Hey, How'd That Happen?: Mapping Out Your Setting

At the end of January I received the edit notes for my midgrade novel, CHAINED, so I've been working on those a lot lately, after giving them a couple weeks to sit on my desk so we could get used to one another. One thing the editor asked me to do was make a rough map of the setting. She's having trouble picturing where things are in the story, so that's something I need to make more clear as I revise.

Most of the story takes place on the old circus grounds where the main character, Hastin, works as an elephant keeper. I used the Draw program in OpenOffice to make a diagram of the property and came up with this:

I sent the diagram to the editor, but I've also kept a hard copy next to me while I revise, and it's really helped me firm up the setting. Whatever a character is doing, I check to make sure his actions make sense. Would he really be able to see what he's describing, or would the trees be in the way? Is he close enough to overhear that conversation he's eavesdropping on? What's a water bucket doing by the arena?

Just last night I was working on a scene where Hastin is bathing the elephant, Nandita, in the spring and decides to escape with her. The two of them take off and run away to the forest where Nandita used to live, and from there Hastin plans to return home. Then I looked at the diagram and said, "Hey, you two-- how did you get past the fence?"

Headdesk.

If Hastin were escaping on his own, I'm sure he could climb the fence, but with an elephant? Ummm, now what? Let's see:

• People can do amazing things when they're really, really motivated. Powered by an adrenaline rush and desperation, Hastin carries the elephant over the fence. (What? It's not like she's full grown.)
• You know, I've always wanted to write fantasy. Hello, magical fence that disappears for a chapter!
• That fence is pretty old. How convenient it's rotted away over there by the spring.
• Balloons. Lots and lots of helium balloons.

But after sleeping on it, I decided a fence that size would need a few gates, and I hadn't put any in the diagram. People are coming and going throughout the day, and I don't think they're all climbing over the fence. And they had to get the elephant in somehow, didn't they? They brought her in a big truck and drove right up to the arena. But if the gates are too accessible, it would be easy for Hastin and Nandita to escape any time, and the story would be over. 

So, now we have one wide gate--one of those big metal ones you might see on a farm, held closed with a chain and padlock. In a couple other places are gates for people to walk on and off the circus grounds. 

There. Now we don't have an entire cast of characters trapped forever behind a fence. For the scene I was working on, Nandita is a young elephant and can pass through one of those smaller gates (barely), but when she's older that won't be possible.

This isn't the only scene that changed--I've tweaked so many scenes as a result of having a map of the setting on the writing desk. It made everything so much clearer; if you're holding your setting only in your head, it's too easy to change it as you go along. You can have buildings that change locations from chapter to chapter, trees show up out of nowhere, fences that disappear and reappear. 

I'd have saved myself a lot of revision time (and head smacks) if I'd had the setting map from the beginning. It still would have changed along the way, but I would have changed it on the paper diagram too, so I could keep things consistent in the story. 

So if you haven't made a setting map for your story, try drawing one out and see if that helps you as your write your draft or revise.

Or a lot of you may have done this already--have you drawn out maps of your settings, and has it helped your writing? Have you used it to work out a problem that came up? Or do you cheat and just add balloons?

Setting the Stage for Story...

Setting. It’s important. When done well, it can become a living, breathing character and give vital depth to any story.

Who has read To Kill a Mockingbird and not been transported to Maycomb, Alabama, where the air is scented with Miss Maudie’s flowers and you can almost feel the tension bubbling beneath the sidewalks?

Or what about the arena in The Hunger Games, which becomes as menacing as any of the human characters? Or Grandma Dowdel’s farm in Richard Peck’s A Year Down Yonder?

Setting is crucial, and if you can speak about the place where your book is set with some authority, you’ll have an easier time convincing readers that the world you’ve created is real and that they need to step inside.


That’s not to say setting should be a carbon copy of places that you have lived or visited. We writers need to take bits and pieces of our memories of place and translate them - make our readers understand them on an emotional level. Why did these places resonate with us? Why are they important to our characters? This doesn’t come from telling us (for example) that there’s a coffee shop on the corner, it comes from describing the smells, the sounds, the ornate tin ceiling and the "ca-ching" of the old fashioned cash register.

For my book, THE ICING ON THE CAKE, about a teenaged cake decorator, the setting came by coincidence, while I was actually quite stuck, not sure where the story was going.

In 2006, my husband and I went to a wedding in Grand Rapids, MI. We flew into Chicago and drove around the bottom half of Lake Michigan. On our way, we stopped in several of the quaint towns that dot the Michigan shore. They are quiet, cozy, welcoming and completely charming.

It didn't take me long to realize I had found my setting, and the rest of the story fell into place. My main character, Sheridan, loves her hometown. When her father is offered a reality TV show, she is faced with the possibility of leaving. But how to convince my readers that a 15 year old girl would not want to leave a small town like St. Mary (the fictional town I came up with) for super cool New York City?

The key for me was to have St. Mary become almost like a mother figure to Sheridan, representing security, safety and comfort. This was important because one of the key plot points is that Sheridan's mother is missing. Quite literally, St. Mary is Sheridan’s safe harbor. Not just a place, but something more. I guarantee I could not have successfully gotten that across if I hadn't had the experience of our time in Michigan.

Amazing how important story elements can come together when you're doing something as seemingly non-writing related as going to a friend's wedding.


Yeah. They're adorable. And don't think they're not getting mentioned in my acknowledgements.

So. Setting. Where have you found inspiration for the places your stories are set? Where do your favorite books take place? Can you imagine them set anywhere else?

Happy Monday!
Christina