago. But I will and I promise to report back.
How about you? How do you create your settings? Do you think about them ahead of time? Do you skip them in the rough draft and add them later? Or are you of the expert class who has figured out how to use setting to reveal character? Do you stick with places you’re familiar with first hand or are you brave enough to choose places you’ve never been?
You may remember I blogged not long ago about finally embracing plotting. My tool of choice is the storyboard. Imagine my surprise and delight in realizing I can use this same storyboard to create my settings. I’d like to say I came to this conclusion on my own. But no, it came from a witty and knowledgeable source. Ms. Anne Lamott.
I’m currently reading Bird By Bird by Ms. Lamott (aren’t you proud of me, Janga?) and am loving it. Can’t recommend this book highly enough. I found this nugget of wisdom in the SET DESIGN chapter.
“Imagine yourself as the set designer for a play or for the movie version of the story you are working on. It may help you to know what the room (or the ship or the office or the meadow) looks like where the action will be taking place. You want to know how its feel, its temperature, its colors.” (p 74)
Ms. Lamott goes on to recommend asking anyone you can to help describe settings you may not be familiar with. In one of her books, she wanted to design an extravagant garden. She, like me, has no skills with plant life, so she sought out experts for help. By the time the book was published, she’d done so well, readers approached her wanting to talk gardening.
I realize this is common sense and somewhere deep down I knew it. But I wasn’t sure how to go about it. Then I got an idea. I could add this information to the storyboard. Marn has often raved about using spreadsheets for storyboarding, but I’ve fought the idea tooth and nail. I use spreadsheets all day at the day job and couldn’t imagine using them for something creative like writing.
But I’ve changed my mind.
I could easily add a smaller box under every scene box with some description. Where the scene takes place. If it’s cold, wet, dark, loud. And an added bonus with spreadsheets, my cat can’t eat them. (Shredded it, he did. The little turd.)
I haven’t actually applied this idea, I just had it about 48 hours ago. But I will and I promise to report back.
How about you? How do you create your settings? Do you think about them ahead of time? Do you skip them in the rough draft and add them later? Or are you of the expert class who has figured out how to use setting to reveal character? Do you stick with places you’re familiar with first hand or are you brave enough to choose places you’ve never been?
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40 comments:
Ah, places I've never been! Of course. I admit, I generally don't do all the detail work at the first shot. I realized today that this pivotal waltz scene between Emily and Alan needs a ton of description! Not just the emotional loveliness of how she feels in his arms, gazing into his eyes, being guided by his skill...but about the music, the room, the feel of her skirt, his breeches... The smells...
Most scenes, I really don't think a whole lot about all of that. I nearly always fill in later, but not in stupendous detail. But this is a big pivotal scene, where she is going to be outed as his lover/love.
So, I say...whatever works for you, Terrio! Spreadsheets? The DH swears by them for everything. I cannot make heads nor tails of them! But I like yer thinking...it's like composing a picture. I've been lucky enough to have an artist as a friend and see the step by step...and that is what you're doing!
Whoop!
BTW, had lunch at Nepenthe today, with the DH. Couldn't sit outside, too cold, but lovely to stroll about...best first day of March ever.
In some of my things, the settings are practically another character---they're important and very clear to me. Sometimes they're based on places I've visited, or images from Google, or clips from YouTube. I know what the floor plan is of every house on Jane Street (the Courtesan Court books), and what the back gardens look like.
But holy cow, no story boards or spreadsheets---that would be freakily organized for me. I'm proud of myself if I can come up w/ a vague synopsis now, whose plotting immediately changes once I get started writing. Pants r us.
Plotters unite! And alas, writing about setting is not easy for me tho it's easily one of my favorite parts of a novel to read. I like to get carried away, transported to a historical setting. The lovely Deanna Raybourn is fantastic in this talent (just go read her latest and you'll see what I mean). I end up glossing over a few descriptions with the intent to go back and polish it a bit later. Tho I must say, I had a brilliant setting description come to mind on Saturday. I can't wait to work it into this one scene...
Great idea about the storyboard & spreadsheets. Since I don't have excel, it would be a wee bit difficult to utilize the spreadsheet idea (Google Docs is just not the same) but I might start pasting little notes on my giant plot line.
BB cracks me up. The li' bugger!
By the time you're done with this mss, Ter, you are going to be able to write a "How to" book! I realize a lot of it is advice from other authors but it is really awesome that it's helping you out and it seems to be clicking.
I pretty much info dump in this area. I just write and write and write even if it seems inane and silly. This is one area where I figure more is better and I can go back and edit big time.
Chance - You are going to completely suck the reader in during that scene. I bet they'll be swaying to the music as they read. LOL! And we're looking at sunshine and 60 degree temps this weekend. I can't wait! (Spreadsheets ARE awesome. Use them for everything here at work.)
Maggie - You know all that without sitting down and creating it?! I mean, do you at least have notes on all that? And you are so good about finding stuff on youtube for the area in which you write. Or at least stuff you can use. I need to try something like that. Find pictures or something.
Steph - Me too! LOL! I love beautiful description in a book as long as it doesn't go on forever and start to bore me. Done well, amazing.
Couldn't you share just a little more about this scene idea? You sound so excited, I want to hear more. And you don't have Excel at home?! I admit, I don't use the rest of my office options, but I use Word and Excel a lot.
Oh, and BB is not amusing at this point. The damn cat has turned nocturnal and spends all night knocking over everything he can throughout the house. This morning, woke me up SIX MINUTES before my alarm was set to go off. He couldn't resist clawing at the carpet another SIX MINUTES?!
I'm keeping his ass awake all evening tonight. The little shit is going to get back on a the right schedule or he'll be sleeping in his carrier. LOL!
Irish - I may not write a "HOW TO" book, but I will hopefully know how to write the next one with much less struggle. LOL! I need to get in that mindset, to write and write and write and cut what I don't need later. I think I used to do that and then got away from it. Seems like I'd rather have 20K extra words to cut than need to add 30K at the end of the first draft.
*sigh*
I generally have to go back in and add the descriptive details. I get so caught up in what the characters are saying and doing, that even though I can *see* their setting in my mind, I don't put it on the paper (er, screen).
I do a lot of research online, but I hadn't thought about the YouTube thing. I like that idea. I use Excel when I'm revising my manuscript, to keep all kinds of info straight. Something about all those little boxes is very soothing. LOL
Donna - I'm the same way. My rough draft is ALL dialogue with a smathering of action. Virtually no description. I need to work on this.
I'm not sure if the boxes are soothing, but they would make for convenience when I'm writing so I don't have to get up and find the giant posterboard. (This would be easier if I wrote in one place all the time, but alas, that doesn't happen.)
Quick note - I'm going to be out of the office for the rest of the morning. But I will be back for the afternoon so feel free to keep things rolling.
Setting isn't one of my big strengths. While I generally know where the scene is taking place, it usually takes me some time to visualize it. Most of the time, I get the initial sense of place and then come back on later passes to add more description in. To me, it's more important at first draft to get the emotional interplay. And I'm not talented enough yet to do the character interplay and elaborate setting. At least not usually. :)
I am proud of you, Terri! You know I think Anne Lamott is a genius. I recommend Word by Word every time the subject of craft comes up, and I quote her at every opportunity. :)
Spread sheets are too orderly for my untidy mind. I do other things to help me with details. I have floorplans of all the houses and a map of Gentry, for example. I also create slide shows, so if I need details of Little Gran's garden or Brody's sketches for a restoration project or Tal's solemn face, I go to the slide show. What would I do without Google images? LOL!
I have this same problem, Ter, and it's one I've really tried to work on. Ironically, the one time I tried really hard to include lots of setting in the first draft, sweet Marnee wrote back and said, "I'm not sure what happened on the first page, but after that it evened out and your voice came through better" (of course, the end of that first page is where I gave up with the setting! Ha!). My thesis adviser at school said I need to concentrate on adding 50% more setting/description to my later drafts. For my last WIP, he actually wrote "there are are so many contradictory descriptions of the weather that I wonder if the author has any idea what the weather is actually like in any scene."
Ugh. So I feel your pain. And I think adding a note to the storyboard for every scene is a fabulous idea. At least, if you don't get it in there in the first draft, you have the note to remind yourself when you come back for later drafts. The program I use to write lets me keep various "note cards" attached to each scene, that I can then view independently, and I just realized that I have note cards for everything *but* setting. Hmmm, maybe that would help!
slide shows! What an awesome idea Janga!
This is a great idea!!!
I don't usually think too much of setting. My 1st and 2nd books vaguely took place in Missouri. (The 2nd was definitely MO, the first hinted but wasn't a big thing.) But I never let it rain or do anything weirdly atmospheric in my books. *LOL*
This book takes place in Heaven; and in Las Vegas. Heaven I just think of a lot of white walls and the sort of rich, opulent space and decoration that screams WEALTH BEYOND IMAGINING but is understated which also screams wealth beyond imagining. Old rich rather than new rich.
Though I imagine The Counselor collects motorcycles or bobblehead dolls. Or both. He'd have room.
The Garden of Eden in my mind is a big jungle, like the Amazon sorta.
Las Vegas is hot and smells funny, like asphalt and garbage. Lots of buildings. Lots of neon. But I haven't been there, so I don't know if it is anything more than that or not. *LOL* I need to have outside input on my Vegas stuff...mostly a lot of stuff happens in the apartment. :)
I don't use weather to my advantage. It's always some average day with no rain in my books. *LOL*
Hal - LOL!! :)
I'm back early, which means I'll have to go back out to find lunch. Could have had lunch for FREE in a nice fancy restaurant, but no. This is what happens with you try to lunch with men who are important. And you are not. :)
Let me try to catch up.
Marn - So what priority does setting get? In the second pass? Third? Not that it matters, I'm just curious. I think I'm going to have to attack this book in bits and pieces and I'm just trying to figure out the pecking order.
Janga - Now I have to go find that one! I really like this woman. She's someone I think I'd like hanging out with. Very matter of fact and tell it like it is with the right dash of sarcasm. Perfect!
I didn't think of slide shows, but that would be excellent for that actual images I find. And I need to map out my little town, which is loosely based on where I grew up. It takes place in Penance, Ohio (fictitious) and centers around the high school. But the hero and heroine live around the corner from each other and it's totally my old neighborhood.
Hal - You have no idea how much you've made me feel better. And I'm not sure I'd ever be able to get all the details in on the first pass. But there must be something. It's like my characters don't notice a thing, which is silly. Surely they notice the color of the walls. Or the footsteps somewhere far off in the halls. Or the ticking of the giant clock (remember those loud ones in the classroom that we were always trying to mentally move faster?)
My story crosses from fall into winter, so it's going to have to get progressively colder. I've been trying to keep that in mind to at least mention if they are wearing light jackets or coats or what.
That's one of the cool things about Heaven, no one can argue our individual descriptions of it. Kind of like the Pepsi vs. Coke vs. Milkshake options. LOL!
And I think most people have an image of Vegas if they haven't been there. It's not like we don't see it in a million movies. Though the Vegas in Fools Rush In is different from the Vegas in the Oceans movies. But only slightly.
However, interrogating someone who has been there is a good idea. Can't be that hard to find someone who's been to Vegas.
I think a map of the town sounds like a great idea. And this is where I think the collage stuff can come in handy. Just tear a dozen magazines to pieces! This house, that tree, that meadow, this river, that street, bakery... I do like to collect pics when I travel and use them. And brochures from cruise lines...
Hellie - Vegas is noisy. Always noisy. Don't forget that detail!
Chance - I have to make a confession, I hate paying for magazines. And I rarely find ones with the pictures I'd want. This is why (as Janga mentions) Google images are my friend.
Off to find food.
Well, I get that...I try not to buy many, but some just...sigh...
I'd rather use brochures, catalogues and my own pics!
Oops! Is my face ever red! That should have been Bird by Bird, Ter, not Word by Word. That'll teach me to post before breakfast. I should add that I learn something about writing and about life from everything I read written by Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird is her only book about the craft of writing, but do read her novels and her nonfiction books and her Salon columns. I have a Lamott quote for almost every day. Today's, from Plan B : Further Thoughts on Faith: "Laughter is carbonated holiness."
Don't worry, 2nd, I'm a magazine buyer, even if I recognize it's a "waste" of money. Terri buys things I don't understand. Like sweet tea.
Janga, when I was in the bookstore the other day, I saw a new Natalie Goldberg, about writing memoir. Looked really good.
I was also enjoying the writing book about writing historical fiction. I like that guy!! He and I are on the same page. *LOL*
Chance - I don't knock anyone buying them as long as they read and use them. I buy Woman's World not just to get a feel for the stories, but I like what's in there. I'd just have to be sure the magazine had enough pictures to make it worth my while. I'm a tight-ass that way. LOL!
Janga - Now you had me all excited there was more Lamott writing wisdom out there. LOL! And I have looked at her other work. To be honest, the religious stuff is likely not for me. But I'll search around. I love her style.
Hellie is right, I can rationalize anything when I want to. Though the tea is more about suffering in the stomach and not in the wallet. LOL!
I am ecstatic to report, we have a definite location for the holiday party. WHOOT!!! No more visiting ballrooms. However, now he wants a band. *faceplant*
Just think of the added bits to your resume... Event Planner Extraordinare!
BTW, I got the latest WW and your story kicks it's ass! Get that puppy sent off!
I like magazines, but they've gotten so expensive and the recycler in me just cringes at how fast I go through them and then have to just trash them...
All this talk of magazines has propelled me to subscribe to Weight Watchers. I mean, I've missed it, but I subscribed to different magazines last year...I thought I'd bring WW back.
My celebrity mag has been disappointing lately.
Thanks, Chance! I was revising it a bit more last night. I think I'll be ready to send it out by the end of the week.
For years I subscribed to Reader's Digest (I'm THAT boring) and read it front to back. But then I went a year where I didn't even get them out of the plastic wrapper, so I canceled. I'm hoping some day in the future I'll find the time to bring it back. But right now, I don't even read my RWR magazines.
I don't read my RWR magazines either. Pretty much all the other magazines I bring in the house, but not that one.
I read my RWR magazine cover to cover, but it's the only one I read. And after a year and a half of reading RWR, it's getting a bit like I'm reading the same articles over and over. I used to read Cosmo, but then I just felt fat and poor :)
I used to read Women's Health and Men's Health...but it just made me aware how out of shape I was. LOL!
I like Gothic Beauty, though I don't read it so much as admire it. I do ready my Pirate magazine...and flip through RT. I find RWR a little thicky...
Hal - I need to make the time. But right now, I'm reading three books at one time. And trying to write. And there's no time! But when I have gotten a chance to page through one, I've rarely seen an article that applied to me. So I don't worry about it too much.
I only check out Cosmo at the hair salon or doc's office and then I can never get past all the ads to find the content.
Okay, I have to ask. What does "thicky" mean?
Thicky...I just couldn't think of a better word to use. I could have said condescending, but that isn't quite it. Inadvertantly condescending? Which feels thick, energy-wise...
That makes sense. I was thinking to myself, "The magazine isn't that thick. Huh?"
But I haven't taken my vitamins in a couple days and my brain isn't working.
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