Emotion-Charged Settings by Guest Angela Ackerman

Sometimes when we write, we become so obsessed with the characters and events unfolding, we forget
to pay attention to the Setting. Conflict and Action are important, don’t get me wrong, but Setting is no
wallflower. Used correctly, it becomes a powerful amplifier for emotion.

Setting...The Hidden Character

Imagine if you set a character loose in your story whose only job was to put your Hero off balance.
Hmm, smells like tension, doesn’t it? Setting is this hidden character! Choosing the right location for
a story event can increase tension, provide mood and offer emotional contrasts, throwing your main
character off his game. This makes him more reactive and volatile which leads to bad choices and
mistakes...creating great conflict!

This all sounds good, but how do we know which Setting to pick for each scene?

4 Ways to Use Setting For Emotional Impact

Make it Meaningful

Setting can pull double duty by symbolizing something to your character, good or bad. Is it a place of
safety, or discomfort? Does it stir up old memories? For example, if a character accidentally started
a fire in his cooking class and it led to a school evacuation, if he returns to the classroom a year later,
the echo of embarrassment will return. Knowing your character deeply and understanding what
might bother them (or put them at ease if it serves your purpose) allows you to pick a Setting that will
encourage your desired emotion to build. This can help increase tension during the scene.

Use Symbols to Trigger Emotion

Symbols hold power. They can foreshadow what is to come and trigger an emotional reaction from
characters. If your hero grew up on his grandparents’ farm, he may feel a surge of lightness at noticing
a symbol from that time, like an old tractor tire converted to a flower rockery in someone’s backyard.
Common symbols will also have an emotional effect on your reader. If your character passes a
graveyard on the way home from work, it brings about the feeling of death. The reader on some level
will be ill at ease and may expect that something bad will happen. (For a list of symbols to use in
writing, check out the Symbolism Thesaurus!)

Contrast can be Powerful

If the hero is filled with rage and about to rearrange the villain’s face for slashing all the tires on his car,
a writer might be tempted to set the scene at night, on a deserted street with the air so cold it bites.
What if instead the hero confronts the villain at the county fair on a bright blue day, with carousel music
and popcorn smells and squealing kids bouncing the balloons tethered to their wrists? Think about how
that level of rage stands out against such a happy, family-oriented Setting.

In your own life, how often does bad news come on a gloomy, rain filled day? Does it wait until you have
time for it, or for you to be in the mood to receive it? No. Setting is an opportunity to create a contrast
that forces the reader to pay attention to the emotions at work and understand their depth.

Play with Light and Dark

A different mood will emerge in any Setting depending on if it is dark or light. Think about the time of
day it is in your scene--predawn, sunrise, mid day, nightfall, etc. How can time of day, shadow or light
help bring out certain types of emotions? Weather can also add atmosphere to the Setting, causing
roadblocks, deepening the emotional value or complicate the situation. Be wary of weather clichés of
course, but use everything in your arsenal to power up your Settings!

Angela Ackerman is one half of The Bookshelf Muse blogging duo, and co-author of The Emotion Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Expression.  Listing the body language, visceral reactions and thoughts associated with seventy-five different emotions, this brainstorming guide is a valuable tool for showing, not telling, emotion.