Wedensday's Writer's Tip - Writing ABC - Uses of setting #MFRWauthor #amwriting

Having looked at all the aspects of setting from the general to the specific, how does one go about using setting in their story?

One way is to create an atmosphere. We've all read stories where there is a house described that embodies spooky feelings. That is one way but setting can also be used to contradict the emotional content of the story. Setting can show the reader in a foretelling way when something good or bad is about to happen.

Setting also can be used to establish a character. How he or she feels about a setting can create a mood. Does the place bring back memories of happier or less happy times. This is quite possible.

Atmosphere and mood are two ways to use setting. At times the setting can become almost another character in the story raising emotions in the reader. Memories of the reader that they can carry into the story. A hospital might bring certain feelings in the reader, perhaps of sadness or happiness.

So choose your settings with care and milk them for everything you can draw from the location. But also remember finding the perfect words to bring the setting to life is important. Don't bog your reader down with pages and pages of describing the setting. Find those words and objects that are telling and convey what you mean to say.

Saturday - Wandering - Reading #MFRWauthor #amreading

 Just exploring this a bit for a post on the other blog where I do a monthly bit. Books We Love, one of my publishers.

I am a writer because I was a reader. I read early and that was due to my grandfather. He would hold me onhis lap and read slowly while running his finger beneath the words. My mother says he did this from the time I was an infant and she thought it was funny and foolish. He told her one day I would read. My memories of this time are cloudy and people say memories don't really start at the age of two or below but every time I read or hear John Donne's poetry, I see a picture of a small girl with flyaway hair, neither brown or blonde sitting on a man's lap and hearing things like "Go and catch a falling star" or For whom the bell tolls," and other lines from the poems and sermons of John Donne. My grandfather was from New England, Fall River to be exact. The voice I hear has that accent. I do remember one day when I was three years old and I read to him. His response was "She needs a library card." And so I got one. The librarian thought this was so he could take out books. He shook his head. "She can read and he had me read a passage from a book I'd never seen. This was the first time I had to prove myself but there was another time but that's for a later discussion. By the time I was ninw, I had read all the books in the children's section of the library. Causing a problem and that was one my father solved. That also comes after I had to prove I could read a second time. But enough for now.

Next week the regular schedule will resume provided the next scheduled guest sends me the material I need. I will remine and then nag.