7 Tips on Describing Surroundings in Your Novel

The story setting in literature describes the where and when of a character and action. The setting of a story establishes the fictional environment built in the reader’s mind while they read the novel. However, it is not easy to flesh out or describe your setting.

As a novel writer, it’s tempting to want to go straight to the plot and describe your character in detail. However, your story and the character news need to coexist within a space – the story’s setting. Being able to describe your story setting correctly adds vibrancy to your love and keeps the audience engaged.

Learning to describe the surroundings and setting of a story is, therefore, an essential skill that authors need to have. The descriptive words that you use are capable of showing character, mood, and appearance. A well-described setting will draw the readers in and keep their rapt attention inside the scene.

A good setting uses different elements to create a picture that’s clear in the readers’ minds. It also provides a good background for character and plot development. It is the framework for different narrative elements to come into play.

How to write a good setting or describe the surroundings in a novel?

With an understanding of what a good setting is and its role in writing a novel, we will now discuss how to write one.

In writing your setting, you’re descriptive, so you will use descriptive words that you can combine in different ways to create the vision for your story’s environment. However, there are several tips that you should use to make it more descriptive without boring your audience.

1. Start early

You shouldn’t go too deep into your story without describing the setting. It would be best if you did it from the very beginning of the scene. Once you launch into the scene without describing the setting, it becomes too late when you need to do it later on in the action. You would have lost your readers at that point already. If you don’t describe the environment from the start, you will have characters talking and acting in space, and it becomes difficult to place it later on.

2. Include specific details

In describing your setting, it’s not enough to start early: you need to be specific in your description. Using generic words will fail to engage the readers, and you will end up with a bland and unfocused description of your setting.

Including specific details adds some spice to the setting, makes it more exciting for the readers to flow along with, and helps you create a unique fictional environment.

3. Incorporate sensory details

Your description will be more effective if you are able to use sensory details. You must be able to use the five senses when describing the environment or settings to your readers. This will help them to become more immersed in the fictional environment that you’ve created. Those seemingly small details about the smell of the wood in the old house, the chirping sound of the crickets at night, etc., all go a long way in making your setting more exciting and immersive for your readers. This will make it more straightforward for them and open them to the plot you’re building within the setting.

4. Build your description with the story

Building on your descriptions gradually gives you more descriptive power. You can’t and shouldn’t take a whole page to describe the background. A paragraph is enough to introduce the setting and give the readers an idea of where they are, and then continue to build the story’s description.

If you mention that the character was outside a building that looks abandoned, don’t forget to build on that with more abandonment signs once they walk into the building. The setting description doesn’t stop at the start of the scene: you carry it along as you build the story in that scene.

5. Show the setting, don’t just say it.

You have to do more than list off the description for the readers. You must show it to them. If the characters are in a hostile environment, make the readers see how the environment interacts with them. Be more descriptive. If the set includes a factory, show how the factory affects the environment. Show how it smells, the gas it emits, how it makes the sky look, etc. Rather than say there’s a factory around, show how it affects the story and its relevance in the setting. Or even better, show your setting through the viewpoint of your characters!

6. Get inspiration from a real setting.

If you are looking for inspiration to describe your fictional setting, then you should look at the nonfictional world around you. You’re trying to describe an old church in your novel; while it might not be the same as the old church down your street, you should take a stroll to the church. You’re likely to see things in real-life locations that could trigger ideas and give you inspiration for your fictional environment. It’s the same way that you draw the behavior of your character from examples in real life. You can get inspiration from places that you visit in real life, too.

7. Select the details to describe

One thing about describing a setting is that there are more things that you would not mention than the ones you’ll tell. Don’t be tempted to mention every detail. Be selective about what you share. Describe only details that are relevant to the story or help make the setting clearer. You could give accurate descriptions while sharing many unnecessary details. Being accurate doesn’t make it necessary or exciting. You could end up with a very bland description of the setting that doesn’t win over the readers. The fact is, your readers don’t care about the information. They want the mood and the atmosphere.

Conclusion

Writing a good setting description is essential to creating the story, plot, and character within that scene. So if your setting description is bland, it will affect the story that you are creating altogether. It also determines if the readers go on with reading the novel or they close the book. So knowing how to write your setting is of utmost importance as an author.

Leon Collier is a blogger from the UK, and assignment writer at dissertation service the UK. He loves to write about everything: pop-culture, history, travel, self-development, education, and marketing. When not writing, you can find him behind a book or playing tabletop games with his friends. Follow him on Twitter @LeonCollier12.