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Without being set somewhere your characters are basically floating around in a black vacuum. A well built story world allows your readers to see the events going on in your story more vividly. Setting allows you to engage all your reader's senses within the story – it's almost like watching a movie in 3D because they can almost touch, taste, smell, see and hear everything your leads are experiencing.
Your hero won't just be running to escape gunfire from rebels; He'll be running through the thick Amazon jungles, his feet crushing into the foliage and dodging jutting tree branches too while bullets whizz past his ear to embed in the thick tree trunks.
So how can you create a vivid setting? This is how;
STEP 1: IDENTIFY THE LOCATION
Where will you story be set? The country/city/village you choose will helpyou figure out elements of both your character (such as the languages theyspeak, their name, their attitudes etc) and plot direction.
The location can be loosely divided into two elements . We have the greater location which is the planet, country or state that the book will be set in. Then we have the primary location which is the specific city, neighborhood or village where the events of the story will take place. As you're identifying your location, keep those two elements in mind. You'll soon realize that you have 3 options:
1. Set the story in a real greater location and a real primary location. For example, set your story in Long Island, New York. Because the setting really exists, it adds a sense or realism to the story. However, you have to do your research so that you don't leave the readers scratching their head. You don't want to set your story in New York in January then have your characters walking around in beach wear when everyoneknows that it's winter at that time of the year.
2. Set the story in a fictional greater location and a fictional primary location e.g. in Hobbiton, Middle Earth. This is just a fancy way of saying create your own world. The advantage of such a setting is that it gives you the license to have fun. You can have whatever kindof weather you need for your story, throw in any land forms as needed. Theprice of this fun is that you actually have to create this fantasy world fromscratch. Where someone using a pure real world can start writing their bookimmediately especially if they've been to their setting, someone using a purefantasy world will have to go deep into world-building including coming up withraces, ecosystems, rules of magic etc.
3. Get the best of both reality and fantasy by usinga hybrid location. Set the story in a real greater location but a fictional primary location e.g. in Smallville, Kansas. This way you ground your story somewhere yourreaders will recognize then curve out your own little playground that you canmanipulate as you wish.
STEP 2: KNOW THE YEAR
The year determines the technology, behavior,political situation, common religion etc of your story. It could be thedifference between your leader chasing down the villain in a horse-drawncarriage or in a Ferrari. It could be the difference between a family indanger cowering from Hitler's goons or from the Al Qaeda.
STEP 3: IDENTIFY THE SEASON
The clearer a picture you have of the months withinwhich your story will take place the more accurate your story will be. If yourcharacter is going to be involved in a blizzard while in Norway, you need toknow ahead of time which months a blizzard is most likely to take place. Ifyou're writing about a story that happens during peak soccer season in London,you need to know what kind of weather you'll have then and how it will affectyour characters. A scene set in August in Uganda will have quite a differentfeeling to it from one set in Italy during the same month.
STEP 4: UNDERSTAND YOUR PRIMARY LOCATION BETTER
You should have a good idea of what the primary location ofyour story looks like. Note down (or research) elements of the natural geography of the place. Thiscould include things like the lakes, hills, forests, beaches, parks, commonplants, common animals etc
Next, look at the man-madeinfrastructure of the area. Having a rough map of the area may help outespecially if you'll be using a small town or a small neighborhood. Where arethe poor parts of town? Rich parts of town, main business area, common streetsthe school, the hospitals, restaurants etc? Google maps could help shortcutthis whole process for you if you're using a real location.
STEP 5: UNDERSTAND YOUR PRIMARY LOCATION'S PEOPLE
Think about the people who populate your character's neighborhood/city. Do they have any common characteristics? Likelanguage; types of names; looks; religion; attitudes to politics, aliens, roleof women etc. Who are the leaders of that place, the kind of politicalenvironment and the attitudes of the ordinary people towards their leaders? Whoare the richest people, who are the poorest, how do the two groups treat oneanother and where does your character fall in these two groups
And most of all what is their attitude towards thekind of trouble your main character is in. If the people love the gangster,they'll probably give the detectives a hard time when trying to catch thegangster. Within your story you can even have members of your supporting castwho represent these attitudes and they could provide barriers to your leadmeeting their goal.
STEP 6: NARROW IT DOWN TO KEY ACTION PLACES
There are some places within your primary location that will be extremely important to your story such as their home, office, school, their caravan or the park they eat lunch at. Research the interiors of these places. What does the place really look like? The kind of furniture in the office, how many rooms in the house, the ambience at your character's bar etc.
You can get the images of these places from your own experiences, imagination or even photographs. One shortcut is to search Google and select images you like and then use your own words to describe these places (bonus; this is also a good exercise to sharpen your descriptive skills). Like your characters, try to make your location unique.
STEP 7: GO DEEPER IF YOU'RE BUILDING A FANTASY WORLD
If you're building a fantasy world, you may need togo a little deeper into constructing a vivid yet realistic world. Below is atable that might help you with that;
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The more layers your world has the more vivid andinteresting it will be to your readers. As with your character descriptions,not everything you have here will appear in your book. But knowing all this will make your story more consistent and you never know what you'll need anyway.
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