5 Fatal Setting Mistakes

Of all the story elements, there is one that is often overlooked, ignored, downplayed, forgotten about, mistreated, degraded and discredited.

It also happens to be the hidden rocket-fuel to launch your book to bestseller status.


The Hidden Powerhouse of Setting

Think about it: setting frames, shapes and backdrops the action in your story. Without setting you have a time-less, place-less series of actions. Imagine a movie without scenery, a blank canvas upon which characters interact. Setting is the vehicle that moves, highlights, and focuses action, that brings meaning, that adds realism, and that draws the reader into the fictional world of your novel.

The 5 Fatal Mistakes

1. Choosing settings at random. Some authors take the "Quick and Easy" approach to setting. They simply use the first setting that comes to mind, or use the city they live in as a default setting for every novel. This approach is actually the "Quick and Easy" way to rejection and floundering in the wasteland of the unpublished author. This fatal flaw is often revealed when the setting either distracts from the story, or doesn't add anything to it. When choosing a setting, be as selective as choosing a life partner. Ask many questions of your potential setting, challenge it, see how it feels in the story, test it out and be extra picky. When choosing the setting for your story, or for an individual scene, consider how the setting relates to character, plot, conflict, theme, symbolism and the overall story goal or question.
   
2. Only Using Setting in One Way. The second common fatal flaw is a temptation even for the most practiced writer. To be sure, this flaw is a step up from the first, but not very far. In this flaw, the author carefully selects a setting that somehow adds to the story - but only in a single, limited way. Instead of pumping the setting for all its worth, the author parks the setting after it has been used only once. To avoid this fatal flaw, try to find at least three ways to use the setting in your story. Consider how your setting can reveal something about the characters that live in it. Ask yourself how your setting can challenge the characters. Perhaps your setting can trap the characters and force them to stay in the narrative fight of your story. The possibilities are endless. Repeat this process with each setting in your story, as well as the overall setting.
   
3. Not establishing setting early enough in the story or scene. If you wait too long to describe setting, you risk reader confusion, and confusion is an easy transition to closing your book and never coming back. Readers want to be mystified and intrigued, not confused. There is a difference. A significant one. Confusion is often the result of a writer poorly guiding readers through the story with few, if any, details. The balance of which details to reveal and which to withhold separates novices from pros. Read bestselling novels and pay attention to how they handle this important topic of writing. You'll soon discover a pattern that works for you. A good rule of thumb is to give your reader at least three details about setting in the first few paragraphs of a story or scene. The earlier usually the better. Once a reader is grounded in the "place" and "time" of a story, they are free to release their imagination to your loving care.
   
4. Dumping Setting on Readers all at once. This fourth fatal flaw is really the opposite extreme of fatal flaw number three. In an effort to reveal setting, some authors spend pages cataloging every nuance and pinpoint of light in a their setting. This "setting dump" is an easy way to alienate, frustrate and bore readers. Boredom is confusion's uglier cousin, and both lead to the reader walking away - sometimes for good. Instead of dumping all the setting details in at once, take a more patient (and longer) approach of dribbling details in here and there, just enough to fend off confusion, but not enough to make readers think your story suddenly turned into a thesis on architecture. Setting should be subtlety felt, but not overtly noticed.
5. Not Evoking Emotion with Settings. Settings in bestsellers heighten emotion and deepen feelings, both for the characters in the story and the readers, too. This fatal flaw leaves readers disappointed, even if they don't know why. Committing this fatal flaw is akin to fighting with swords when an arsenal of guns hang unused on the wall. Why not use the firepower you have available to you? Setting underscores emotion when both the conflict in the scene and the setting both elicit the same type of feelings (i.e., two soldiers argue during a firefight or an abandoned child is lost in the woods at night).
   

Knowing these fatal flaws, and avoiding them in your fiction, puts you on the path to bestsellerdom.

Secrets of Bestseller Premises Part 1

Blockbusters.
Bestsellers.
Mega hits.


Your first step towards your breakout novel is creating a bestselling premise. If you can do that, you can write a breath-taking ride of a story, the kind that keeps overworked, underpaid literary agents up at night. The kind that lands six figure publishing deals, including movie adaptions.


Sounds good, right? But how do you do it? How do you create an idea with bestseller potential? How do you yourself at the publishing world and take no prisoners? Let's get practical.


Just as there is a first step in crafting a bestseller, there is a first step in designing a premise with breakout potential. This first step, which I call "The Psychological Secret of Bestseller Premises," is the subject of this post. As you read it, as you sit there thinking about the information deeply, allow yourself to share it with your writer friends and family.


The psychological secret begins when you train your mind to filter everything through the question, "How can I use that in a story?" Another way to ask the same question is, "What if?"


Just this morning, as I was browsing through a gun magazine at my hotel in Atlanta, GA, I stumbled upon an article about self-defense. The article listed ways self-defense shootings go wrong. And my mind automatically started asking, "What if that did happen? What if ALL that bad stuff happened to someone? What would the person do? Why might it happen? What might make the situation worse?"


You see, bestseller premises grow best in open minds. Minds alert for the next big idea. So, to give you a practical action strategy, make it a point to stop throughout the day and ask yourself, "Can I use anything around me for a story?" It doesn't matter if you are reading the newspaper, watching TV, at the grocery store, or flipping through a gun magazine in Atlanta. Once you start to practice this seemingly simple question method, you will begin the process of training your mind to ask the questions and make the connections automatically. Over time, you start to pick up ideas others miss. You see the potential simmering just below the surface. Then, and only then, you are on your way.


Use the following quick tips to create your bestseller premise.

1. Stop 3 to 4 times a day this week and look closely at your surroundings.


2. Ask yourself, "Is there anything here I can use in a story?" It could be a character, a setting, a plot event, anything.


3. Ask yourself, "What if that DID happen?"


4. Notice how you feel about the idea. Are you excited and enthralled or nonchalant? If you feel powerfully about the idea, then you may be on to something.


5. Write down the idea as soon as possible. You don't want to wake up tomorrow and realize you've forgotten the bestseller idea.


6. Play with the idea. Who is involved? Why might it happen? Where might it happen? What might make matters worse? Even worse than that?


7. Remember, when you find the right idea, you'll know. You'll often feel it in your gut. Your juices flow. You glace around hungrily, looking for a computer, a pen and paper, anything to scribble down the story.

If you have gained anything from this blog, please share it with others. It is my gift to you. It can become your gift to others.


Come back soon for the next installation, Secrets of Bestseller Premises Part 2.


Thank you for visiting.