creative writing setting examples

Top 200 Setting Ideas for a Story, from Expert Writers

Last Updated on October 20, 2023 by Dr Sharon Baisil MD

If you’re looking for inspiration for your next story idea, look no further! This article has 500 setting ideas to help get your creative juices flowing. Expert writers have contributed their favorite settings , so you’re sure to find something that sparks your imagination. With this wealth of ideas at your fingertips, you can write a truly unique story or write a paper online with someone’s help. Short story ideas don’t get much better than this.

List of the Top 200 Setting Ideas for Writing a Story

A dark forest full of traps and magical creatures
The seafloor
A derelict space station floating in orbit around a distant planet
An abandoned amusement park at night
The surface of an unknown planet, far away from Earth
The center of a massive mountain range where nobody has ever ventured
A massive library full of real, physical books that no one has ever read before
The very tip-top floor of a massive skyscraper
An isolated prison in the middle of an endless desert
The house is at the end of a long, winding road leading to nowhere else but more road with no landmarks or distinguishing characteristics
A small farmhouse on a large plot of farmland, surrounded by woods and swamps on all sides
An abandoned warehouse filled with secret passageways that are impossible to find without help from someone who knows them by heart
The surface of Mars during sunrise over Olympus Mons Crater
On an elevated platform at the center of a small island
The very, very bottom floor of a massive skyscraper that has been abandoned since construction was completed
An underground cave system where one can go for days without seeing sunlight or another living being
A space shuttle orbiting around Jupiter
In the belly of a massive whale as it swims through dark, frigid waters filled with horrific monsters and other life forms from Earth’s deepest nightmares.
On the surface of Venus during sunrise over Sif Mons Crater
In a massive library filled to the brim with books so old, they crumble to dust when touched by human hands, at least if their age is not protected by magic or advanced technology beyond what humanity understands today
A massive tree with a labyrinth of interconnected rooms and underground tunnels deep within its roots, filled with strange creatures like nothing ever seen on Earth before
The center of the sun
In the mouth of a massive dragon as it flies through the sky
On an abandoned oil platform in the middle of an ocean where strange sea creatures lurk and unknowable horrors hide just out of sight under dark, stormy waters
Beneath the surface of Europa during sunrise over Valhalla Crater
A massive cave system that has been occupied by orcs for centuries upon centuries
An endless desert where sandstorms strike without warning and can carry entire structures away if they aren’t built properly to withstand the elements
A small, floating island somewhere in the Indian Ocean that is only accessible every seven years when the tides pull it closer to other islands and civilizations ashore
In a tent at a massive music festival miles away from civilization
Underground while being chased by trolls with weapons forged from precious metals and stones no human has ever seen before
On a far-off planet orbiting a distant star where friendly inhabitants will welcome you with open arms, but be careful about what you accept or take from them–the planetary economy might not be able to handle Earth’s money supply
Inside Amazon forest
In a small town in the center of a large valley surrounded by dense forests and thick swamps
In a dark alley in New York City at night, desperately trying to find your way home from work before something bad happens
A small town that has been cut off from civilization for centuries upon centuries, isolated from humanity behind seemingly impenetrable walls built to keep out dangerous monsters that lurk outside the village’s limits
A small shuttlecraft piloted by an AI on its way to explore Pluto and beyond
In a massive city made of towers stacking high into the sky, each one attached to another by bridges and elevators that stretch from floor to floor
A single room in an apartment complex near a major city where strange noises and smells come from beneath the floorboards late at night
The depths of an ancient jungle filled with giant trees and nocturnal predators whose roars echo through the forest like nothing ever heard before on Earth
Atop a large mountain looking down upon a vast desert filled with sand dunes as far as the eye can see
On an abandoned oil platform in the middle of an ocean where strange sea creatures lurk, and unknowable horrors hide just out of sight under dark, stormy waters
Across the surface of Europa during sunrise over Valhalla Crater
Outdoor Skating Rink
Seaside Towns
Parisian Cafe
Middle Eastern Bazaar
Rain Forest
Hollywood Theatre
Moto X Track
Train Station
Castle Dungeon
Greek Island Resort
Alaskan Wilderness
Redwood Forest
Subway Station
Ocean Liner
Space Shuttle LaunchPad
English Countryside Manor House
Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Theatre
Disneyland Park
Sports Stadiums and Arenas
Military Bases and
Palace and Gardens of Versailles
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
Central Park in New York City
Amusement Parks
Water Parks and Theme Piers
Stadiums and Arenas (Indoor)
Museum of Natural History (NYC)
Casinos & Gentlemen’s Clubs
Lighthouses
The White House (Washington, DC)
Fruit and Vegetable Market in South Central LA
Airports and Airlines
Ships Before They Sink
Space Satellite Control Center (Houston)
High-Rise Buildings (NYC, Chicago, etc.)
The Planet Mars
Mountain Ranges on Earth
Urban Streets of Any Large City
Rural Towns in Any Region of the World
Movie Premiere Venues, Awards Shows & Conventions
Night Clubs & Bars (NYC)
The Great Wall of China (Northern China)
Russian State Duma Building (Moscow)
Cliffs of Moher (Ireland)
Rio de Janeiro City Streets During Carnival
Harbor Alley in Hong Kong at Night
Abandoned Amusement Parks (Asbury Park, New Jersey)
The North Pole and the Arctic Ocean
Concert Halls & Opera Houses
Any Major Sports Stadium or Arena
Movie Theatres
Public Parks
Downtown Zoos & Aquariums
Gas Stations & Convenience Stores
Clothing Racks in High-End Department Stores
Shopping Malls
Museums, Art Galleries, Libraries & Historical Sites
War Memorials and Monuments
Historic Homes and Buildings
Restaurants with Diners Outside
Boardwalks with Shops and Stands
Famous Hotel Pools & Resorts
The Great Pyramids of Giza (Northern Egypt)
Miles of Seawall in Galveston, Texas
Inside a Presidential Limousine Riding Through Town
Carnival Cruise Ships
A futuristic manufacturing facility
A world filled with genetically modified creatures
An old-west town that has been magically restored to its 19th century glory days (and beyond!)
A lighthouse on an isolated island
A rickety old wooden bridge collapsed into the raging river below it
An industrial complex filled with glowing debris and strange machinery
A castle in the middle of a deep, dark forest
A boarding school built on an alien planet
The edge of space broken by an enormous asteroid field and marked with craters and jagged ridges where stars have fallen to Earth (and beyond!)
A tropical archipelago filled with exotic wildlife that is home to dangerous sea life
A quiet coastal town full of quaint little houses sitting at the bottom end of a steep cliffside overlooking calm, glassy waters
An untamed wilderness filled with wild creatures and beasts of many kinds
A world where the sun is just a bright point in the sky, but there are entire civilizations out there that have completely abandoned their star for another one entirely. There’s no way to travel between them without making a trip through an inter-dimensional rift or wormhole
A futuristic mega-city at night, full of glowing billboards advertising products that no one will ever buy (and there’s a great deal more to discover!)
A forgotten temple complex nestled in the foothills of a dormant volcano
An isolated corner of the cosmos, lit only by distant stars and several smaller moons
A frozen wasteland
The Oval Office of the White House
Slum Areas in Any Major City Around the World
Abandon Prison Camps from WWI and WWII
In a cave deep beneath a mountain on another world
Entirely Inside a Computer Program
The deck of a pirate ship sailing the open seas
A tropical island forgotten by time
A train caught in an avalanche
Inside the body of a giant monster rampaging through the countryside, looking for something to eat
A city made entirely out of ice and snow.
An empty school after everyone has gone home for the day
A derelict luxury liner adrift in space (with a secret inside!)
Inside an Imaginarium (or similar fantasy machine)
Construction Sites
Any city street, alleyway, or back-alley
A cruise ship adrift at sea
An aircraft carrier or battleship sitting in the middle of an abandoned port
An ancient temple deep within a jungle
The inside of a spaceship or space station has crash-landed on an alien world (and beyond!)
A barren desert with nothing more than dead land for as far as the eye can see
Any massive stadium or sports arena that has been abandoned by its owners
A crowded subway train at rush hour
The inside of a refrigerator, freezer, walk-in cooler, meat locker, etc.
A wealthy man’s lavish estate sitting alone on top of a hill overlooking the city below it
The peak of an active volcano
Ancient Underground Cities
On the set of a cheesy old science fiction movie from the 1960s
A lush jungle of tall, sprawling trees that are completely covered in thick vines and tangled undergrowth
A strange world where everything looks wrong (that’s how it always starts!)
A post-apocalyptic wasteland populated by desperate survivors scavenging for resources to survive another day. There are still pockets of civilization here and there, but they have fallen into chaos as the population has dwindled due to starvation or plague. The landscape is littered with debris from the former days, while the skies are a burning orange and red. The air is thick with ash and dust, making breathing difficult at best.
A mysterious technological planet filled with massive construction projects that seem to have no purpose whatsoever
An alien world full of colorful plants/animals (and other creatures) that somehow still manages to be boring as hell. There aren’t many places for settlers to set up shop, so it’s mostly just a large.
A beautiful world filled to the brim with dragons and other amazing creatures, but also completely devoid of life.
A peaceful world with lush fields, rolling hills, and deep forests where life is bright and cheery. The sky is always clear blue; there are no storms or hurricanes to be found.
Mount Rushmore
The inside of a giant glass dome where the air is breathable, no one can see in or out. The inhabitants are completely cut off from the outside world (except radio communications)
A once proud civilization was reduced to ruins by an unknown enemy.
The cold vacuum of space, where nothing lives or grows
A quiet little town that has been completely abandoned for reasons still being investigated. It’s everyone for themselves out here in the wasteland, and sometimes people just get sick of living life on their own
The inside of a massive haunted house or castle
The inside of a giant amusement park filled with all sorts of rides and attractions. Unfortunately, the park has been deserted for decades, so anything that can move is inoperable. The vast majority of people who went missing over the years were just sucked into this place when they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A peaceful village in the mountains where everything is quiet and calm. It’s all fun and games until someone shows up with a gun, demanding whatever valuables you might be hiding away. Once they get what they want, you’re either forced into servitude or simply executed on the spot (depending on how nice their boss happens to be feeling at the time)
The inside of a department store during the busiest shopping day of the year
A dark and dangerous world where mutants, robots, cyborgs, zombies, and other vile creatures are constantly trying to kill each other.
Inside the great pyramid of Giza
A massive cruise ship that has been stranded at sea
A futuristic manufacturing facility with
A city of the undead
A post-apocalyptic wasteland
A futuristic sports arena inside a mountain range
A great white wasteland covered entirely in snow and ice. The temperature is far too cold for any sort of human settlement.
A crowded coffee shop
An abandoned mansion
A field in springtime
An erupting volcano
The cockpit of an airplane during takeoff or landing in rough weather (I like this one. I’d go for the cockpit of a passenger airliner.)
A library at night
The first row at a rock concert
Mount Everest
Underwater (Like “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”)
On top of a skyscraper during a thunderstorm at night (Like that part in Spiderman 3 where Spidey’s fighting the Lizard and what’s-his-name.)
On the ring road around Paris at rush hour (I’ve never been to France, but it sure sounds like hell in this instance.)

The Importance of Setting in Creative Writing

The setting is the blueprint from which your story is built. Knowing how to use it effectively can turn a good story into a great one and a mediocre story into a complete failure.

The advantages of a good setting are many:

1) It creates a sense of comfort in the reader who reads your short story.

2) It can increase suspense when used properly.

3) It adds depth and realism to the story, making it easier for readers to escape their daily lives and immerse themselves in your work.

4) If you do it right, it can give your story an amazing and lasting sense of wonder and nostalgia.

5) The story setting becomes a character in and of itself, with its motives and goals that may or may not align with those of the main characters (or even change as the story goes on).

6) It helps to make your writing more vivid and concise.

7) It becomes a tool you can utilize to provide foreshadowing and build tension.

8) It helps determine plot direction, character motivation, pacing, etc.

9) It becomes one of the first things your readers will notice about your work, so it must be done right from the beginning.

The setting is the foundation upon which your story is built. Do it wrong, and your efforts will come crumbling down around you, but get it right, and you’ll have a masterpiece on your hands.

Thanks for reading my blog, and Happy Writing ! What’s your favorite kind of setting? Mine is anything post-apocalyptic, as long as there are mutants and zombies. 🙂

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Story Setting Ideas: 137+ Prompts for Creative Writers

Are you a creative writer looking for unique story setting ideas for your next novel , short story , or screenplay ?

If so, you’re in the right place! I’ve been there too – maybe you have an idea for a great character , but you’re stuck for a good setting for the story, or maybe you’ve got some plot point ideas, but you’re not clear on where to set them.

If that’s you, read on to find the setting ideas organized into types of settings. We’ll start with dystopian and city settings, move on to natural settings (like forests and islands), and end with alternative time periods and space-based settings!

What Are Great Story Setting Ideas for Writers?

Dystopian wastelands.

Find story setting ideas for narratives set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Write about societies that crumbled under the weight of their own corruption and greed, where survivors cling to hope amidst devastation.

The Sunken City : A major city that has sunk underwater due to climate change, with surviving humans adapting to a new life beneath the waves.

The Silent Metropolis : A once bustling city now abandoned and overgrown with vegetation, where survivors navigate through skyscrapers turned into jungles.

Radioactive Ruins : An area devastated by nuclear war, where survivors must deal with radiation sickness and mutated creatures.

The Dust Bowl : A vast region of farmland turned into a desert due to over-farming and drought, where communities struggle for scarce resources.

The Glass Desert : A desert filled with glass-like sand caused by a meteor strike, where survivors must cope with extreme temperatures and deadly sandstorms.

The Techno-Graveyard : A junkyard filled with discarded and broken tech from a collapsed civilization, where scavengers hunt for valuable parts.

The Acid Rain Forest : A forest poisoned by acid rain, where the surviving flora and fauna have evolved in strange and dangerous ways.

The Frozen Wastes : A city encased in ice due to a sudden shift in climate, where survivors must adapt to the harsh cold.

The Sky Islands : Floating islands left after the Earth’s surface became uninhabitable, where people survive on these isolated pieces of land.

The Underground Hive : A network of caves and tunnels where a society lives underground after the surface world became too polluted.

The Cracked Earth : A region ravaged by intense earthquakes, leaving a landscape of deep chasms and unstable ground.

The Toxic Swamp : A swamp filled with toxic chemicals, where survivors have had to adapt to the poisonous environment.

The Ship Graveyard : A coastal area littered with the rusting hulks of ships, where survivors scavenge and live within the ruined vessels.

The Silent Plains : Vast plains left barren after a plague wiped out all plant life, forcing survivors to find new ways to cultivate food.

The Smog City : A city constantly shrouded in thick smog due to unchecked pollution, where inhabitants must wear masks to breathe.

RELATED: For more inspiration, read my best dystopian story ideas here !

Futuristic Metropolises

Read about different settings for your futuristic mega city story, where technology shapes every aspect of life and the sky is filled with the buzz of flying vehicles.

The Vertical Labyrinth : A city built entirely upwards, with interconnected skyscrapers and aerial walkways.

The Undercity : Beneath the glittering towers, a network of subterranean tunnels and communities thrive, away from the prying eyes of the city above.

The Bio-Dome Colony : A self-sustaining city under a massive dome, designed to replicate Earth’s ecosystem on a distant planet.

The Floating Megalopolis : A city suspended in the sky by anti-gravity technology, casting a shadow over the world below.

The Neon Jungle : A city that never sleeps, illuminated by the neon glow of holographic signs and digital billboards.

The AI Capital : A city run entirely by artificial intelligence, where every building, vehicle, and device is interconnected.

The Green Metropolis : A city designed with advanced eco-technology, seamlessly incorporating nature into its urban landscape.

The Quantum City : A city where quantum technology is used for everything from transportation to communication, making it a hub of scientific breakthroughs.

The Orbital Station : A bustling space station orbiting Earth, acting as a gateway to the stars.

The Oceanic City : A city built on the ocean surface, utilizing marine resources and pioneering underwater living.

The Timeless City : A city where time-manipulation technology is commonplace, causing unique societal and architectural developments.

The Holographic Haven : A city where virtual reality is integrated with physical spaces, creating a blend of real and digital environments.

The Energy Core : A city built around a giant energy source, harnessing its power for technological advancements.

The Multi-dimensional Metropolis : A city existing in multiple dimensions simultaneously, connected by inter-dimensional portals.

The Automated Utopia : A city where all mundane tasks are automated, freeing its citizens to pursue creative and intellectual interests.

Enchanted Forests

Here, you’ll find creative writing prompts for a fantastical world of nature. Step into magical realms where every tree and stone pulses with ancient magic, and mythical creatures roam.

The Singing Trees : A forest where the trees produce a melodious hum that can heal or harm depending on their mood.

The Mirror Glade : A clearing filled with mirror-like ponds that show not just reflections, but also possible futures.

The Lantern Grove : A grove where bioluminescent flowers provide light at night, attracting magical creatures of all kinds.

The Rainbow Canopy : A forest with leaves of every color, each tree possessing unique magical properties.

The Whispering Vines : A dense jungle of vines that whisper secrets and ancient wisdom to those who pass through.

The Dreaming Pools : A series of pools that induce vivid dreams when their waters are drunk, often used for prophecy.

The Timeless Hollow : An ancient hollow tree that serves as a portal to different times and realities.

The Weeping Willows : A grove of willows whose tears have healing powers, guarded by elusive nymphs.

The Crystal Cavern : A cavern hidden beneath the forest floor, filled with magical crystals that power the forest’s enchantments.

The Starlight Clearing : A clearing where starlight falls even during the day, said to be a meeting place for celestial beings.

The Silver Stream : A stream with silver waters that grant visions of truth to those who gaze into it.

The Golden Orchard : An orchard with golden fruit that bestows various magical abilities when eaten.

The Forgotten Ruins : Ancient ruins overrun by the forest, where stone carvings come to life under the moonlight.

The Fairy Ring : A circle of mushrooms serving as a gateway to the fairy realm, visible only on midsummer’s night.

The Wraith’s Woods : A haunted section of the forest where ghostly apparitions are seen, holding clues to a forgotten tragedy.

Isolated Islands

Find inspiration for the perfect setting for your remote island story!

The Whispering Sands : A tropical island where the sands whisper ancient tales and legends to those who listen closely.

The Lighthouse Isle : A small rocky island, home to an old lighthouse that guides lost sailors, its keeper a hermit with a mysterious past.

The Emerald Atoll : A ring-shaped island with a vibrant lagoon at its heart, teeming with colourful marine life.

The Forgotten Archipelago : A series of islands lost in time, each holding remnants of an ancient civilization.

The Shipwreck Shore : An island littered with shipwrecks, each with its own tragic tale and hidden treasures.

The Volcanic Isle : An island with a smoldering volcano, its fiery heart a source of awe and fear among its inhabitants.

The Cursed Cay : A seemingly idyllic island believed to be cursed, where strange occurrences are commonplace.

The Ghost Galleon : An eerie phantom ship that roams the seas, appearing and disappearing around a particular island.

The Turtle Haven : An island known for its vast population of sea turtles, considered sacred by the locals.

The Merfolk Lagoon : An island rumored to be the dwelling place of merfolk, their songs heard at the break of dawn.

The Pirate’s Refuge : An island used as a secret hideout by pirates, filled with hidden caves and buried treasure.

The Dragon’s Roost : An island where dragons are said to nest, its cliffs adorned with shimmering scales.

The Coral Castle : An underwater castle built from coral, visible from an island during low tide.

The Serpent’s Isle : An island known for its unique serpent species, their venom holds the key to a powerful antidote.

The Island of Eternal Night : An island where the sun never rises, its inhabitants living in perpetual twilight.

Ethereal Planes

T he ethereal planes are a unique setting where magic flows freely. These story ideas exist just beyond the reach of the mortal world – yet are intertwined with its fate.

The Echoing Expanse : A vast, shimmering desert where each grain of sand is a lost soul’s whisper.

Luminous Labyrinth : A maze of softly glowing walls that shift and change with the moods of the spirits.

Celestial Canopy : A dense forest with luminescent flora, its leaves falling in slow motion, transforming into stardust upon touching the ground.

Whispering Waters : An ocean of liquid light, where the waves carry the thoughts and dreams of the living.

The Veiled Vale : A valley shrouded in mist, where ancient spirits slumber, their dreams shaping the landscape.

Astral Atoll : Vibrant islands floating in a sea of twinkling stars, home to spirits of nature.

Spectral Spire : A towering, crystalline structure that pulses with spiritual energy, serving as a beacon to lost souls.

Ethereal Estuary : A river of pure energy flowing from the mortal world, carrying the essence of life and death.

The Fading Fen : A spectral swamp, where forgotten memories sink into the quagmire, only to occasionally bubble back to the surface.

Glowing Grotto : An underground cavern illuminated by luminescent fungi, echoing with the whispers of earthbound spirits.

Phantom Pinnacle : A mountain peak piercing the veil between planes, where spirits can glimpse the mortal world.

Wraith’s Wastes : A desolate landscape where darker spirits roam, feeding off residual negative emotions.

The Silken Sky : A sky filled with strands of shimmering light, weaving the tapestry of fate.

Mirrored Meadows : Fields of silver grass reflecting the thoughts and emotions of those who wander through.

Harmonic Highlands : Mountainous terrain resonating with the symphony of the universe, where each gust of wind carries a melody.

Ancient Kingdoms

C reative writing prompts that feature ancient history in kingdoms where the echoes of past glories and dark intrigues still linger in shadowy corners.

The Sunken Kingdom : An underwater kingdom swallowed by the sea, its grand palaces now home to marine life.

The Desert Empire : A vast desert kingdom, where sandstorms uncover hidden pyramids filled with mummies and treasures.

The Lost Jungle Kingdom : An ancient kingdom reclaimed by the jungle, its stone temples covered in vines and home to exotic creatures.

The Sky Citadel : A kingdom located on floating islands, where people travel on the backs of giant birds.

The Kingdom of Shadows : A kingdom trapped in perpetual twilight, where shadowy figures lurk in the corners.

The Crystal Cavern Kingdom : A kingdom built within a network of crystal caverns that sparkle with magical energy.

The Mountain Fortress : A kingdom carved into the side of a towering mountain, protected by treacherous cliffs and deadly avalanches.

The Ice Palace : A kingdom within a glacier, where grand halls and rooms are made entirely of ice.

The Volcanic Kingdom : A kingdom built around a dormant volcano, using geothermal energy to power their technology.

The Underground City : A kingdom built deep underground, illuminated by bioluminescent fungi and gemstones.

The Tree-top Kingdom : A kingdom built on top of gigantic trees, connected by swinging bridges and zip lines.

The Mirage Kingdom : A kingdom that appears as a mirage in the desert, accessible only to those who know its secret.

The Ghost Kingdom : A kingdom said to be haunted by the spirits of past rulers, their ghostly echoes heard in the wind.

The Labyrinth Kingdom : A kingdom built within a vast labyrinth, where every turn could lead to treasure or danger.

The Kingdom in the Clouds : A kingdom hidden high in the clouds, accessible only by airships or winged creatures.

Underworld Realms

Story setting ideas in the depths of the underworld. This is a place where darkness reigns supreme and creatures of the night are the main characters.

The Labyrinth of Shadows : An endless maze filled with traps, puzzles, and lurking creatures.

The River of Forgotten Souls : A fantasy world with a river where the spirits of the departed drift aimlessly.

The Obsidian Citadel : A fortress built from black stone, home to the formidable ruler of the underworld.

The Cavern of Whispers : A mysterious cavern where voices echo with secrets and ancient prophecies, like something out of Tolkien’s middle earth.

The Abyssal Sea : A dark, endless ocean teeming with monstrous sea creatures.

The Petrified Forest : A forest of stone trees, inhabited by stone-like creatures.

The City of Wailing Specters : A city where tormented spirits wail and moan, reliving their past lives.

The Fields of Eternal Twilight : A field with rolling hills where it’s always dusk, and shadowy figures roam.

The Mountains of Despair : Towering mountains that drain the hope of those who dare to climb them.

The Lake of Fire : A lake filled with molten lava, home to fire-breathing creatures.

The Crystal Mines : Mines filled with precious but cursed gemstones guarded by spectral miners.

The Sands of Time : A desert where time flows differently, aging or rejuvenating anyone who steps onto its sands.

The Frozen Wastes : An icy wilderness haunted by frost wraiths and other chilling creatures.

The Forgotten Catacombs : An intricate network of tombs and crypts, housing the remains of long-dead kings and queens.

The Garden of Nightmares : A garden filled with bizarre and deadly plants that feed on fear.

Lost Civilizations

These are story setting ideas about the remnants of ancient civilizations hidden away by time. They can be based on historical events, and are perfect for a love story, a thriller, or a dramatic tale.

The Sunken City : An ancient city submerged beneath the sea, its grand architecture untouched by time.

The Jungle Ruins : Overgrown ruins deep within the jungle, filled with dangerous traps and hidden treasures.

The Deserted Desert Kingdom : A once-thriving desert kingdom, now buried under shifting sands.

The Mountain Monastery : A secluded monastery high in the mountains, filled with ancient scrolls and artifacts.

The Sky Temples : Floating temples hidden among the clouds, accessible only by those who can fly.

The Forgotten Forest Village : A village hidden within an enchanted forest, its inhabitants turned to stone.

The Underground Cavern City : A sprawling city carved into the walls of a vast cavern, lit by bioluminescent fungi.

The Crystal Palace : A palace made entirely of crystals, each room refracting light in mesmerizing patterns.

The Ghost Town : A small town abandoned after a disaster, haunted by the spirits of its former inhabitants.

The Labyrinth of the Minotaur : A massive labyrinth housing a fearsome beast, filled with deadly challenges and ancient puzzles.

The Frozen Citadel : A citadel encased in ice on a snow-covered mountain, its inhabitants preserved in perfect frozen stasis.

The Island of Statues : An island filled with lifelike statues, remnants of an ancient civilization that had a peculiar obsession with sculpture.

The Volcanic Fortress : A fortress built into an active volcano, its halls filled with fire-based traps and puzzles.

The Abandoned Astronomical Observatory : An observatory filled with ancient astronomical instruments and star charts, hinting at a civilization with advanced knowledge of the cosmos.

The Hidden Valley of Dinosaurs : A valley hidden behind a mountain range, where dinosaurs still roam, preserved by an ancient civilization’s advanced technology.

Parallel Dimensions

Step into parallel dimensions where reality bends and every choice leads to almost too-many possibilities.

Mirror World : A world that mirrors our own, with slight, unsettling differences.

Time-Shifted Realm : A dimension where time moves at a different pace, altering the course of history.

Upside-Down Dimension : A reality where gravity works in reverse, and the sky is beneath your feet.

Shadow Dimension : A world cast in perpetual twilight, where shadows have a life of their own.

Infinite Library : A dimension consisting entirely of a vast library, housing every book that was, is, or will be written.

Color-Swapped Universe : A world where colors are inverted, creating an alien landscape.

Dimension of Dreams : A realm where dreams and nightmares manifest into reality.

Animal Kingdom : A parallel world where animals evolved as the dominant species instead of humans.

Echo Dimension : A reality where actions echo across time, affecting past and future simultaneously.

Silent World : A dimension where sound doesn’t exist, and inhabitants communicate through visual signals.

Bizarro World : A reality where everything is the opposite of our world, challenging our perceptions of normalcy.

Crystal Dimension : A world made entirely of crystals, refracting light in mesmerizing patterns.

Pocket Universe : A tiny parallel universe, small enough to fit in one’s pocket but infinitely expansive on the inside.

Parallel Post-Apocalypse : A dimension where a cataclysmic event has decimated civilization, offering a bleak view of what could happen in our own world.

Dimension of Thought : A realm that exists solely in the realm of ideas, where thoughts and concepts materialize.

RELATED: Read my apocalypse story ideas here !

Haunted Locales

Story setting ideas in haunted places with a touch of the supernatural. Use your imagination to create a world set in a haunted house, military base, or even a cursed forest!

Haunted Manor : An old manor house with a dark past, where spectral figures roam the halls.

Ghost Town : An abandoned mining town, where the whispers of the lost souls echo in the wind.

Shipwreck : A sunken ship that resurfaces every full moon, carrying with it the spirits of the drowned crew.

Cursed Forest : A dense forest reputed to be cursed, where strange apparitions appear after sundown.

Deserted Asylum : An old, run-down asylum, its empty corridors filled with the eerie sounds of its former inhabitants.

Haunted School : A schoolhouse abandoned after a tragic incident, now haunted by the spirits of students and teachers.

Creepy Carnival : An old abandoned amusement park that comes alive with ghostly laughter and spectral apparitions at night.

Phantom Train Station : A train station where a phantom train arrives at midnight, carrying the souls of the departed.

Ancient Burial Ground : A sacred burial ground, disturbed by construction and now haunted by restless spirits.

Haunted Lighthouse : An isolated lighthouse where the ghost of the old keeper still tends to his duties.

Abandoned Prison : A derelict prison haunted by the spirits of inmates who met untimely ends.

Spooky Toy Shop : A toy shop where the toys come alive at night, each carrying the spirit of its previous owner.

Haunted Inn : An inn located on an ancient ley line, attracting paranormal activity.

Eerie Museum : A museum displaying relics from a forgotten civilization, haunted by the spirits attached to the artifacts.

Ghostly Opera House : An opera house where the phantom of a former performer still takes the stage.

RELATED: For more inspiration, read my best horror story ideas here !

Post-Apocalyptic Sanctuaries

Seek refuge in the few safe havens that remain after the apocalypse, where communities fight to rebuild what was lost and protect the fragile hope of a new beginning.

The Ark : A colossal ship, designed to withstand the apocalypse, now roams the endless oceans, sheltering the last remnants of humanity.

Ice Fortress : A massive structure carved into a glacier in the Arctic, providing protection against the harsh weather and the genetically modified creatures outside.

The Hidden Greenhouse : A vast underground greenhouse, forgotten by time, now a lush oasis amidst the barren wasteland.

The Floating City : A city suspended on giant balloons, drifting above the ruined Earth, where survival depends on scarce helium reserves.

Subterranean Metro Network : An intricate web of subway tunnels that have been transformed into a thriving community beneath a radioactive cityscape.

The Oasis : A miraculously preserved natural park, surrounded by a defensive wall, teeming with life in the heart of a desertified world.

The Sky Farm : A network of hot-air balloons carrying fertile soil and crops, providing food for a ground population unable to grow their own.

The Mountain Citadel : A fortress high up in the mountains, its residents have adapted to the thin air better than the mutated creatures below.

The Ghost Town : An abandoned town, believed to be haunted, acts as a perfect camouflage against marauding bands of scavengers.

The Bunker Community : Deep beneath the ruins of a major city, a network of bunkers has been converted into a self-sustaining community.

The Monastery : A secluded monastery, thought to be impenetrable, houses precious knowledge and artifacts from the pre-apocalypse world.

The Dam Settlement : A hydroelectric dam repurposed into a fortress, harnessing the power of the river to provide electricity to the survivors.

The Lighthouse Island : An isolated island with a lighthouse, the beacon acts as a symbol of hope for lost travelers.

The Bio-Dome : A scientific experiment meant to simulate life on Mars, now serves as a refuge against the inhospitable conditions outside.

The Cathedral Forest : A cathedral overtaken by nature, its towering trees and dense undergrowth provide a natural sanctuary against the dangers of the post-apocalyptic world.

Mythical Mountains

Check out these story setting ideas for myths and legends on the tops of mountains – where every summit holds the promise of adventure and the whisper of ancient secrets.

Dragon’s Crest : A mountain range believed to be the resting place of ancient dragons, with peaks that resemble gigantic, slumbering beasts.

The Titan’s Throne : The tallest peak in the world, said to be where a mighty titan once sat to survey his domain.

Whispering Winds Peak : A mountain where the wind is said to carry the whispers of long-lost civilizations.

Mount Oracle : Home to a secluded monastery where monks are said to receive prophecies from the mountain spirits.

The Veiled Summit : A perpetually mist-shrouded peak, rumored to hide a portal to the spirit realm.

Starfall Crater : A mountain formed from an ancient meteorite impact, said to house celestial beings.

The Siren Cliffs : Dangerous cliffs that echo with enchanting songs, leading many adventurers to their doom.

The Labyrinth Caves : A mountain riddled with a complex network of caves, it’s said that a minotaur guards a mystical treasure within.

The Weeping Rock : A mountain where waterfalls flow like tears, believed to be a grieving earth deity.

Mount Solitude : A remote, silent peak where hermits seek enlightenment and solitude.

The Frozen Citadel : A fortress carved into a glacier atop a mountain, said to be the stronghold of a frost giant king.

The Pegasus Plateau : A high plateau rumored to be the breeding ground of winged horses.

The Ember Mountain : A volcanic mountain, home to a legendary fire bird that is reborn from its ashes.

The Silver Spires : A range of silver-tinted mountains, rumored to be the dwelling place of moon goddesses.

The Echoing Depths : A deep chasm in a mountain, where echoes transform into words of wisdom from ancient spirits.

Arctic Expeditions

Brave the harsh, icy wilderness of the Arctic, where the relentless cold and endless snow conceal wonders and dangers in equal measure.

The Icebound Ship : An old shipwreck frozen in the Arctic ice, rumored to hold a priceless treasure.

The Shimmering Glaciers : A vast field of ever-changing glaciers that sparkle under the midnight sun, hiding mysterious icy caves.

The Polar Ghost Town : An abandoned mining town, filled with eerie silence and chilling secrets.

The Aurora Observatory : A high-tech station for studying the Northern Lights, where the sky reveals strange anomalies.

The Whispering Snowfields : An endless expanse of snow that seems to whisper tales of ancient times when the wind blows.

The Frostbite Forest : A forest of frost-covered trees, home to strange creatures and haunted by chilling legends.

The Walrus Graveyard : A beach scattered with enormous walrus skeletons, believed to be a sacred place by local Inuit tribes.

The Crystal Caverns : A network of ice caverns illuminated by refracted sunlight, creating a mesmerizing, deadly maze.

The Frozen Mammoth : A perfectly preserved mammoth in a giant block of ice, rumored to be protected by ancient spirits.

The Seal Hunter’s Camp : A remote camp of indigenous seal hunters, full of folklore and traditional wisdom.

The Thawing Permafrost : A region of rapidly melting permafrost, revealing prehistoric fossils and releasing ancient bacteria.

The Iceberg Labyrinth : A dangerous route through towering icebergs, hiding pirate treasures and sea monsters in its cold waters.

The Polar Bear Kingdom : An island ruled by a gigantic polar bear, said to be the incarnation of an old deity.

The Sunken Submarine : A nuclear submarine trapped under the ice, its crew faced with survival and a potential nuclear disaster.

The Snow Castle : A grand castle made entirely of ice and snow, home to a frost queen with a frozen heart.

Urban Underbellies

Peel back the glossy exterior of big city life to reveal the gritty reality that thrives in the shadows, where every street corner tells a story of survival and defiance.

The Graffiti Tunnel : A hidden tunnel covered in vibrant graffiti, serving as a secret meeting place for young rebels.

The Underground Fight Club : A dimly lit basement where illegal fights take place, a hub for the city’s toughest characters.

The Night Market : A bustling market that only opens after dark, filled with exotic goods and shady deals.

The Abandoned Subway Station : A long-forgotten subway station, now home to a community of outcasts and their secrets.

The Rooftop Garden : A secretly cultivated garden on a skyscraper’s rooftop, an oasis amidst the concrete jungle.

The Neon Alley : An alley illuminated by neon signs, known for its late-night illicit activities.

The Squatters’ High-rise : An abandoned high-rise building, overtaken by squatters who’ve built a community within its walls.

The Pawn Shop : An old, cluttered pawn shop, where every item has a story and every deal has a price.

The Soup Kitchen : A humble soup kitchen that serves hot meals and hope to the city’s homeless population.

The Backstreet Garage : A hidden garage where stolen cars are stripped for parts, a hub of the city’s underworld.

The Riverfront Shantytown : A makeshift settlement along the river, an amalgamation of hopes and dreams of its inhabitants.

The Speakeasy : A prohibition-era style bar hidden behind an unassuming storefront, a haven for those seeking refuge from the law.

The Sewers : The city’s sprawling sewer system, home to mythical creatures and lost souls.

The Old Factory : An abandoned factory repurposed into a haven for artists and musicians, a beacon of hope in the gritty cityscape.

The Forgotten Cemetery : A centuries-old cemetery filled with untold stories of the city’s past.

Time-Warped Towns

Wander into towns caught in temporal anomalies, where time loops, flows backward, or stands still – and challenges the very fabric of reality.

Sundial Village : A small town where time moves according to the position of the sun, causing unpredictable day-night cycles.

Hourglass Hamlet : A small settlement trapped in a constant 24-hour time loop, with residents reliving the same day over and over.

Chronos City : An urban metropolis where different districts exist in different time periods.

Reverse Riverville : A town where time flows backward, forcing its inhabitants to adapt to life in reverse.

Temporal Tides Town : A coastal town where time ebbs and flows with the tides.

Clockwork County : A rural community where time stands still unless manually wound forward by a large town clock.

Flashback Falls : A village where residents involuntarily relive past moments of their lives.

Futureville : A town where every dawn brings a glimpse of the future instead of a new day.

Eternal Springtown : A town caught in a perpetual spring season, where flowers always bloom but fruits never ripen.

Pause Point : A city where time randomly freezes, causing everything to stand still momentarily.

Decade Drift : A town where each passing hour equates to a decade in the outside world.

Yesterday’s York : A city that repeats the previous day instead of moving to the next.

Seasonal Shiftsburg : A town where seasons change every day, from winter’s chill to summer’s heat.

Second Chance City : A metropolis where residents can choose to redo any day of their lives.

Twilight Town : A town caught in perpetual dusk, where it is always on the verge of night but never quite there.

Cyberpunk Slums

Find new ideas in the chaos of cyberpunk slums, where advanced technology and stark social divides show a world both dazzling and bleak.

Neon Nexus : An overcrowded district illuminated by neon lights, where holographic ads flicker above the heads of the poor and downtrodden.

Silicon Shanties : A slum built around a landfill of discarded tech, where residents repurpose e-waste into makeshift gadgets.

Gridlock Ghetto : A vertical slum built within the skeleton of an abandoned mega-structure, its residents living in stacked containers.

Binary Bazaar : A bustling black-market hub dealing in illicit software, stolen data, and hacked hardware.

Shadow Stacks : A grimy labyrinth of towering apartment blocks, where illegal cybernetic modifications are a matter of survival rather than choice.

Code Canyons : Narrow, winding streets filled with code-jockeys selling their hacking skills to the highest bidder.

Pixel Purgatory : A district dominated by virtual reality parlors, offering escapes from the grim reality of the slums.

Rustbelt Ruins : A once-thriving industrial area now left to decay, inhabited by out-of-work androids and their human counterparts.

Firewall Favela : A slum under constant surveillance by AI security systems, making every move a potential act of rebellion.

Circuit City : A dense network of alleyways electrified by rogue servers and bootleg power grids.

Data Dumps : A slum built on a vast landfill of obsolete data storage devices, where information scavengers dig for valuable old-world secrets.

Quantum Quarters : A poverty-stricken area where quantum computers hum in every hovel, mining cryptocurrencies in a desperate bid for wealth.

Ghost Grid : A slum abandoned by the city’s AI-controlled utilities, forcing residents to hack and jury-rig their own services.

Nano Nest : A district where nanotech proliferates, leading to strange mutations and unprecedented diseases.

Synth Slum : An area populated by discarded synthetic humans and robots, striving for purpose in a world that deems them obsolete.

Deep Space Outposts

Thrive on the edge of the known universe in outposts that dot the vast emptiness of space.

The Edge of Nothing : An outpost located at the very edge of the known universe, where space-time begins to warp and unravel.

The Pulsar Station : An outpost orbiting a pulsar, harnessing its energy for power, while dealing with the intense radiation.

The Black Hole Outpost : A station built near a black hole to study its mysteries, forever teetering on the edge of oblivion.

The Ice Moon Base : A research outpost on a frozen moon, where scientists drill into the ice in search of alien life.

The Asteroid Colony : A mining colony established on a rich asteroid, digging for precious metals and gems.

The Echo Station : An outpost that exists between dimensions, receiving echoes from alternate realities.

The Nebula Haven : A station nestled within a colorful nebula, providing a breathtaking view but also facing dangerous space weather.

The Lonely Beacon : An outpost serving as a beacon for lost spaceships, where signals from across the universe are intercepted.

The Alien Ruins : An outpost established around ancient alien ruins, seeking to decipher their cryptic messages.

The Galactic Lighthouse : An outpost projecting a massive light signal, guiding spaceships through treacherous cosmic seas.

The Quantum Relay : A communication outpost responsible for maintaining quantum entanglement communication across vast distances.

The Star Forge : An industrial outpost orbiting a star, harnessing its energy to forge advanced materials.

The Exoplanet Outpost : A remote outpost on an exoplanet, tasked with terraforming it for future human settlement.

The Time Dilation Station : An outpost near a massive gravitational field, where time moves slower than the rest of the universe.

The Cosmic Ark : An outpost designed to preserve Earth’s biodiversity, acting as a safety net against planetary catastrophes.

Interstellar Colonies

Build a new existence on remote planets, where starry outposts celebrate our love for discovery and the pursuit of adventure.

The Red Desert Colony : A human settlement on a Mars-like planet, battling harsh sandstorms and isolation.

The Floating Cities of Nebula-5 : Magnificent cities floating in the gaseous atmosphere of a giant planet.

The Deep Mine Colony : A mining community in the depths of an asteroid, extracting precious minerals.

The Hydroponic Haven : A colony based inside a gigantic spaceship, with lush hydroponic gardens providing food and oxygen.

The Ice Moon Outpost : A research station on a frozen moon, studying alien life forms trapped in the ice.

The Crater Commune : A network of interconnected habitats built into the craters of a barren moon.

The Terraformed Paradise : A once inhospitable planet now transformed into a verdant paradise through advanced terraforming.

The Starlight Oasis : A colony located on a planet orbiting a binary star system, where night never falls.

The Underground Bunkers of Planet X : A colony living in underground bunkers to avoid the deadly radiation on the planet’s surface.

The Nomadic Space Fleet : A convoy of ships housing a nomadic civilization, constantly on the move in search of resources.

The Alien Ruins Settlement : A colony built around mysterious ancient alien ruins, seeking to unravel their secrets.

The Orbital Station : A bustling space station in orbit around a distant planet, a hub of interstellar commerce and diplomacy.

The Volcanic Forge : A colony on a volcanic planet, harnessing the geothermal energy for survival.

The Cloud Castle : A colony suspended in the upper atmosphere of a gas giant, surviving on floating platforms.

The Galactic Lighthouse : A colony housed in a gigantic space station serving as a beacon for interstellar travelers.

Final Thoughts

OK, that’s our exploration of tons of different story setting ideas for you!

I hope you found some creative writing prompts to help you in your writing. I know how frustrating it is to have part of an idea for a good novel or story, but just need a little push to get your creative juices flowing!

I hope you come up with the perfect setting for your next story idea!

Common Questions (FAQs)

What is an example of a story setting.

An example of a story setting is a deserted island in the middle of the ocean, where a group of shipwreck survivors must learn to live off the land and navigate their relationships to survive.

What are some interesting settings?

Some interesting settings for your stories might include a futuristic city where technology rules, a quiet village hidden within an enchanted forest, or even a mysterious abandoned space station orbiting a distant planet.

What is a good setting?

A good setting is a place or environment that adds depth to your story. As noted in this article , it should reflect the mood, themes, and conflicts of your story idea. It can be anywhere from a bustling city or quiet countryside to an imaginary world. A good setting will influence the characters’ decisions, challenges, and growth.

What are some good story plot ideas?

1. A person wakes up in a world where everyone can read minds except them, uncovering hidden secrets and personal dramas. 2. An unlikely friendship forms between a robot with a malfunctioning emotion chip and a child who teaches it about humanity. 3. In a city where dreams can be recorded and played back, a detective uses dream footage to solve crimes but stumbles upon a conspiracy. 4. A world where music is magic, and a tone-deaf girl discovers she holds the key to a powerful, ancient melody. 5. A group of strangers receives mysterious letters inviting them to a deserted mansion, only to find out they must solve a century-old mystery to escape.

Filmmaker, Author, Actor and Story Consultant

Neil Chase is an award-winning, produced screenwriter, independent filmmaker, professional actor, and author of the horror-western novel Iron Dogs. His latest feature film is an apocalyptic thriller called Spin The Wheel.

Neil has been featured on Celtx, No Film School, Script Revolution, Raindance, The Write Practice, Lifewire, and MSN.com, and his work has won awards from Script Summit, ScreamFest, FilmQuest and Cinequest (among others).

Neil believes that all writers have the potential to create great work. His passion is helping writers find their voice and develop their skills so that they can create stories that are entertaining and meaningful. If you’re ready to take your writing to the next level, he's here to help!

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What Is Creative Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 20 Examples)

Creative writing begins with a blank page and the courage to fill it with the stories only you can tell.

I face this intimidating blank page daily–and I have for the better part of 20+ years.

In this guide, you’ll learn all the ins and outs of creative writing with tons of examples.

What Is Creative Writing (Long Description)?

Creative Writing is the art of using words to express ideas and emotions in imaginative ways. It encompasses various forms including novels, poetry, and plays, focusing on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes.

Bright, colorful creative writer's desk with notebook and typewriter -- What Is Creative Writing

Table of Contents

Let’s expand on that definition a bit.

Creative writing is an art form that transcends traditional literature boundaries.

It includes professional, journalistic, academic, and technical writing. This type of writing emphasizes narrative craft, character development, and literary tropes. It also explores poetry and poetics traditions.

In essence, creative writing lets you express ideas and emotions uniquely and imaginatively.

It’s about the freedom to invent worlds, characters, and stories. These creations evoke a spectrum of emotions in readers.

Creative writing covers fiction, poetry, and everything in between.

It allows writers to express inner thoughts and feelings. Often, it reflects human experiences through a fabricated lens.

Types of Creative Writing

There are many types of creative writing that we need to explain.

Some of the most common types:

Short stories
Screenplays
Flash fiction
Creative Nonfiction

Short Stories (The Brief Escape)

Short stories are like narrative treasures.

They are compact but impactful, telling a full story within a limited word count. These tales often focus on a single character or a crucial moment.

Short stories are known for their brevity.

They deliver emotion and insight in a concise yet powerful package. This format is ideal for exploring diverse genres, themes, and characters. It leaves a lasting impression on readers.

Example: Emma discovers an old photo of her smiling grandmother. It’s a rarity. Through flashbacks, Emma learns about her grandmother’s wartime love story. She comes to understand her grandmother’s resilience and the value of joy.

Novels (The Long Journey)

Novels are extensive explorations of character, plot, and setting.

They span thousands of words, giving writers the space to create entire worlds. Novels can weave complex stories across various themes and timelines.

The length of a novel allows for deep narrative and character development.

Readers get an immersive experience.

Example: Across the Divide tells of two siblings separated in childhood. They grow up in different cultures. Their reunion highlights the strength of family bonds, despite distance and differences.

Poetry (The Soul’s Language)

Poetry expresses ideas and emotions through rhythm, sound, and word beauty.

It distills emotions and thoughts into verses. Poetry often uses metaphors, similes, and figurative language to reach the reader’s heart and mind.

Poetry ranges from structured forms, like sonnets, to free verse.

The latter breaks away from traditional formats for more expressive thought.

Example: Whispers of Dawn is a poem collection capturing morning’s quiet moments. “First Light” personifies dawn as a painter. It brings colors of hope and renewal to the world.

Plays (The Dramatic Dialogue)

Plays are meant for performance. They bring characters and conflicts to life through dialogue and action.

This format uniquely explores human relationships and societal issues.

Playwrights face the challenge of conveying setting, emotion, and plot through dialogue and directions.

Example: Echoes of Tomorrow is set in a dystopian future. Memories can be bought and sold. It follows siblings on a quest to retrieve their stolen memories. They learn the cost of living in a world where the past has a price.

Screenplays (Cinema’s Blueprint)

Screenplays outline narratives for films and TV shows.

They require an understanding of visual storytelling, pacing, and dialogue. Screenplays must fit film production constraints.

Example: The Last Light is a screenplay for a sci-fi film. Humanity’s survivors on a dying Earth seek a new planet. The story focuses on spacecraft Argo’s crew as they face mission challenges and internal dynamics.

Memoirs (The Personal Journey)

Memoirs provide insight into an author’s life, focusing on personal experiences and emotional journeys.

They differ from autobiographies by concentrating on specific themes or events.

Memoirs invite readers into the author’s world.

They share lessons learned and hardships overcome.

Example: Under the Mango Tree is a memoir by Maria Gomez. It shares her childhood memories in rural Colombia. The mango tree in their yard symbolizes home, growth, and nostalgia. Maria reflects on her journey to a new life in America.

Flash Fiction (The Quick Twist)

Flash fiction tells stories in under 1,000 words.

It’s about crafting compelling narratives concisely. Each word in flash fiction must count, often leading to a twist.

This format captures life’s vivid moments, delivering quick, impactful insights.

Example: The Last Message features an astronaut’s final Earth message as her spacecraft drifts away. In 500 words, it explores isolation, hope, and the desire to connect against all odds.

Creative Nonfiction (The Factual Tale)

Creative nonfiction combines factual accuracy with creative storytelling.

This genre covers real events, people, and places with a twist. It uses descriptive language and narrative arcs to make true stories engaging.

Creative nonfiction includes biographies, essays, and travelogues.

Example: Echoes of Everest follows the author’s Mount Everest climb. It mixes factual details with personal reflections and the history of past climbers. The narrative captures the climb’s beauty and challenges, offering an immersive experience.

Fantasy (The World Beyond)

Fantasy transports readers to magical and mythical worlds.

It explores themes like good vs. evil and heroism in unreal settings. Fantasy requires careful world-building to create believable yet fantastic realms.

Example: The Crystal of Azmar tells of a young girl destined to save her world from darkness. She learns she’s the last sorceress in a forgotten lineage. Her journey involves mastering powers, forming alliances, and uncovering ancient kingdom myths.

Science Fiction (The Future Imagined)

Science fiction delves into futuristic and scientific themes.

It questions the impact of advancements on society and individuals.

Science fiction ranges from speculative to hard sci-fi, focusing on plausible futures.

Example: When the Stars Whisper is set in a future where humanity communicates with distant galaxies. It centers on a scientist who finds an alien message. This discovery prompts a deep look at humanity’s universe role and interstellar communication.

Watch this great video that explores the question, “What is creative writing?” and “How to get started?”:

What Are the 5 Cs of Creative Writing?

The 5 Cs of creative writing are fundamental pillars.

They guide writers to produce compelling and impactful work. These principles—Clarity, Coherence, Conciseness, Creativity, and Consistency—help craft stories that engage and entertain.

They also resonate deeply with readers. Let’s explore each of these critical components.

Clarity makes your writing understandable and accessible.

It involves choosing the right words and constructing clear sentences. Your narrative should be easy to follow.

In creative writing, clarity means conveying complex ideas in a digestible and enjoyable way.

Coherence ensures your writing flows logically.

It’s crucial for maintaining the reader’s interest. Characters should develop believably, and plots should progress logically. This makes the narrative feel cohesive.

Conciseness

Conciseness is about expressing ideas succinctly.

It’s being economical with words and avoiding redundancy. This principle helps maintain pace and tension, engaging readers throughout the story.

Creativity is the heart of creative writing.

It allows writers to invent new worlds and create memorable characters. Creativity involves originality and imagination. It’s seeing the world in unique ways and sharing that vision.

Consistency

Consistency maintains a uniform tone, style, and voice.

It means being faithful to the world you’ve created. Characters should act true to their development. This builds trust with readers, making your story immersive and believable.

Is Creative Writing Easy?

Creative writing is both rewarding and challenging.

Crafting stories from your imagination involves more than just words on a page. It requires discipline and a deep understanding of language and narrative structure.

Exploring complex characters and themes is also key.

Refining and revising your work is crucial for developing your voice.

The ease of creative writing varies. Some find the freedom of expression liberating.

Others struggle with writer’s block or plot development challenges. However, practice and feedback make creative writing more fulfilling.

What Does a Creative Writer Do?

A creative writer weaves narratives that entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

Writers explore both the world they create and the emotions they wish to evoke. Their tasks are diverse, involving more than just writing.

Creative writers develop ideas, research, and plan their stories.

They create characters and outline plots with attention to detail. Drafting and revising their work is a significant part of their process. They strive for the 5 Cs of compelling writing.

Writers engage with the literary community, seeking feedback and participating in workshops.

They may navigate the publishing world with agents and editors.

Creative writers are storytellers, craftsmen, and artists. They bring narratives to life, enriching our lives and expanding our imaginations.

How to Get Started With Creative Writing?

Embarking on a creative writing journey can feel like standing at the edge of a vast and mysterious forest.

The path is not always clear, but the adventure is calling.

Here’s how to take your first steps into the world of creative writing:

Find a time of day when your mind is most alert and creative.
Create a comfortable writing space free from distractions.
Use prompts to spark your imagination. They can be as simple as a word, a phrase, or an image.
Try writing for 15-20 minutes on a prompt without editing yourself. Let the ideas flow freely.
Reading is fuel for your writing. Explore various genres and styles.
Pay attention to how your favorite authors construct their sentences, develop characters, and build their worlds.
Don’t pressure yourself to write a novel right away. Begin with short stories or poems.
Small projects can help you hone your skills and boost your confidence.
Look for writing groups in your area or online. These communities offer support, feedback, and motivation.
Participating in workshops or classes can also provide valuable insights into your writing.
Understand that your first draft is just the beginning. Revising your work is where the real magic happens.
Be open to feedback and willing to rework your pieces.
Carry a notebook or digital recorder to jot down ideas, observations, and snippets of conversations.
These notes can be gold mines for future writing projects.

Final Thoughts: What Is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is an invitation to explore the unknown, to give voice to the silenced, and to celebrate the human spirit in all its forms.

Check out these creative writing tools (that I highly recommend):

Definition of Setting

Setting is a literary device that allows the writer of a narrative to establish the time, location, and environment in which it takes place. This is an important element in a story , as the setting indicates to the reader when and where the action takes place. As a result, the setting of a narrative or story helps the reader picture clear and relevant details. In addition, setting enhances the development of a story’s plot and characters by providing a distinct background.

In literature, setting can be specific or general in terms of geographical location and historical time period. A specific, or integral, setting refers to an exact location and time period established by the writer. This information can be directly imparted to the reader or implied in the narrative. A backdrop setting is more general, vague, or nondescript, which makes the story more universal for readers. The setting of a literary work may also be a fictional location or world, a future time and place, or it may be unknown.

For example, the fairy tale “Cinderella” traditionally features a backdrop setting, such as long ago in a faraway kingdom. However, a modern interpretation of “Cinderella” might feature an integral setting such as New York City to enhance aspects of the story’s plot, characters, and theme .

Examples of the Importance of Setting as a Literary Device

Setting is an important literary device, as its purpose is to create a “world” in which a story takes place. Setting can also influence the plot of a story and the actions of the characters. Here are some examples of the importance of setting as a literary device:

helps establish the mood and/or tone of a story
provides context for other story elements such as plot, characters, and theme
reinforces the narrative by providing structure and function in the story
enhances individual scenes within a story’s plot

Occasionally, the “presence” of a story’s setting, in terms of a time period, geographic location, or environment, can feel to the reader like an additional character . This can make for clever use of this literary device in portraying a particular time and/or place with a personality all on its own in a story.

Common Examples of Cities Frequently Used as Setting

Certain cities are frequently used as settings in literary works. By setting a narrative or story in a well-known city, the writer can be relatively certain that the reader will have a general sense and understanding of the locale, including geographical characteristics, landmarks, culture, etc. This can alleviate some burdens for the writer in terms of description and allow for the focus to remain on the story’s plot and characters.

Here are some common examples of cities that are frequently used as settings in literature:

New York City
Los Angeles
New Orleans

Common Examples of Historical Time Periods Frequently Used as Setting

Certain historical time periods are frequently used as settings in literary works as well. By setting a narrative or story in a well-known era, the writer can also be relatively certain that the reader will have a general sense and understanding of the history, events, historical figures, etc. This can additionally alleviate some burdens for the writer in terms of description and allow for the focus to remain on the story’s plot and characters.

Here are some common examples of historical time periods (not in chronological order) that are frequently used as settings in literature:

Ancient Greece
Industrial Revolution
Middle Ages
Renaissance
Age of Exploration
Classical Era
Turn of the century
Roaring ’20s
World War I
Westward Expansion
World War II
Victorian Age
Contemporary

Common Examples of Environments Frequently Used as Setting

Certain types of environments are frequently used as settings in literary works in addition to specific geographical locations. By setting a narrative or story in a well-known environment, the writer can be relatively certain that the reader will have a general sense and understanding of that environment’s characteristics, such as terrain, climate, culture, etc. This can alleviate some burdens for the writer as well in terms of description and allow for the focus to remain on the story’s plot and characters.

Here are some common examples of environments that are frequently used as settings in literature:

outer space
rural/farmland
countryside
Southern plantation
ship at sea

How to Understand and Describe Setting in Writing

The idea of understanding the setting depends on the storyline, characters, and events. These three are important elements that define a setting. It is because every setting has some specific qualities where certain people live and interact. Also, setting impacts them and their actions which define their lives. Some other less significant elements of setting are landscape, type of land, climate, weather, social conventions, and cultural surroundings. When writers and readers understand all these elements, it becomes easy for them to write about setting and describe it in words.

Backdrop and Integral Setting

Although the backdrop and integral setting sound the same, they are different. An integral setting is a specific place associated with some specific characters, having a specific role to play in the events of the story, a backdrop setting is general. It is could be any town given in a story without any specific quality and feature. An integral setting has all the necessary elements that define a setting, a backdrop setting has only common elements given through generic names.

Five Elements of Setting or Aspects of Setting

A setting within a piece of literature must have five elements or aspects. Although there are several other aspects that are necessary, the following five are fundamental elements of a setting. The first one is locale which means the country or the region. The second is the time which also includes the timing which means day, night , or month of the year. The third is climate, the fourth is geographical features and the fifth is population, society, and culture.

Fictional and Non-Fictional Settings

A fictional setting is a type of setting that exists only in imagination and there is no connection of this setting with reality. The non-fictional setting is a type of setting that exists in reality. For example, Eldorado does not exist nor do some cities mentioned in various novels. However, Paris and London do exist and they are real cities mentioned in several novels and short stories as the settings of the storylines. This difference, however, evaporates when some real place is mentioned in connection with fictional characters.

Setting and Exposition

As the term shows, exposition means detailed descriptions of the characters, settings, and the storyline in the beginning of the novels or short stories, setting is part of the exposition. The exposition just explains settings, giving its details. It also shows how events are going to unfold. However, the setting only shows characters having certain relationships with the land, geographical location, social fabric, and flora and fauna.

Difference between Temporal and Spatial Setting

Spatial refers to space that means the place, its geography, its location, its social fabric, its flora, and fauna, etc. Temporal, on the other hand, refers to a time that means the specific time of the year or the month, or the day when the event in question takes place. Whereas spatial setting shows the location and the place, the temporal setting shows when the events have taken place in that specific place. Both settings are used interactively and in conjunction with each other. No one can be used interchangeably or exclusively.

Examples of Setting in Literature

In literature, setting provides the reader an image and idea of time and place that frames the action of a story and can reveal aspects of its characters. By using the setting as a literary device, the writer can help the reader visualize the action of the work, which adds credibility and authenticity to the story. In addition, a setting can create and sustain the illusion of imaginary places and worlds in fiction as well as time periods in the future or prehistoric past. Without an indication of the setting, a story would lack significant context for the reader, potentially reducing their enjoyment and/or understanding of the work.

Here are some examples of setting in well-known works of literature:

Example 1: Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

THE YEAR WAS 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

In Vonnegut’s short story , the narrator reveals the setting at the outset. This establishes a significant amount of information for the reader before the action of the story even begins. The narrator stipulates the year, which indicates to the reader that the time period of the story is in the future but not terribly distant. In addition, the story is clearly set in the United States as indicated by the mention of the constitutional amendments.

As well as directly establishing the time and location of the story, Vonnegut also utilizes setting as a literary device to impart to the reader a sense of the story’s environment. In this case, there is a strong refrain of mandated equality in terms of the physical and intellectual characteristics of this future population that is further enforced by a national agency. As a result, the reader is able to instantly picture the background in which the events of the story and the movement of the characters will take place.

Example 2: As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

That’s the one trouble with this country: everything, weather, all, hangs on too long. Like our rivers, our land: opaque, slow, violent; shaping and creating the life of man in its implacable and brooding image.

Faulkner created his own fictional county in Mississippi, Yoknapatawpha County, in which to set nearly all of his novels and numerous short stories. Yoknapatawpha was inspired by and based on Lafayette County in Oxford, Mississippi, with which Faulkner was familiar. Faulkner himself considered Yoknapatawpha County as apocryphal in the sense that many of his readers believe it to be a real place. In fact, his novel Absalom, Absalom! includes a map of the fictional country that was drawn by Faulkner.

By creating this realistic yet fictional Mississippi county, Faulkner was able to incorporate several aspects of this setting across many of his works. In this passage from his novel As I Lay Dying , for example, the atmosphere of Yoknapatawpha is as much a presence as the characters, and Faulkner underscores the reciprocal influence and shaping of the novel’s setting and characters. In addition, by using Yoknapatawpha to set so many of his literary works, Faulkner’s readers find familiarity with and understanding of the physical location and environment in which the narrative takes place. This allows readers to focus on the action and characters of the story.

Example 3: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

And now there came both mist and snow , And it grew wondrous cold: And ice, mast-high, came floating by, As green as emerald. And through the drifts the snowy clifts Did send a dismal sheen: Nor shapes of men nor beasts we ken— The ice was all between. The ice was here, the ice was there, The ice was all around: It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound!

In Coleridge’s poem , he juxtaposes two very different and distinct settings. At the outset of the poem, the setting is a wedding in which the guests are joyful, merrily dancing, eating, and drinking. This celebratory environment is in stark contrast to the setting of the mariner’s story within the poem, which he relays to a wedding guest outside the venue.

This passage of the poem indicates the setting of the Mariner’s tale, as the boat travels to the icy Antarctic. The oppressive presence and noise of the ice create a barren environment that is cold to the existence of living things. This emphasis on the environmental setting in Coleridge’s poem not only draws the reader away from the warmth and life-affirming nature of the wedding, but it also reflects for the reader the danger and isolation faced by sailors at sea. In fact, the reader becomes part of the setting described by the mariner just as the wedding guest becomes part of the mariner’s story through the poet’s description of the setting and events. This allows for a stronger connection between the poem and the reader.

Synonyms of Setting

The distant synonyms for setting are as follows: position, situation, background, backdrop, milieu, environs, habitat, place, location, spot, locale, context, frame, area, neighborhood, locus, district, and region.

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What is a Setting? || Definition & Examples

"what is a setting": a literary guide for english students and teachers.

View the full series: The Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms

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What is a Setting? Transcript (English and Spanish Subtitles Available in Video . Click HERE for Spanish transcript )

By Raymond Malewitz , Oregon State University Associate Professor of American Literature

8 February 2021

When we read a story or watch a movie, we usually focus our attention on the characters and the plot. But we should also pay attention to a third important element of storytelling: the setting. A setting is the time and place in which a story is told.

All stories have settings—even this one. The setting of this video is a weird blank void, and you may not think that it influences the way that you understand this video’s content. But you can probably agree that you’d interpret the lesson differently if the setting were, say, this:

setting_white_house.jpg

As this difference suggests, setting is much more than a mere backdrop for human action. Just as we are shaped by the city, region, and country that surrounds us, characters in fiction are shaped by their own geographical circumstances. And just as we are molded by the strange 21 st century time in which we live, characters in fiction are molded by their own strange historical moments, which influence what they think, how they speak, and how they act. Paying attention to setting—what it is and how it is described--can therefore bring us closer to the central themes , ideas, and conflicts of the stories we love.

Let me give you one example. Sarah Orne Jewett’s 1886 story “The White Heron” is set in rural Maine, and Jewett’s description of the setting helps us to clarify the its central conflict. About halfway through the story, the protagonist , Sylvia, climbs a tall tree to look for a heron’s nest. Here’s how Jewett describes that moment:

“Half a mile from home, at the farther edge of the woods, where the land was highest, a great pine-tree stood, the last of its generation. Whether it was left for a boundary mark, or for what reason, no one could say; the woodchoppers who had felled its mates were dead and gone long ago, and a whole forest of sturdy trees, pines and oaks and maples, had grown again. But the stately head of this old pine towered above them all and made a landmark for sea and shore miles and miles away. Sylvia knew it well.”

setting_sarah_orne_jewett.jpg

Now, this conveniently placed tree obviously serves to advance the story’s plot. Earlier in the story, Sylvia met a hunter from a big city who has traveled to this region to shoot a heron for his taxidermy collection, and he’s offered the girl a large sum of money to help him to find one. After she climbs the tree, Sylvia spots the heron’s hidden nest, which propels the plot forward to its climactic question : will she reveal the bird’s location to the hunter or not?

But the description of the tree also EXPANDS this individual story of a young girl and a hunter into the story of a more general theme of a tension between rural and urban areas in the United States. By calling the old-growth pine-tree “the last of its generation,” Jewett depicts rural Maine as a site of resource extraction—in this case, timber extraction. The other old-growth trees in the area had been removed long ago—presumably to support of the development of eastern cities like the one the hunter calls his home. And this scarcity extends to the dwindling white heron populations in the area. The heron’s feathers had, in the late nineteenth century, been used in hats for fashionable big-city ladies, and the bird had been hunted to near extinction as a result.

setting_womans_hat.jpg

Thus what seems like a simple throwaway description of an old-growth tree in fact plays a central role in the understanding the significance of the decision that Sylvia must make later in the story, linking the individual story of a girl and a hunter with the larger history of that region of the United States.

Settings not only help to clarify a given story’s themes . They can also help us to understand a character’s worldview through how they think about their surroundings. As Sylvia’s thoughts on the tree suggest, she views her rural setting as a place of wondrous secrets, grandeur, and dignity. This perspective stands in stark contrast to the hunter’s thoughts on the same setting, which Jewett reveals through a technique called “ free indirect discourse ” in an earlier passage. When the hunter sits down to dinner at Sylvia’s grandmother’s house, he thinks:

“It was a surprise to find so clean and comfortable a little dwelling in this New England wilderness. The young man had known the horrors of its most primitive housekeeping, and the dreary squalor of that level of society which does not rebel at the companionship of hens. This was the best thrift of an old-fashioned farmstead, though on such a small scale that it seemed like a hermitage. He listened eagerly to the old woman's quaint talk, he watched Sylvia's pale face and shining gray eyes with ever growing enthusiasm, and insisted that this was the best supper he had eaten for a month...”

setting_the_white_heron_ii.jpg

While the hunter seems polite, his thoughts reveal a fairly condescending attitude towards what he calls the “primitive” and “dreary squalor” of the New England setting. Because we associate this region with our protagonist, Sylvia, when the hunter disparages the region, we are encouraged to view his quest for the bird in a more negative light, aligning the bird’s life with Sylvia’s life in her setting.

As “The White Heron” suggests, students should do more than simply note place and time when they use the term “setting” in their essays. Instead, they should consider the many ways in which place and time shape our understanding of the story’s characters, plot, and themes.

Want to cite this?

MLA Citation: Malewitz, Raymond. "What is a Setting?" Oregon State Guide to English Literary Terms, 8 Feb. 2021, Oregon State University, https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-setting . Accessed [insert date].

Interested in more video lessons? View the full series:

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Education and Communications
Writing Techniques

How to Describe the Setting in a Story

Last Updated: February 11, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Lucy V. Hay and by wikiHow staff writer, Hunter Rising . Lucy V. Hay is a Professional Writer based in London, England. With over 20 years of industry experience, Lucy is an author, script editor, and award-winning blogger who helps other writers through writing workshops, courses, and her blog Bang2Write. Lucy is the producer of two British thrillers, and Bang2Write has appeared in the Top 100 round-ups for Writer’s Digest & The Write Life and is a UK Blog Awards Finalist and Feedspot’s #1 Screenwriting blog in the UK. She received a B.A. in Scriptwriting for Film & Television from Bournemouth University. There are 9 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,116,293 times.

The setting of a story is the environment your characters are in. The location, time, and weather all play major points in a story, and a well-described setting can make it more interesting for your readers to completely immerse themselves in the fictional world you’ve created. When you describe your setting, use detailed language and have your characters interact with it to engage your readers. When you have a detailed setting, your story will come to life!

Creating a Detailed Setting

Step 1 Incorporate the 5 senses to your description.

For example, if your setting is the beach, you could describe the feeling of sand between your character’s toes, the taste the salt in the air, the sound of the waves, the briny smell of the water, and the shape of the sand dunes.
If you want to be a professional writer, you should outline first.
It helps to write novels fast. [2] X Research source
It cuts down the problem areas in the plot and makes work easier. [3] X Research source

Step 2 Visit a location similar to your setting if you can to experience it for yourself.

If you can’t visit the location yourself, research online for firsthand accounts of people in the area. Pull details from what they’ve experienced, but be sure not to plagiarize them .

Step 3 Look at photographs of a similar setting for inspiration on specific details.

If you’re writing about a real-life location, use Google Street View to look at the area to pull even more specific details.
Look on websites like Artstation and Pinterest if you’re writing about a made-up universe to get visual inspiration for what your setting could look like.
Mix real-life details with your imagination to make the setting specific to your story.

Step 4 Include references to give clues to the time your story takes place.

For example, if you’re writing a story that takes place soon after World War II, you may say, “The planes tore through the city, leaving piles of burnt rubble where our houses used to be,” to reference how a battle affected the town’s landscape.

Incorporating Details into Your Story

Step 1 Choose 3-4 main details to focus on to create a feeling for the space.

For example, if you’re describing an abandoned house, you might focus on the wallpaper peeling off of the walls, broken stairs leading to the second floor, and how the windows are covered with rotting boards.

Step 2 Spread the details throughout your writing to avoid long paragraphs.

For example, if you’re writing about an abandoned house like before, you may write, “I tried to peek through the windows, but the rotting boards blocked my view. I pushed open the door, and it swung open with the loud creak of rusty hinges. As I walked inside, my fingers ran over wallpaper peeling away from the drywall.” This way, details are conveyed throughout the paragraph without being overwhelming.

Step 3 Use metaphors and similes to create figurative descriptions of your setting.

For example, you may write something like, “The wires covered the basement floor, like vines waiting to ensnare me in their trap,” to convey how dense the wires are in a basement.

An Example of Figurative Description

Small flames stirred at the trunk of a tree and crawled away through leaves and brushwood, dividing and increasing. One patch touched a tree trunk and scrambled up like a bright squirrel. The smoke increased, sifted, rolled outwards. The squirrel leapt on the wings of the wind and clung to another standing tree, eating downwards.

William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Connecting Setting to Characters

Step 1 Avoid over-describing settings that don’t matter to the characters.

For example, if your character is walking down a street and having a conversation, it’s not important to include detailed descriptions. However, if your story involves a car accident, you might add descriptions like a streetlight that’s flickering or a stop sign that was stolen.
Try to have most, if not all, of the settings in your story integral settings for your character.

Step 2 Describe how your character interacts with the setting to keep your story moving.

For example, instead of writing, “A log was in front of her. She tripped over it,” you may write something like, “As she rushed through the dark forest path, her foot caught on a log and she fell into the tall grass.”

Step 3 Write about how a change in setting affects your characters.

For example, if your character is sad you may say, “As she wiped the tears off her cheek, the sun disappeared and a slow patter of rain started to thrum on the pavement. A gust of cold wind blew right through her.”

Step 4 Use setting to help express your character’s feelings or the story’s theme.

For example, if your story is about someone learning to love another person, you could have the setting change from winter to summer to convey the message that your characters are warming up to one another.

An Example of Setting Conveying Emotion

The deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun. But by the pool among the mottled sycamores, a pleasant shade had fallen.

In this excerpt from the end of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men , the riverbank is a place of comfort for Lennie.

Sample Setting Descriptions

Community Q&A

Keep a description journal to write descriptions of the places you visit or TV shows you watch to practice writing. [12] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
There aren’t any hard and fast to writing. Make your story unique and write it the way you want. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Be careful not to over-describe every detail or else your story may be too dense and bore your readers. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 0

↑ https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/use-all-five-senses-unlock-fictional-world/
↑ https://mythicscribes.com/writing-process/benefits-of-outlining/
↑ https://www.teachwriting.org/blog/2017/12/19/descriptive-writing-lesson-a-winter-setting
↑ https://www.rcboe.org/cms/lib010/GA01903614/Centricity/Domain/4395/Elements%20of%20a%20Story.pdf
↑ https://blog.reedsy.com/setting-of-a-story/
↑ https://writingcooperative.com/writing-tips-using-figurative-language-to-describe-setting-849e8f645ceb
↑ https://literarydevices.net/setting/
↑ https://quillbot.com/courses/introduction-to-creative-writing/chapter/lesson-3-elements-of-a-fiction/
↑ https://www.bryndonovan.com/2018/07/12/how-to-get-better-at-descriptive-writing-start-a-description-journal/

About This Article

To describe the setting in a story, use all 5 senses to help your readers imagine what you're describing. For example, if your story takes place at a beach, you could describe how the sand feels soft and the air tastes salty. However, try to stick with a few main details so you're not overwhelming your readers, and space your descriptions out throughout your story instead of cramming them into 1 long paragraph. If you need some inspiration, try visiting a location that's similar to your setting or looking up pictures online. For tips on how to use metaphors and similes to describe a setting, scroll down! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Story setting ideas list of writing prompts.

I keep a list of settings. In fact, I keep a list of many things to help jar my creativity while brainstorming—core fears, phobias, careers for characters, character types—just about anything I think might help my brain make a creative cross-connection and get a new idea. I look at brainstorming as a musician practices playing scales—exercising my creativity just makes it stronger.

Of all the lists I keep, story setting ideas is one I use often. When I am freethinking, I close my eyes and point at random. Sometimes when I’m stuck in my manuscript, I look over this list and see if I can’t jar an idea loose. Sometimes I match the settings up. I also use other lists and randomly choose from one list, then the other. Anything to get my creative juices going again.

Here is my list of places or settings for you to begin your own list and use as creative writing prompts.

Story Setting Ideas List

Write about what happens at a(n):

__________ Academy Abbey Airport

Alley(s) Alligator Farm Art Gallery

Art Studio Artist Colony Auto Junkyard

Ancient Pyramid Animal Sanctuary Animal Shelter

Animal Research Facility Art Museum Aquarium

Barber Shop Baseball Stadium Basement

Beach Beauty Salon Blood Bank

Blood Drive Bookstore Botanical Garden

Bridge Buddhist Temple

Cabin Castle Casino

Cathedral Cave (Bat, Collapsed, Crystal)

Cemetery Center for Disease Control Laboratory

Cheap Hotel Chinatown (any city) Church

Circus City Dump City Rooftop(s)

City Street Coal Mine Coffee House

College Dorm Room Concert Hall Corporate Board Room

Day Spa Distillery

Fairground Fishing Boat Floating Fish Factory

Football Stadium Fort

Garden Graveyard Gymnasium

Highway Rest Stop Hospital Hospital Board Room

Insectarium Jazz Club

Landfill Lighthouse Logging Camp (Town)

Mansion Mannequin Factory Medical Laboratory

Mississippi River Barge Mosque

New Orleans during Mardi Gras

Nuclear Reactor Nursing Home

Observatory Opera House

Palace Park Pet Grooming Salon

Precious Metal Mine (Gold, Silver, Copper) Priory

Prison Police Station Pottery Studio

Previously Undiscovered Island

Previously Undiscovered Planet

Principal’s Office

Racetrack Rainforest Roadside Motel

Roadkill Pickup Truck

Salt Mine Sanitarium Schoolroom

School Lab Secret Hideaway Sewer

Shack Shoeshine Stand Shopping Mall

Small Town Spider Farm Steel Mill

Steam Ship (or Boat) Synagogue

Temple Theater Tower

Trailer Park Train Graveyard Train Station

Wax Museum Wildlife Ranch Windmill

Winery Woods Worm Ranch

Story Setting Ideas List, Somewhere Famous

Alcatraz Amazon Rain Forest

Angkor Wat, Cambodia Buckingham Palace

Death Valley Disneyland

Easter Island Forbidden City

Galapagos Islands Golden Gate Bridge

Grand Canyon Great Barrier Reef

Great Wall Hollywood

Jerusalem Kashmir Valley

Machu Picchu Mount Everest

Nile Palace of Versailles

Pike’s Peak Pompeii

Potala Palace, Tibet Pyramids of Giza and Great Sphinx

Sahara Desert Serengeti

Sistine Chapel Statue of Liberty

Stonehenge Taj Mahal

Tombstone Uffizi Gallery

Valley of the Kings Venice (Canals)

The White House Zen Garden of Kyoto

Story Setting Ideas, Combine Setting with Another Idea

Insert a place from above into one of the following creative writing prompts and see what happens. As Stephen King says: “…good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make something new under the sun…”

Pet __________ (okay, Pet Cemetery has been done and so has the idea of combining a pet and racetrack ( The Art of Racing in the Rain) but what about other stories including pets? What about pet & theater? Pet & palace? Pet & casino? Pet & circus? Pet & Stonehenge?)

Old Folks __________ (yes, “home” is the first thought, but keep going.) What about old folks & circus? Old folks & college dorm room? Old folks & garden—Yikes! I just had a thought about planting old folk parts and getting…what? Veggies that if you eat them, you become possessed? Or is this garden a connection to the otherworld? Will the garden produce wisdom? Prophets? Or a zombie plague?

See how this works? So get your creative juices flowing and don’t look back.

Abandoned __________ (logging camp, church, fish boat, trailer park…you get the idea)

Haunted __________

A murder at __________

A secret at __________

A magical __________

An evil __________

A previously undiscovered __________

__________ in the woods

Old __________ turned into apartments

A __________ shrine

A __________ museum

A __________ graveyard

Story Setting Ideas, Combine Two Settings

Write about a blood drive at a nuclear reactor. Or a roadkill pickup truck at a casino. What about an animal protection sanctuary on city rooftops? A mannequin factory near Stonehenge or a secret hideaway wax museum?

Lots of ideas come to mind—not all good, but that’s okay! The point is to jog your brain (or muse) into generating new connections. As your subconscious tries to make sense of connections, ideas will come. Try it. May many excellent, fresh, exciting ideas come flooding your way!

16 Comments

August 24, 2012 at 11:30 am

August 24, 2012 at 1:27 pm

You are so welcome, Kim 🙂

September 5, 2012 at 4:55 pm

Your settings list is great. It just may become my settings list. 😉 For some reason as I scrolled through, “City Dump” piqued my interest the most. Haha.

September 6, 2012 at 6:05 am

I’m glad you find the list helpful, Lauren. You gotta accept inspiration no matter where it takes you, right? 🙂 The settings I seem to choose (or more to the point–that choose me) always end up gritty and less on the “romantic” side of life. Sigh.

April 11, 2013 at 4:15 am

This is great! really useful!! I often use places that I have been as the starting point. In my latest story I used the tomb raider temple that I visted in Cambodia as the base for the setting in one of the scenes. I started with a picture in my minds eye and my imagination did the rest!! Twitter – @anagranimals

April 14, 2013 at 1:07 pm

Wow, Leith, that sounds like quite a trip! Once I get a “mind’s eye” scene, I do the same, I’m off to the keyboard (or pen–depending on my mood 🙂

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March 7, 2016 at 9:41 pm

hello. I am just beginning to write and I found this website very helpful for my setting. When I finish the book ill put in a note thanking your website.

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Can’t wait to try this with my homeschool class tomorrow! I have 7th-12th grades.

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Vivid story setting description: Examples and insights

Vivid story setting descriptions helps us anchor a story’s action in place. Here are story setting description examples that reveal the varied functions of setting description

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Story setting description examples | Now Novel

Vivid story setting descriptions helps us anchor a story’s action in place. Listed below are story setting description examples that reveal the varied functions of setting description.

1. Use setting description to highlight characters’ turning points

What characters do in a place tells us a lot about their personality. A change of setting, too, can reveal an important moment of change in a character’s life:

Example of a watershed moment setting description

In Zadie Smith’s White Teeth (2000), Archie Jones’s first encounter with his future wife is in a post-war café. The details of the setting reveal the life-affirming pleasure romantic interest brings after World War II:

The first spring of 1946, he had stumbled out of the darkness of war and into a Florentine coffee house, where he was served by a waitress truly like the sun: Ophelia Diagilo, dressed all in yellow, spreading warmth and the promise of sex as she passed him a frothy cappuccino. Zadie Smith, White Teeth (2000), p. 8

The simple café description is brief but effective. All the details of setting suggest renewal and rebirth after the war’s ‘darkness’. It’s the ‘first spring’, and his future wife is dressed in summery yellow. The ‘frothiness’ of the cappuccino even has a fecund quality (in ‘promising’ sex).

Here, this vivid description conveys Archie’s optimism in a watershed moment – leaving behind the horrors of war for new post-war possibilities. Use setting description similarly to highlight characters’ emotional states and key transitions.

Setting description example: Buzz Aldrin on Neil Armstrong calling the moon 'beautiful'

2. Reveal characters through their homes and haunts

The places where characters spend much of their time reveal much, too. A home or a favourite restaurant , for example, may reveal characters’ connections, passions, and more:

Setting description example in which home reveals character

In Kent Haruf’s novella Our Souls at Night (2015) he explores the intimacy that grows between an elderly man and woman who start having sleepovers for company. Here, Haruf describes the first time the man, Louis, is left alone in Addie’s home (the woman):

While she was out of the room he looked at the pictures on her dresser and the ones hanging on the walls. Family pictures with Carl on their wedding day, on the church steps somewhere. The two of them in the mountains beside a creek. A little black and white dog. He knew Carl a little bit, a decent man, pretty calm, he sold crop insurance and other kinds of insurance to people all over Holt County twenty years ago, had been elected mayor of the town for two terms. Kent Haruf, Our Souls at Night (2015), p. 11

Seeing Addie’s photographs via Louis’ eyes, we get a sense of her and her late husband’s relationship, and Carl’s character, too. Description of Addie’s home supplies background, yet without it being an info dump – it is relevant to the action (Louis’ being left alone and looking around).

Because Louis and Addie have already at this point discussed having sleepovers, Louis’ focus is on other men in Addie’s life, too, and he has some anxiety around them. After the above description, we read:

Louis never knew him well. He was glad now that he hadn’t.

This suggests unease around the boundaries of relationships, of ‘who belongs to whom’. The photographs in Addie’s home help to convey the uncertainty and newness of Louis’ and Addie’s arrangement.

Mark Twain quote - storytelling and setting | Now Novel

3. Build tense or suspenseful situations

Many powerful setting description examples create suspense or a sense of urgency. Take for example the following from Barbara Kingsolver’s The Bean Trees (1990):

Example of setting description adding tension/urgency

Kingsolver’s novel tells the story of a young woman from Kentucky named Taylor Greer who unexpectedly becomes a mother to an abandoned baby. At this point, she has recently been handed the girl at a gas stop on her route west:

My car has no actual way of keeping track of miles, but I believe it must have been fifty or more before we came to a town. It was getting cold with no windows, and the poor little thing must have been freezing but didn’t make a peep. Barbara Kingsolver, The Bean Trees (1990), p. 19.

The simple description of the windowless car creates a sense of tension and urgency, as we realize Taylor’s worries are greater than her own needs now. She could perhaps shiver her way on, but with a baby to consider she needs to find warmer shelter. The setting description thus immediately lends her arrival in the town urgency as well as relief.

Think of ways setting may affect your characters’ choices and needs and increase (or reduce) their intensity. These small moments create push and pull, forward momentum and ease, keeping characters’ paths dynamic and interesting.

4. Describe setting to create tone and mood

A detailed description of a setting also helps to establish tone and mood. Is the world your characters inhabit brimming with life and joy or a desolate wasteland? Is it a claustrophobic cityscape or an expansive rural haven? Great setting description conveys:

How places feel (whether they’re relaxing, frightening, intriguing, ominous, bleak, etc.)
What the character of a place is (place, like a person, may seem friendly, severe, harsh, warm, inviting, and so forth)

Setting description examples that create tone and mood

The opening to Mervyn Peake’s gothic epic The Gormenghast Trilogy conveys a strong sense of the dark majesty of Gormenghast castle:

Over their irregular roofs would fall throughout the seasons, the shadows of time-eaten buttresses, of broken and lofty turrets, and, most enormous of all, the shadow of the Tower of Flints. This tower, patched unevenly with black ivy, arose like a mutilated finger from among the fists of knuckled masonry and pointed blasphemously at heaven. At night the owls made of it an echoing throat; by day it stood voiceless and cast its long shadow. Mervyn Peake, Titus Groan (1946), p.7

The ornate style of Peake’s prose here mirrors the ornate, ‘time-eaten’ architecture of the fortress. Peake’s descriptive language here is full of images that suggest brute physical strength. The tower is an ‘echoing throat’, the masonry resembles ‘knuckled fists’. The word choice (e.g. the tower resembling a ‘mutilated’ finger) creates spooky eeriness.

Also consider other factors when looking at fictional settings such as time of day, seasons or months of the year, and the time period that your story is set in. Remember to use sensory details when writing setting too: the briny smell of a harbor, or the feel of the hot scorching tropical sun on your protagonist’s skin.

To recap, you may use descriptions like the above story setting description examples illustrate to:

Draw attention to changes and turning points in characters’ lives: Winter giving way to spring, war giving way to peacetime.
Reveal characters through the places they frequent (and what these places’ details tell your reader about them).
Build tense or urgent aspects in a character’s situation: Like Taylor Greer rushing to find a warm place for her new baby, how might your characters’ environs shape or necessitate their next moves?
Create tone and mood: How do the describing words you choose to describe places build towards an atmosphere?

Read more descriptive writing examples and tips in our complete guide to description.

Get help developing your story settings. Use the Now Novel story dashboard to outline your core setting and creating additional story locations by answering easy step-by-step prompts.

Story setting ideas: 6 effective setting examples and tips
Elements of setting: How to create a vivid world
Novel settings: 7 tips to get setting description right

Jordan is a writer, editor, community manager and product developer. He received his BA Honours in English Literature and his undergraduate in English Literature and Music from the University of Cape Town.

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Literary Terms
Definition & Examples
When & How to Use Setting

I. What is Setting?

Setting is the time and place (or when and where) of the story. It’s a literary element of literature used in novels, short stories, plays, films, etc., and usually introduced during the exposition (beginning) of the story, along with the characters . The setting may also include the environment of the story, which can be made up of the physical location, climate, weather, or social and cultural surroundings.

There are various ways that time and place indicate setting. Time can cover many areas, such as the character’s time of life, the time of day, time of year, time period such as the past, present, or future, etc. Place also covers a lot of areas, such as a certain building, room in a building, country, city, beach, in a mode of transport such as a car, bus, boat, indoors or out, etc. The setting of a story can change throughout the plot. The environment includes geographical location such as beach or mountains, the climate and weather, and the social or cultural aspects such as a school, theatre, meeting, club, etc.

II. Examples of Setting

A simple example to understand setting is the Disney movie “Cinderella.” The setting starts out as

Time: Cinderella as a young girl, long ago in the past

Place: Cinderella’s home in a kingdom far away

After her father dies, the time aspect of setting changes, skipping roughly ten years into the future. Understanding this change in time helps in keeping up with the story.

Time: Cinderella as a young woman, long ago in the past

Place: Cinderella’s home in a kingdom, in her bedroom and in the kitchen

Read this example below to see how setting is written into a story.

As the sun set in the evening sky, Malcolm slowly turned and walked toward his home. All was silent and still. Through the window, he could see his older brother James watching a football game on the TV. James was home from his first year of college in the city. It was lonely at times, but Malcolm felt it was rather nice to not be in James’ shadow during his senior year of high school.

Time: evening, senior year of high school, and modern times (they have a TV)

Place: Malcolm’s home, and possibly the suburbs or country (his brother has gone to the city for school).

III. Types of Setting

There are two types of setting, each having its own purpose.

a. Backdrop setting

Have you ever read a story, but found it difficult to figure out what time period in which the story was written or where it is? The story probably had a backdrop setting. The story is timeless and can happen at any point in history or anywhere. The focus is on the lesson or message being delivered. Many fairy tales and children’s stories have backdrop settings. “Winnie the Pooh” would be an example. Since the lessons that the characters learn is the point rather than the time period, it’s hard to tack a “past, present, or future” on the time aspect of the setting. It could also be any town or country, which means children anywhere can relate to it.

b. Integral setting

With an integral setting (integral means to be a part of or important to), the time and place are important to the story. For example, a story dealing with a historical setting will have a direct impact on the plot. A story that happens in the 1800s will not have technology, so the characters will have to write a letter, ride a horse or take a carriage to visit each other; they cannot travel long distances in one day as we do now with cars, buses, and planes. This will have a direct impact on the events of the story, especially if there is distance involved.

IV. The Importance of Setting

Setting gives context to the characters’ actions in a story line. It can also create the mood (how the reader or viewer feels). It’s easier to understand why the characters in the story are doing what they’re doing when we know where the they are. The time of day, time of year, and ages of the characters will also affect how they act and what they say.

All forms of literature will have some form of setting; even backdrop settings have an age range of the characters, which is part of time, and a location, either indoors or out, for example. Without a setting, readers and viewers cannot follow a story plot.

V. Examples of Setting in Literature

All good literature uses setting. No story can exist without an element of time or place. Here are some popular examples.

Elie Wiesel wrote “Night” in the 1950s, but his biography has been read by millions through the decades and is still a popular book in schools. It’s the true and tragic account of Wiesel’s Jewish family during the Holocaust of World War II.

AND THEN, one day all foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet. And Moishe the Beadle was a foreigner. Crammed into cattle cars by the Hungarian police, they cried silently. Standing on the station platform, we too were crying. The train disappeared over the horizon; all that was left was thick, dirty smoke. Behind me, someone said, sighing, ‘What do you expect? That’s w a r… (Wiesel 1958).

In this passage, we have the name of the town and a location within the town (place). We know that it’s a war (time). Since we know Wiesel survived World War II, we know it must be in the 1940s (time). The description of human beings “crammed into cattle cars” creates a mood of sympathy that such a place could be used for people.

This next example is from J. K. Rowling’s book “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.” Rowling’s series of Harry Potter books are popular with young adults and have been made into films.

October arrived, spreading a damp chill over the grounds and into the castle. Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy by a sudden spate of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup potion worked instantly, though it left the drinker smoking at the ears for several hours afterward. Ginny Weasley, who had been looking pale, was bullied into taking some by Percy. The steam pouring from under her vivid hair gave the impression that her whole head was on fire (Rowling 1999).

This excerpt sets a gloomy mood with its setting, particularly with the words “damp chill.” It’s October and the characters are students, so we assume young (time). They are in a school dormitory, which is a castle (place). Since the season is fall, we know that the students are getting sick because of the cold. The idea that they are using a “potion” hints that the time period is long ago in the past or some fantasy time period.

VI. Examples of Setting in Pop Culture

One area of pop culture that relies heavily on strong settings is the video game industry. The YouTube video below illustrates the importance of setting in games. As computer technology has improved over the years, video games have progressed from boring, simple games to intense and complex gaming experiences all due to the use of setting. Video games now have realistic backgrounds, whereas the first video games (as far back as the 1950s) had blank or static (unchanging) backgrounds. There are popular games designed in all time periods – past, present, and future – and in all areas of the world, including underwater and in outer space, as well as fantasy worlds.

A second example of setting within pop culture is Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. This is a novel that’s been made into a successful series. Setting is a large basis of the story. The video below shows intro to the series, which starts out with a map of the kingdom, an indication that setting will play an important part in the story.

Game Of Thrones "Official" Show Open (HBO)

To help readers understand the place of setting, Martin has a map in the front of the book so that they can see the location of plot events as the story unfolds. Viewers watching the series are able to see the settings change by following the scenes. Some settings are in castles, others in war camps. These different places of the setting will affect how the characters act. Characters in the castle are able to move about freely, may have servants doing things for them (or they are the servants doing for others), and can dress for comfort. However, the characters in the war camps have to move carefully, do things for themselves, and must dress for safety from instruments of war, such as swords. It’s clear that time and place move the plot along.

This video illustrates how both time and place of setting must be clear in understanding the story. The aliens try to find the setting in a story, but forgot one aspect.

Introduction to Reading Skills: Literary Analysis - Setting Time and Location

VII. Related Terms

Environment.

Environment is the physical location. It includes conditions such as the geographical properties (water, sand, mountains, etc.), the cultural and social settings (school, place of worship, community, business, museum, theatre, etc.), and weather or climate (storm, rain, sunshine, desert, mountain range, plains, etc.). Most times, environment plays a large part in the setting of any story.

VIII. Conclusion

Setting is an important literary device that is often taken for granted or easily misunderstood. Creating clear depictions of time and place in a story creates mood and moves the story along. Without setting, the plot line would be confusing and boring. A key element of a strong setting is using descriptive details, pulling on the reader’s senses.

List of Terms

Alliteration
Amplification
Anachronism
Anthropomorphism
Antonomasia
APA Citation
Aposiopesis
Autobiography
Bildungsroman
Characterization
Circumlocution
Cliffhanger
Comic Relief
Connotation
Deus ex machina
Deuteragonist
Doppelganger
Double Entendre
Dramatic irony
Equivocation
Extended Metaphor
Figures of Speech
Flash-forward
Foreshadowing
Intertextuality
Juxtaposition
Literary Device
Malapropism
Onomatopoeia
Parallelism
Pathetic Fallacy
Personification
Point of View
Polysyndeton
Protagonist
Red Herring
Rhetorical Device
Rhetorical Question
Science Fiction
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Synesthesia
Turning Point
Understatement
Urban Legend
Verisimilitude
Essay Guide
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Tips on Great Writing: Setting the Scene

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An Introduction to Punctuation
Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
B.A., English, State University of New York

The setting is the place and time in which the action of a narrative takes place. It's also called the scene or creating a sense of place. In a work of creative nonfiction , evoking a sense of place is an important persuasive technique: "A storyteller persuades by creating scenes, little dramas that occur in a definite time and place, in which real people interact in a way that furthers the aims of the overall story," says Philip Gerard in "Creative Nonfiction: Researching and Crafting Stories of Real Life" (1996).

Examples of Narrative Setting

"The first den was a rock cavity in a lichen-covered sandstone outcrop near the top of a slope, a couple of hundred yards from a road in Hawley. It was on posted property of the Scrub Oak Hunting Club -- dry hardwood forest underlain by laurel and patches of snow -- in the northern Pocono woods. Up in the sky was Buck Alt. Not long ago, he was a dairy farmer, and now he was working for the Keystone State, with directional antennae on his wing struts angled in the direction of bears." -- John McPhee, "Under the Snow" in "Table of Contents" ( 1985)
"We hunted old bottles in the dump, bottles caked with dirt and filth, half buried, full of cobwebs, and we washed them out at the horse trough by the elevator, putting in a handful of shot along with the water to knock the dirt loose; and when we had shaken them until our arms were tired, we hauled them off in somebody's coaster wagon and turned them in at Bill Anderson's pool hall, where the smell of lemon pop was so sweet on the dark pool-hall air that I am sometimes awakened by it in the night, even yet. "Smashed wheels of wagons and buggies, tangles of rusty barbed wire, the collapsed perambulator that the French wife of one of the town's doctors had once pushed proudly up the planked sidewalks and along the ditchbank paths. A welter of foul-smelling feathers and coyote-scattered carrion which was all that remained of somebody's dream of a chicken ranch. The chickens had all got some mysterious pip at the same time, and died as one, and the dream lay out there with the rest of the town's history to rustle to the empty sky on the border of the hills." -- Wallace Stegner, "The Town Dump" in "Wolf Willow: A History, a Story, and a Memory of the Last Plains Frontier" (1962)
"This is the nature of that country. There are hills, rounded, blunt, burned, squeezed up out of chaos, chrome and vermilion painted, aspiring to the snowline. Between the hills lie high level-looking plains full of intolerable sun glare, or narrow valleys drowned in a blue haze. The hill surface is streaked with ash drift and black, unweathered lava flows. After rains water accumulates in the hollows of small closed valleys, and, evaporating, leaves hard dry levels of pure desertness that get the local name of dry lakes. Where the mountains are steep and the rains heavy, the pool is never quite dry, but dark and bitter, rimmed about with the efflorescence of alkaline deposits. A thin crust of it lies along the marsh over the vegetating area, which has neither beauty nor freshness. In the broad wastes open to the wind the sand drifts in hummocks about the stubby shrubs, and between them the soil shows saline traces." Mary Austin, "The Land of Little Rain" (1903)

Observations on Setting the Scene

Grounding the reader: " Nonfiction has done a much better job in terms of setting the scene, I think. ...Think of all the splendid nature writing , and adventure writing -- from Thoreau to Muir to Dillard ... where we have fine settings of scenes. Setting the scene precisely and well is too often overlooked in memoir . I'm not sure exactly why. But we -- the readers -- want to be grounded . We want to know where we are. What kind of world we're in. Not only that, but it is so often the case in nonfiction that the scene itself is a kind of character. Take the Kansas of Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," for example. Capote takes pains right at the beginning of his book to set the scene of his multiple murders on the plains and wheat fields of the Midwest." -- Richard Goodman, "The Soul of Creative Writing" 2008)
Creating a world: "The setting of a piece of writing, whether fiction or nonfiction, poetry or prose , is never some realistic snapshot of a place. ... If you were to describe with the utmost accuracy every structure in a city ... and then went on to describe every stitch of clothing, every piece of furniture, every custom, every meal, every parade, you would still not have captured anything essential about life. ... As a young reader, place gripped you. You wandered with Huck, Jim, and Mark Twain down an imagined Mississippi through an imagined America. You sat in a dreamy, leafy wood with a sleepy Alice, as shocked as she when the White Rabbit bustled by with no time to spare. ... You traveled intensely, blissfully, and vicariously -- because a writer took you somewhere." -- Eric Maisel, "Creating an International World: Using Place in Your Nonfiction" in "Now Write! Nonfiction: Memoir, Journalism and Creative Nonfiction Exercises," ed. by Sherry Ellis (2009)
Shop talk: "A thing I never know when I'm telling a story is how much scenery to bung in. I've asked one or two scriveners of my acquaintance, and their views differ. A fellow I met at a cocktail party in Bloomsbury said that he was all for describing kitchen sinks and frowsy bedrooms and squalor generally, but for the beauties of Nature, no. Whereas, Freddie Oaker, of the Drones, who does tales of pure love for the weeklies under the pen-name of Alicia Seymour, once told me that he reckoned that flowery meadows in springtime alone were worth at least a hundred quid a year to him. Personally, I've always rather barred long descriptions of the terrain, so I will be on the brief side." -- P.G. Wodehouse, "Thank You, Jeeves" (1934)
How to Write a Good Descriptive Paragraph
Creative Nonfiction
What You Should Know About Travel Writing
What Is Literary Journalism?
Defining Nonfiction Writing
An Introduction to Literary Nonfiction
Point of View in Grammar and Composition
How to Summarize a Plot
A Look at the Roles Characters Play in Literature
Examples of Images in Poetry, Fiction, and Nonfiction
Stream of Consciousness Writing
100 Major Works of Modern Creative Nonfiction
John McPhee: His Life and Work
Definition and Examples of Vignettes in Prose

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Creative Writing Samples
Creative Writing: Setting, character & plot
Creative Writing Settings
🔥 How to creative writing examples. 27 Creative Writing Examples. 2022
Guide to Creative Writing
Creative Writing Settings

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11th Grade Literacy: Deconstructing A Prompt (Hinkley HS)
Creative Writing L2: Describing a setting#englishlanguage #creativewriting
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COMMENTS

6 Setting Examples: Effective Story Settings
This setting element is especially important when writing fiction set in a real time and place - read up about the conditions of the time and make your setting show these conditions. For example, if writing about the post-war recession in the 20th century, show, via setting, the effects of time and change on your characters' surrounds.
Top 200 Setting Ideas for a Story, from Expert Writers
List of the Top 200 Setting Ideas for Writing a Story. A dark forest full of traps and magical creatures. The seafloor. A derelict space station floating in orbit around a distant planet. An abandoned amusement park at night. The surface of an unknown planet, far away from Earth. The center of a massive mountain range where nobody has ever ...
75 Story Setting Ideas To Elevate Your Stories
Famous Galleries: Your main character is a curator in a world-renowned art gallery. When a masterpiece goes missing, the mystery begins. 5. The White House: From high-stakes politics to personal drama, this setting is ripe for story ideas. 6. The Great Wall of China: Travel back to its construction or reimagine it in a post-apocalyptic world. 7.
Story Setting Ideas: 137+ Prompts for Creative Writers
Lost Civilizations. These are story setting ideas about the remnants of ancient civilizations hidden away by time. They can be based on historical events, and are perfect for a love story, a thriller, or a dramatic tale. The Sunken City: An ancient city submerged beneath the sea, its grand architecture untouched by time.
How to Create a Vivid Setting for Your Story
How to Create a Vivid Setting for Your Story. Written by MasterClass. Last updated: Aug 4, 2021 • 3 min read. A detailed setting draws your readers into the world you've built, allowing them to inhabit the storyline. Learn the core elements of setting, and apply them to your own writing. A detailed setting draws your readers into the world ...
What Is Creative Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 20 Examples)
Creative writing is an art form that transcends traditional literature boundaries. It includes professional, journalistic, academic, and technical writing. This type of writing emphasizes narrative craft, character development, and literary tropes. It also explores poetry and poetics traditions.
The Top 10 Elements of Setting In a Story
In order to create an imaginary world for your story, you'll need to know the fundamental elements of setting first. Discover the basic elements of setting in a story from Between the Lines. Fiction has three main elements: plotting, character, and place or setting. While writers spend countless hours plotting and creating characters and then ...
Setting Writing Exercises
Hundreds of Setting creative writing exercises you'll actually want to try! Filter through them by writer's block, plot development, character development, setting, outlining, worldbuilding, and dialogue. ... For example, an ex-con is likely to view (and describe) a restaurant hosting a police officer's retirement party differently than the ...
Setting
Definition of Setting. Setting is a literary device that allows the writer of a narrative to establish the time, location, and environment in which it takes place. This is an important element in a story, as the setting indicates to the reader when and where the action takes place.As a result, the setting of a narrative or story helps the reader picture clear and relevant details.
Worldbuilding & Settings in Writing
Worldbuilding & Settings in Writing ... The tone is happy, positive, and a great example of voice for a child protagonist. The story setting is clearly explained without the author having to pause the plot. ... get the free 30-Day Creative Writing Challenge planner. Oct 6, 2023. Sep 28, 2023. The 5,000-Year History of Writer's Block. Sep 28, 2023.
What is a Setting? || Definition & Examples
A setting is the time and place in which a story is told. All stories have settings—even this one. The setting of this video is a weird blank void, and you may not think that it influences the way that you understand this video's content. But you can probably agree that you'd interpret the lesson differently if the setting were, say, this:
4 Ways to Describe the Setting in a Story
1. Choose 3-4 main details to focus on to create a feeling for the space. Too many details could be overwhelming to your reader and they could cause your story to slow down. Choose a few major details of the location that your character might interact with and incorporate them in your writing.
Story Setting Ideas List of Writing Prompts
Story Setting Ideas, Combine Setting with Another Idea. Insert a place from above into one of the following creative writing prompts and see what happens. As Stephen King says: "…good story ideas seem to come quite literally from nowhere, sailing at you right out of the empty sky: two previously unrelated ideas come together and make ...
Elements of Setting: How to Create a Vivid World
The core elements of setting are: Time. Place. Mood. Context. Time in setting can refer to the length of time in which the story unfolds (as short as a day or as long as 1,000 years or more). Time can also refer to time period, the historical epoch (for example the Middle Ages) in which your novel is set.
Vivid story setting description: Examples and insights
By Jordan. No Comments. Vivid story setting descriptions helps us anchor a story's action in place. Listed below are story setting description examples that reveal the varied functions of setting description. 1. Use setting description to highlight characters' turning points. What characters do in a place tells us a lot about their personality.
Setting: Definition and Examples
Clear definition and great examples of Setting. This article will show you the importance of Setting and how to use it. Setting is the time and place (or when and where) of the story. Setting is a literary element of literature used in novels, short stories, plays, films, etc., and usually introduced during the exposition (beginning) of the story along with the characters.
How to describe settings
Make your description vivid. Consider more senses than just vision. Choose a type of setting you like to work with and learn words attached to that setting so you can include more specific vocabulary. Match your description to the mood of your story. Link your description symbolically to a theme in your story.
5 Writing Exercises for Vivid Settings in Fiction
You'll want to let your reader know what it feels like for them, what it sounds and smells and tastes like. No matter what kind of world you're creating, this technique can bring more vividness to your writing. 5. On an unlined sheet of paper, create a map of your world. Pay attention to detail: Even the smallest moments can help you ...
199+ Creative Writing Prompts To Help You Write Your Next Story
A long list of creative writing prompts and writing ideas. 1. Symphony of the Skies. Imagine a world where music can literally change the weather. Write a story about a character who uses this power to communicate emotions, transforming the skies to reflect their inner turmoil or joy. 2.
Setting the Scene for Great Writing
The setting is the place and time in which the action of a narrative takes place. It's also called the scene or creating a sense of place. In a work of creative nonfiction, evoking a sense of place is an important persuasive technique: "A storyteller persuades by creating scenes, little dramas that occur in a definite time and place, in which real people interact in a way that furthers the ...
PDF Setting in literature and creative writing
Writing Exercise All the above examples involve a human interacting with a setting or settings. It's the interaction that's important: a writer must convince the reader of why that human interacts with the setting in that particular way. By concentrating on and describing this interaction you can manipulate the mood,
1800+ Creative Writing Prompts To Inspire You Right Now
Here's how our contest works: every Friday, we send out a newsletter containing five creative writing prompts. Each week, the story ideas center around a different theme. Authors then have one week — until the following Friday — to submit a short story based on one of our prompts. A winner is picked each week to win $250 and is highlighted ...
Writing Skills
Narration - the voice that tells the story, either first person (I/me) or third person (he/him/she/her). This needs to have the effect of interesting your reader in the story with a warm and ...
Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab
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