Setting as an Active Force

Hi everyone, time for another free article about writing!

While the keystone of all good writing is creating characters with real depth, and one of the ways that you can bring out the best (or worst) in a character is writing how they interact with their setting. A setting for a story can be anything you can imagine, but it needs to be something that your character will grow in or struggle against.

To put it another way – if you can take your character and place them in a completely different setting with no significant changes to the story, then you’re in trouble.

I’ve come across this idea being referred to as an active setting. A setting that will shape how your character progresses as much as the antagonist will.

The easiest way to think about setting is through the environment. Probably the best example I can think of for characters and cultures being shaped by their physical environment is Frank Herbert’s amazing “Dune” series. The endless deserts of Arrakis, the mind-expanding Spice and the threat of the giant worms inhabiting the sands doesn’t just impact the development of Paul Atreides, but the entire Fremen culture living in the planet. The cultural norms of this desert people then goes on to shape galactic civilization in later books.

So an active setting doesn’t have to just mean the physical environment, it can also mean the cultural settings in which the characters find themselves. The Raymond E Feist classic “Magician” throws the series’ most enduring character, Pug the Magician, into the Korean-inspired world of Kelewan when the Tsurani inhabitants of the latter invade Pug’s home world. Pug’s attempt to live in the culture of his captors, and more importantly his decision to stand against the Tsurani stance on slavery, forms one of the character’s most significant turning points.

Another great example from a favorite of mine is Sergei Lukyanenko’s “Night Watch” series. Set in modern Russia, this is a world where the creatures of the dark and the guardians of the light eternally struggle for supremacy over the humans who by and large are unaware of the battles raging around them. What sets these books apart is the understanding between the light and dark that their magic must not interfere with free will, and from this, human society at large. The myriad of rules, regulations and methods of enforcing this agreement mean that the fights between magicians are not so much throwing fireballs at each other but tricking their opponent into breaking the rules and using that breach to their advantage.

A different use of active setting that I’m going to finish on is Graham McNeill’s “Priests of Mars.” This series follows the stories of a cast of characters, all stationed in different parts of the titanic spaceship Speranza as it travels to the edge of the galaxy in search on an ancient treasure. McNeil does a fantastic job of showing how different each group of characters’ lives are depending on their station in the ship, and how these wayfarers strive to live up to, or revolt against, the conditions imposed by their place. Ultimately, it is revealed that the Speranza itself is sentient, or at least capable of independent thought, and when the treasure the group seeks is not all it was cracked up to be the space ship setting itself becomes an active character in resolving the story.

That’s is for now, if you enjoyed this article please remember to share the link in your Facebook page!