Sometimes something hits you in the face and even with prior knowledge, I’m amazed at how thickheaded I can be. I have most certainly been taught about setting, its importance to lay a framework of the story space where a reader can settle in and become involved with the story.
I am in the middle of McCarthy’s Suttree, a master of imagery in particular with place, and yet it just dawned on me that in my own writing, I very seldom spend time on creating the world in which my characters live. Listen to this, from Josip Novakovich’s "Fiction Writer’s Workshop":
"Without a strong sense of place, it’s hard to achieve suspense and excitement–which depend on the reader’s sensation of being right there, where the action takes place. When descriptions of places drag, the problem usually lies not in the setting, but in presenting the setting too slowly. Make your descriptions dynamic and quick; give bits of setting concurrently with characters and action."
I realize that I tend to focus on the character in my stories, but I don’t give him a "home." Without that, the reader can never know him as well. There is much one can infer from setting; lifestyle, taste, income level, interests, even hobbies. In my own home, one room is dominated by computer equipment and longbows. That is more telling than if I went into a paragraph about my interest in new technology and old archery techniques. Though it may be tough to blithely name the books on someone’s shelves (as I did recently in a post) within a story, you must admit it would give you a good idea of what the person was into.
I may be tempted to go back into some of my recently finished stories and look around to see if I’ve grounded my characters and their stories sufficiently to invite others in to read about them.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology