We often think of settings as discrete things: this story takes place in a city or in the countryside or on a boat, etc. However, it’s interesting when various settings are blended together. One that fascinates me is the post-apocalyptic city, where nature is starting to reclaim the city and trees are growing up out…
Tag: setting
Muse on Monday – August 11, 2025
Writers, almost by definition, love books, and so a lot of story characters love books by extension. There are probably more stories about libraries than, say, dentist offices. I don’t have the stats but it’s a good guess. Story Prompt: August 11, 2025 Write a story that takes place in a library. There are a…
Muse on Monday – June 03, 2024
So it’s not officially summer yet but it is June, so we’re getting there (if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere, at least). Beaches are a great place to hang out in the summer. Even my little city of Erie, PA has 11 beaches, which are very popular in the summer. What do you think of…
Muse on Monday – October 16, 2023
A lot of horror stories or thrillers are set in a particularly scary location, such as an old house or an abandoned mental institution. However, anywhere can be scary. Here are some things that make a place scary. A story only needs one element of danger, but often has more than one. For instance, Jurassic…
Muse on Monday – June 26, 2023
Think about somewhere you go often. Work is the most common place for me, obviously, but probably the next is Panera since I go there every week to write. That’s a bit big to get to know the people well, but I’ve written at other coffee shops where you get to know everyone there: the…
Muse on Monday – January 30, 2023
Hello Musers, and welcome to another Monday! Setting is an important part of storytelling since where and when a story takes place will have a big impact on the story. There is something wrong if a story that takes place in India in the 1800s and on Mars in the 2400s are exactly the same….
Writing Corner: World Building
World Building Story World: the setting of a story The nice thing about fiction is that you, the writer, make the rules. When you write non-fiction, you are (hopefully) limited by facts. But with fiction, you can change whatever you want to fit the story. This is especially true with the setting, or story world….
Writing Corner: Setting
Setting The place and the time when the story happens When we think of setting, we often think of the place where a story happens, but there are actually two parts to setting: the place where it happens and the time when it happens, meaning if the story takes place in the past, the present,…
The Green-Walled Treehouse 