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    101 Writers’ Scene Settings: Unique Location Ideas & Sensory Details for Writers’ to Create Vivid Scene Settings: Writers' Resource Series, #3
    101 Writers’ Scene Settings: Unique Location Ideas & Sensory Details for Writers’ to Create Vivid Scene Settings: Writers' Resource Series, #3
    101 Writers’ Scene Settings: Unique Location Ideas & Sensory Details for Writers’ to Create Vivid Scene Settings: Writers' Resource Series, #3
    Ebook179 pages2 hours

    101 Writers’ Scene Settings: Unique Location Ideas & Sensory Details for Writers’ to Create Vivid Scene Settings: Writers' Resource Series, #3

    By Paula Wynne

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    About this ebook

    Don’t Just Write A Scene ~ Create A Memorable Setting

    Make your novel’s scene settings come alive to your readers with mood, senses, atmosphere and vivid descriptions shown through the point of view of your characters. This book will guide you through choosing settings with mood, atmosphere and sensory details that will influence your characters.

    In films like Bourne or Bond you see baddies chasing the hero through crowded towns with tight corners and narrow streets or racing across roof tops. In other classic films you may see the most unusual places on earth and wonder how the studios found those places to feature in their films.

    Clearly they have endless budgets with numerous bodies to scout for locations. But what if there was a resource where writers could dip in and out to find these special types of locations for setting their scenes? Now there is!

    Inside, bestselling author of Pimp My Fiction, Paula Wynne guides you through:

    • Creating a novel setting in order to write a vivid scene 
    • Finding unique locations for different scenarios in your plot
    • Creating vivid setting descriptions
    • Weaving them together seamlessly through the character’s actions and reactions
    • Develop location elements to write realistic, intriguing descriptions from the character’s POV
    • Using sensory details that bring your setting to life
    • Layers of details that make a reader feel like they are right there with your character
    • And you will get a free download copy of the Settings Checklist!

    Filled with ideas for categories such as crowded towns, tight and narrow streets, adventure locations, places up high and down below, mountains and valleys, seascapes, abandoned places, modern techno, scary and spooky, and unusual work places, homes and fight scenes, 101 Writers’ Scene Settings helps you to dive into the researching and planning your settings so you can write a compelling scene and create a vivid setting that readers won’t forget.

    It also includes scene setting advice from successful authors: Linda Abbott, Steve Alcorn, James Becker, Glenn Cooper, Mark City, Dean Crawford, Nicole Evelina, Jeff Gerke, CS Lakin, Marti Leimbach, Rayne Hall, Angela Marsons, Allison Maruska, Alex Myers, Jodie Renner, Douglas E. Richards, Joyce Schneider, Kevin Wignall and Vincent Zandri.
     

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPaula Wynne
    Release dateMar 17, 2016
    ISBN9781519943842
    101 Writers’ Scene Settings: Unique Location Ideas & Sensory Details for Writers’ to Create Vivid Scene Settings: Writers' Resource Series, #3

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      Book preview

      101 Writers’ Scene Settings - Paula Wynne

      Introduction

      We're not lost. We're locationally challenged.

      John M. Ford

      Scene Settings are critical pieces of the puzzle that will eventually make up your entire novel.

      It might be new novel settings that you require, or maybe you need to vamp up current scene locations that are not fitting snugly into the rest of your plot.

      Most of the time writers and authors use scene settings that we know so they naturally come with a sense of familiarity and comfort. But what about exciting our readers with new places for them to experience through your characters? After all, the reason readers read is to travel to new places, meet new people and experience new emotions ~ all through your stories.

      As writers we are taught that everything in our scenes must be seen through the eyes of our PoV characters. This is vitally important when looking at your novel’s scene settings. Your hero may love a certain place, but someone else, possibly your villain, will hate it. The same will happen when you browse through the list of settings ideas. More importantly, 101 Writer’s Scene Settings is aimed at generating deeper opinions from you as to whether that particular setting may work for your story, or if it inspires something else in you.

      Don’t Just Write a Scene ~ Create a Memorable Setting

      Make your novel’s scene settings come alive to your readers with mood, senses, atmosphere and vivid descriptions shown through the point of view of your characters. This book will guide you through choosing settings with mood, atmosphere and sensory details that will influence your characters.

      In films like Bourne or Bond you see baddies chasing the hero through crowded towns with tight corners and narrow streets or racing across roof tops. In other classic films you may see the most unusual places on earth and wonder how the studios found those places to feature in their films.

      Clearly they have endless budgets with numerous bodies to scout for locations. But what if there was a resource where writers could dip in and out to find these special types of locations for setting their scenes?

      101 Writers’ Scene Settings will guide you through:

      • Creating a novel setting in order to write a vivid scene

      • Finding unique locations for different scenarios in your plot

      • Creating vivid descriptions for your scene setting and weaving them together seamlessly through the characters’ actions and reactions

      • Developing all the elements within a location to ensure you write realistic, intriguing descriptions shown from the character’s point of view

      • Using sensory details that bring your setting to life

      • Creating layers of details that make readers feel as though they are right there with your character

      To make your search even more convenient, you will get a free download copy of the Settings Checklist!

      Filled with ideas for categories such as crowded towns, tight and narrow streets, adventure-filled locations, places up high and down low, mountains and valleys, seascapes, abandoned places, modern techno settings, scary and spooky environments, and unusual work places, homes, and gathering places, 101 Writers’ Scene Settings helps you to dive into the researching and planning of your settings so that you can easily put together a compelling scene and create a vivid setting that readers won’t forget.

      This book also includes expert scene setting advice from such successful authors as Linda Abbott, Steve Alcorn, James Becker, Glenn Cooper, Jeff Gerke, Angela Marsons, CS Lakin, Marti Leimbach, Rayne Hall, Alex Myers, Jodie Renner, Douglas E. Richards, and Joyce Schneider.

      Using 101 Writers’ Scene Settings

      First you’ll find a list of categories, which of course is only my list; you will no doubt have stacks of different ideas. So scribble those down between mine.

      I added some interesting facts from my Scenes Checklist (download your copy now at http://eepurl.com/bC_vjX) before I started searching for amazing settings. You’ll be added to my mailing list for any future updates.

      Even if you don’t want to use the exact information included with the settings I have listed, the vivid details I have included are meant to inspire you to create your own places.

      You can also mix and match and make up a new place. For example, you may want a place in the mountains with a hot climate, but you see a stunning location in the list that is wintery. No problem.

      Just imagine how that place could suit your story and change it according to your plot threads. When you’re done, make up a name for your new setting. You may even fancy combining three locations into one by taking certain elements from all three and making up your own setting.

      Adding layers is easy. If you find a place that looks sunny and bright, but you want it dark and foreboding in your scene, just add an imagined layer of gloomy clouds and shadows. In an instant you have a scary setting in the location you want. And vice versa.

      If you find a location that is listed as romantic or spooky, but you want it for your children’s book, simply change the elements to suit your plot and characters. Any of the listed settings could be used for a children’s book or young adult novel. The same goes for genres. Although I do suggest genres I think the setting would suit, don’t limit your imagination. If you see a setting that seems ideal for your genre, use it. Change and modify as you need, or let it inspire you to create your own fictional setting with any or all of that particular setting’s elements.

      It’s great fun and will ensure your creative juices are flowing when you get to that point in your story when you have to place your characters into your scene. (Don’t miss out on learning how to create characters from the list of resource guides in Pimp My Fiction.)

      If you download the free templates (in this book and Pimp My Fiction) and stay on my mailing list, you will be given the opportunity to get a free review copy of my next books, which includes an Indie Author Guide to Book Marketing, with 100s of ways to promote your book, as well as other books for writers.

      Settings Checklist

      An author knows his landscape best; he can stand around, smell the wind, get a feel for his place.

      Tony Hillerman

      As writers we are taught that everything in our scenes must be seen through the eyes of our PoV characters. This is vitally important when looking at the scene settings. Your hero may love a certain place, but someone else, possibly your villain, will hate it. Or vice versa.

      When you read Rayne Hall’s book called Writing Vivid Settings, you will see her illustrations of how powerful this is when showing a scene through different people’s eyes. Rayne gives an example of how one setting can change. She takes a kitchen, and then shows how different characters would see that kitchen.

      Depending on who they are, what they do and their background, that kitchen is a completely different place to each of them. That’s why it’s important to know your characters so that they can experience the setting, not you the author. I was staggered to see how differently a kitchen can be perceived through a handful of different characters.

      The same will happen here. I have listed some very basic thoughts and ideas designed to generate deeper opinions from you whether that particular setting may work for your story, or if it inspires something else in you.

      Please feel free to scribble your own notes all over this book. I won’t be offended. In fact, I will be delighted because I know it is working and triggering ideas for you to bounce around. I have a huge collection of writing books, and my most treasured have sticky post-it notes sticking out everywhere, all of them covered in pencil scribbles. I firmly believe that those authors would be delighted to know their book inspired so many ideas spilling over onto their pages.

      If you feel positive or negative feelings about a listed setting, write down any good or bad things as they come to you for future use. You could note down what a hero or villain would feel about the place to use for whoever’s point of view you are writing.

      There are so many more categories you will probably jot down as you see mine below, where I have scribbled a note beside each one to inspire you to find different settings under each category.

      Later on I will save you lots of typing time and give you a link to download this Settings Checklist!

      Setting Categories

      Crowded Towns: places with narrow streets and crowded markets and roof top chases

      Tight and Narrow: for placing the hero in a tight spot where he has to work out how to get out

      Wide Open Spaces: get lost in some forests and canyons

      Adventurous: treacherous locations where adventurous heroes climb formidable cliffs or villains chase heroes through rainforests

      Up High: risky scene settings way up

      Down Below: delve underground into tunnels and caves

      Modern Techno: space age buildings or futuristic designs

      Historical: ancient places with history

      Seascapes: lighthouse or sunken ship or home jutting out from the edge of cliff

      Mountains and Valleys: exceptional mountains or winding valleys where the villain can chase the hero

      Scary and Spooky: mansions, castles, underground railways, whatever will terrify a reader

      Abandoned: buildings, homes or entire villages

      Country Life: peaceful meadows with lambs, or wild and rugged wheat fields where murders can take place

      Unusual Homes: weird, way-out or simply horrid homes where heroes or villains live, such as a lighthouse, boat house or world war bunker

      Unusual Offices: places or buildings or areas where characters could work

      Unusual Fight Scenes: places the villain and hero clash

      Unusual Love Scenes: where lovers could unite

      I originally had a category called ‘Family Friendly: Places you could take the kids or even places you wouldn’t dare take the them.’ But as I wrote up the lists, I added that as an item of detail under each setting.

      So if you’re writing a family adventure or drama, luckily for you, each listing mentions whether it is family friendly or not. And why.

      Of course, the list of possible scene settings is endless. As you browse through my short list, why not add all of the possible settings that spring into your mind? That way you can start to create your own resource file of settings for future writing projects. Here are a few suggestions for the details to include in your listings:

      Setting Details

      Title: Give each listing a creative title.

      Name: Create a specific name.

      Geographical Area: Note the town and country, even if you intend to make up a fictional place instead.

      USP: List anything that’s unique about this place and why or how it could be used in a story setting.

      Brief Description: Give a vivid description about this place in a sentence or two. Also make notes of any facts that may be of interest to your story later on. Possibly mention when the place was built or how it came into existence. These type of notes could be important to your story when you’re in the writing process.

      Mood Details

      Mood: Define the mood you feel when you set eyes on this place.

      Colours: Identify the colours that stand out. This could be anything from water or greenery to the daylight or sunset colours. It could also be a dominant colour that strikes you

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