Best of Archives: Using Setting To Deepen Your Character

The following Best of Archives by Sandra Leesmith was published April 22, 2014.  See below for a new setting for Sandra in her new release LOVE'S HEALING. 

Hello Seekerville,  

Sandra here.

I have Chocolate Velvet coffee in the pot ready to enjoy. I have a beautiful platter of spring fruit, sliced and ready to nibble on. Also, the baker here in the RV park I'm in, bakes the most delicious cinnamon rolls. I had him bake up a separate batch for us. 

photo from www.nellisgroup.com used with permission

Have you ever thought of setting to deepen your character? I tend to use setting a lot in my stories, but I didn't consciously think I was doing so to deepen character, until I went to Mary Buckham's workshop at the Desert Dreams conference earlier this month.  She did an excellent job in showing us how to do that with her examples and demonstrations.

I was so impressed. She has several craft books on how to deepen character with setting, Writing Active Setting.

Mary Buckham is a bestselling ABA author who writes Thrillers and Urban Fantasy so some of her examples could be graphic, but her method of showing you how to use setting is powerful and a must read.  


What she does is take a simple statement of description and then show you how she would write it to show character.

In LOVE'S PROMISES the setting of Lake Tahoe is not only important in the plot, but is a great setting to show characters as well.

Purchased by Stone Lily Design -  used with permission 

For example in LOVE’S PROMISES, I could write.

Monica stood on the deck watching the sailboat go by. She leaned over the rail and looked into the clear water of Lake Tahoe.  

In LOVE'S PROMISES the setting of Lake Tahoe is not only important in the plot, but is a great setting to show characters as well.  But look how we can involve that same setting to show Monica’s emotions and deepen her character.

Monica glanced at the sailboat skidding across the crystal blue water of Lake Tahoe and leaned against the railing of the redwood deck that hung over the cliff. Thirty feet below, water lapped against the granite stones, a rhythmic sound which normally would have soothed her. Not today. She tapped her foot impatiently and rolled her eyes. 

Can you see how using the five senses help use the setting to show deeper characterization? The sailboat is skidding across the water and the water lapped against the granite stones. The strong active verbs show her restless impatience. We hear the water lapping and the sailboat is skidding across the water.

Here is another example where we see Monica’s property:  We could simply write: Monica drove her Jeep Cherokee up the road. She saw his Bronco. Why was he here early? She saw him across the creek. 

However, if we add emotion and senses the setting of her property deepens the characters and we see their reaction to each other.

Shifting her Jeep Cherokee into gear, Monica worked her way up the steep road skirting her property. She needed to grade an easier drive into the place. She sighed. Another set of permits. 
She crested the hill and spotted a Bronco with government license plates parked at the end of the road. Her heart quickened. What was his motive for coming early? 
Automatically, she set the brakes, released her seat belt, and swung out of the high vehicle. Before her legs touched ground, she searched the area. Greg Linsey wasn’t in the Bronco nor in the near vicinity. Biting her lip, Monica headed for the creek. “Morning.” His shout caught her up short.
She searched the dense brush downstream and saw movement on the other side of the gurgling water. He stepped from out of a clump of brush and crossed the stream looking like an ad from a sports magazine. Disconcerted by her reaction, Monica waited for him instead of meeting him halfway. 


The rough road brings frustration. We crest a hill and spot the Bronco. She asks what his motive for coming early. We see the dense brush and hear gurgling water as she looks for the direction of the sound of his voice. This setting shows off her reaction to seeing the handsome planner again.

In this scene Greg and his friend approach the famous Fanette Island, but instead of an elaborate description, we see the reactions to seeing Monica and her friends. Before this scene, Monica’s friends were in a speedboat showing Monica a beach and had almost ran into Greg and his friend on their sailboat. Sailboats have the right of way and Greg’s friend was rightfully annoyed.

“Do you see what I see?” Carl hollered from the bow where he was trimming the jib sail. 
Greg looked in the direction where Carl pointed. Docked at Fannette Island—or as the locals called it, the Tea House Island—was the boat that had almost run them down. Greg intended to sail past it until he spotted the redhead standing in the stern. His heart picked up speed. Monica Scott. 
“Hang on,” he shouted as he quickly came about. 
“You going to land there?” Anticipation sounded in Carl’s voice. 
Greg nodded. “Forget revenge, buddy. I’ve got other motives for landing.” 
Carl stared at Greg and then at the shore. He whistled through his teeth. 
Greg watched her hand an ice chest to the man on shore. Evidently he’d been piloting the boat. Were they involved with each other? Another woman appeared and, with relief, he recognized who they were. The couple he’d seen her with at the South Shore Club. 
He tacked closer to shore. Monica noticed him then. He waved and had to chuckle at the look of surprise on the faces of all three of them. Monica grinned. Good. She recognized the humor in the situation. 


I didn’t do this as well as Mary Buckham does, but I think you get the idea.  You can not only see the sailboat approaching Fannette Island, but you feel their emotions. You also see that a situation becomes a source of humor which is characteristic of our hero.

photo by Michael on wikimedia used with permission

Julie Lessman sent me a couple samples of her writing that uses setting to show character development.

Excitement pulsed in her veins like the bay beneath the keel. Heart swelling with pride, she watched Bram straddle the tiller, so incredibly solid and male and tall. He emanated a strength that swirled heat in her belly as much as the wind swirled the waves, and when he tossed a grin over his shoulder, her heart soared along with the sea gulls overhead. “Alcatraz at your service, milady,” he shouted, sandy hair lashing in the breeze like a tawny-haired pirate who had truly pirated her heart. She clapped her hands in delight as the island loomed with its Cape Cod lighthouse, rising from the sea like some sinister presence growing before their eyes.

Can you see the ship, the San Francisco Bay and the island of Alcatraz? But you are also seeing the hero and learning some of his characteristics as she compares them to the setting.

 —Surprised by Love, by Julie Lessman

In another scene, Julie shows character in the setting.


Marcy stood at Mrs. Gerson’s kitchen window, in bleak harmony with the rivulets of water that slithered down the pane. It was a slow and steady rain, endless weeping from a gray and dismal sky, and Marcy felt a kinship with it. It showed no signs of letting up, much like the grief in her heart over the loss of her husband. A silent mourning over a spouse who was still very much alive, but whose love was as cold and dead as any corpse.

Can’t you feel Marcy’s  grief as the rivulets of water slither down the pane?

 — A Passion Denied, by Julie Lessman

We also have some great articles in our archives with more examples of how to use setting to deepen your story.  Scroll down  the list on the right to the word Settings and several posts will appear. 

The first article that appears is written by me and describes how I used setting in LOVE'S REFUGE and other books I wrote.

Janet Dean  wrote Setting Isn't Just Time and Place.  Janet does an excellent job in using her settings in her historical novels. She explains many examples in Courting the Doctors Daughter.

Check out another post I wrote in 2016 entitled Setting Your Scenes and gives examples from our Seekers. 

There are no comments on Fridays so we can catch up on our writing. But do not be dismayed. I have a special gift for all of you. The ecopy of my novella, HOLIDAY HOMECOMING is free today on Amazon.  Or you can order a print copy if you need a stocking stuffer for Christmas.

  Debbie fell in love with surfer, David Martin. Against her parent’s wishes, she married her first love. Would the help of an angel and the influence of the Christmas season bring forgiveness and redemption?

And so you know, HOLIDAY HOMECOMING is the prelude to my new release that is coming out today also.  LOVE'S HEALING is available today, December 8. Remember that books make great Christmas gifts. And who doesn't want to jump into the setting of Hawaii on a cold winter day? 

Will his secret destroy their love?

The secret destroying him, could destroy the one he's dared to love. While visiting her son in Hawaii, Debbie Martin meets retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Brian Roberts. She realizes she is finally ready to put the memories of her deceased husband to rest and move on to a new love. But will Brian’s secret destroy their love? Will their love heal old wounds?

And maybe there is a hint of an angel in this story as well.

Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas.

Sandra Leesmith writes sweet romances to warm the heart. Sandra loves to play pickleball, hike, read, bicycle and write. She is based in Arizona, but she and her husband travel throughout the United States in their motorhome and enjoy the outdoors. You can find Sandra's books here on Amazon. Three of Sandra's most popular books are also audio books at Audible. You can read more of Sandra's posts here.

Best of The Archives: Setting Your Scenes

Sandra here to talk about setting. But before I get started, I want to honor our Veterans and thank them for their service to our wonderful country. Please know we appreciate your sacrifices and time you spent to protect and serve this great nation. Tina and Cara, thank you. 

Grab some coffee and let's chat. I have plenty of Chocolate Mocha Swirl coffee. smile

Bigstock photo

The strangest thing happened on the road on our way to Roper Lake State Park. We were driving down a four lane highway out of Apache Junction into the desert.  A red sedan passed us, but as they passed, they must have startled a red-tailed hawk eating carrion on their side of the road because the giant bird flew up, barely missing the red car and smacked into the motor home.

View from my motor home of sunrise over Roper Lake

We heard this loud thump and I was just heartsick. I prayed like crazy, hoping the bird had died quickly and wasn’t suffering.  I really prayed hard, mainly because I felt so badly that we had hit such a beautiful bird. His wingspan practically covered the width of the motor home.

The road narrowed and after about fifteen minutes, we discovered we needed to secure a loose door.  There were steep rock walls around us so not much room to pull over. Finally, we came to a pull out and stopped the motor home. The minute we stopped the hawk flew up from the front of the motor home and landed on a rocky outcrop above us. He looked amazingly fine—kind of glaring at us like ‘what were we thinking?’

Redtailed hawk at High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. He was injured and rescued.

We checked the front of the motor home and there were a few small feathers on the grill and one of the plastic/fiberglass grill bars was broken. Evidently, the bird had grasped the grill with his sharp claws and held on as we drove down the highway. From ranger talks about birds of prey, we knew that the bird had powerful claws. He must have used all that power to hold on to the grill.

But do you ever have those experiences when you know that there is more involved than just the incident? I had been thinking about the power of prayer and how God works in so many different and amazing ways. I had this strong feeling that this incident was meant to show me the power of prayer. If God would answer my prayer that the beautiful creature had survived unscathed, wouldn’t He be answering all of my other prayers?

Don’t you love how He uses our life situations to teach us?

This incident impacted me so strongly that you know it is going to have to go into one of my future books. Our life experiences add up to make us who we are. I spend most of my non-working time outdoors. I love nature and the lessons I have learned there. So it stands to reason that the Lord will use experiences in the outdoors to teach me.

Because of my love for the outdoors, I put my experiences into my books. Most of my reviews comment on how I have captured the settings. Our Seeker friend Vince who reviewed LOVE’S DREAM SONG, wrote “Her descriptions of the landscape are the next best thing to being on location yourself. I know this because I've been in many of the same locations described in her books.”  Well, of course, I have because that is what I love. The settings are what I observe.

My settings come alive because I have been there and experienced them. Vince also stated “Leesmith loves, lives and breathes the southwest in her personal life and in each word she writes. Her home is in the southwest but she mostly lives out of her RV home so she can go to the locations she writes about.

Photo taken on Sunset Hike at Lost Dutchman State Park of the Superstition Mountains

Yes, I have lived most of my whole life in the Southwest, so it stands to reason I will be able to bring my experience to my writing. Vince wrote, “Sandra Leesmith depicts the ever-changing southwest light to perfection. She also captures the amazing variety of sounds the desert makes -- an abundance of sounds for all who will really listen. Then there are the desert fragrances carried on the wind and which change as the humidity changes. Leesmith also knows all the wildlife that roams at night. She reports sleeping outdoors and noting the tracks of all the night creatures that have walked around and over her sleeping bag. My favorite is when her characters are laying down at night and looking up at the stars. Each constellation has a Native American folktale to explain it.” Thank you, Vince, for appreciating my descriptions and setting.

I have lived in many different places and have traveled as Vince mentioned. So I can have settings in different places. My husband and I traveled a lot in our motor home. LOVE’S REFUGE takes place in the Pacific Northwest where we spent many summers escaping the desert heat. I Blog 4 Books wrote in her review, “Love's Refuge takes place on a secluded island in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. The scenery and the simple lifestyle drew me right in and nearly had me packing my bags for a visit.”

Pacific Northwest

The setting for LOVE’S PROMISES is Lake Tahoe located in California and Nevada. We owned a home there for twenty years and my parents also lived there. So we visited often. The experiences we had working on our home there are found in this book. Miranda A. Uyeh, in her review wrote, “The setting was truly breathtaking. Lake Tahoe sounds like somewhere I’d truly like to visit someday. Sandra wove in the environmental issues of this place within this romance story so that a reader can understand the value of nature in our lives and how the beauty of it can add to the riches of human living/existence.”

Bigstock photo of Lake Tahoe

Hubby and I won a trip to New Orleans in 2002 and while there we took a cruise up the Mississippi on the Delta Queen. While aboard ship, I interviewed the crew and CURRENT OF  LOVE was the result. Seeker friend Kav writes, “And the exotic setting -- a steamboat ride down the Mississippi -- added to my fascination. The author made me feel and smell and plain ol' experience the trip right along with the hero and heroine. Honestly, I'm pretty certain I know exactly what Mississippi mud smells like now!  Readers of that book tell me they felt like they had been on the cruise themselves. I tell shoppers that this book is my feel good, fluffy Hallmark movie romance.

My current WIP is set in Hawaii and La Jolla in Southern California. The hero and heroine are surfers. My family lived on the beach in Southern California during my high school years and I surfed. So you can imagine how much fun it has been to bring up all of those memories. Btw the heroine is Debbie Martin from last year's Christmas novella, HOLIDAY HOMECOMING and it appears she might have found a new love while visiting her son in Hawaii.

Bigstock photo

So my experiences are unique to me. What are your experiences? They will all be different. That is what I love about hanging with writers because we all come from different parts of the world. We all have different backgrounds and interesting aspects of life.

Bigstock photo Maui surf

You don’t have to travel to write an interesting setting. You just need to be observant of the environment you are in. Julie Lessman wrote a whole series in a setting she had never been to, but she brought into her settings the experiences of sound, smells, tastes and sights of home that she knew from her own experiences in her home setting.

Ruth Logan Herne’s books are mostly set in Western New York where she lives. When you read one of her books, you feel like you are in the small town she establishes and you feel like you know those characters. She captures the emotional drama that occurs between people in a small town because she observes where she lives.

Audra Harders and Tina Radcliffe bring the Rocky Mountains to life.  Glynna Kaye puts you in the heart of the Arizona high country.

When you read books written by Missy Tippens, Pam Hillman, and Myra Johnson, you know you are in the South. They bring their own experience into the setting that brings it alive.

So how do you do that?

·      Observe the settings around you. Are you outdoors, indoors, in a small town, large city, a farm or the beach?

• ·      Write down what you experience in that setting.
• ·      Document the five senses. What do you see, hear, smell, feel and taste?
• ·      Note unique features of the setting
• ·      Research historical information about the setting.
• ·      Study the geological history of the setting.
• ·      Take note of the environmental issues of the setting.
• ·      Gather photos of your setting.

Once you have done this, start incorporating all of the information into your story. Often I discover information that will become plot twists that I incorporate in the story. For example, research into the setting of the Mississippi Steamboat gave me the dark moment in CURRENT OF LOVE.  Much of the suspense in LOVE’S PROMISES derived from environmental issues that were unique to the Tahoe Basin. Janet Dean’s historical, COURTING MISS ADELAIDE, revolves around the orphan trains that she learned about in her research of her neighborhood.

You will have your own experiences and deep profound loves. Please comment and let us know something about your setting where you live. Maybe some interesting history.

 I picked the last of the oranges off my tree so please help yourself to a fresh orange. They are so sweet and delicious. 

Oranges off my tree. (I have plenty more - smile)

Before you go, Sandra wants to jump up on her soapbox for a minute. Christmas is coming and I want to remind you that autographed books make delightful gifts. We are writers. We need to support our industry. Go to your local author groups and get signed books to give as gifts. If you see an author's book in the store that you know, buy it for a friend. Support the authors in your community and buy their books as gifts. Check out the links of Seeker authors in this post. A book is a priceless gift. It not only is a lovely present to unwrap, but it opens up a whole new world for your family members and friends. Happy shopping.

This post originally posted April 26, 2016.  There will be no comments today so we can write.  Yay.

In Tucson with Mt Lemmon in background

Sandra Leesmith writes sweet romances to warm the heart. Sandra loves to play pickleball, hike, read, bicycle and write. She is based in Arizona, but she and her husband travel throughout the United States in their motor home and enjoy the outdoors. You can find Sandra's books here on Amazon. Three of Sandra's most popular books are also audio books at Audible. You can read more of Sandra's posts here.

How Setting Affects Character

How Setting Affects Character

Often, particular settings evoke certain kinds of characters in the reader’s mind.

What type of character do you imagine living in a desert with tree cacti and armadillos? I’ll bet 100% of you picture a cowboy. He’s probably somewhere in his thirties, good looking though maybe a little scruffy, tall, reserved and polite to women. You might think of John Wayne, or Gary Cooper in High Noon.

I can almost guarantee a gray haired man in a suit carrying a briefcase won’t come to mind when we think of a hot, dry desert somewhere in the American West.

Readers have the same expectations. When we read a book, setting can be a predictor of character. Sometimes publishers give out ‘tip sheets’ so character and setting will ‘fit’ one another.

SETTING PREDESTINES CHARACTER
Setting often forms character in ways you can analyze and use in your stories. The type of topography, industry, incomes and opinions all influence the kind of people who live in a certain area. Even history makes a difference.

The people from Appalachia are a good example. Many of their ancestors emigrated from Northern Ireland and the border between England and Scotland. They led hardscrabble lives in Europe and learned how to survive in harsh lands against political and military forces that were often hostile. In America, many settled in mountainous regions where circumstances were as difficult as they’d been in their original countries. These were strong, hardy people who valued individualism and were skeptical of government in both Europe and America. Their background and history helped them adapt to a new country.

When you begin a story, determine the setting for your character. It’ll help define the kind of character you’ll create.

Readers quickly doubt story people who seem out of tune with their setting.

PROTOTYPES AND STEREOTYPES
Be aware of the type of characters expected in particular genres. For example, Miss Marple fits in with her village setting perfectly.

This is a picture of Lower Slaughter, an English village in the Cotswolds, where my husband’s family originally came from.

Observe real people and then draw up a “setting list” for your character.
If I asked you to describe a typical surgeon you might say he’s gray haired, middle aged and distinguished. You might place him in a large, urban hospital.

Setting list:
Surgeons work in big city hospitals.
They work long hours and like their work.
They tend to live in large suburban houses.
They come from well-educated family backgrounds.
Most love their work.
They drive expensive cars.

He sounds too typical to me. He’s stereotypical and possibly/probably a bit boring for a fiction hero.

Obviously, not all surgeons fit this description.

Some are women.
Some work in clinics in rural communities.
She might live in an inner-city apartment and take the subway to work.
If she resides in the country, she might drive a jeeps or other rugged SUV.
She could be young and still paying for her education through scholarships and loans because her family was poor or middle class.

Who interests you the most? Who seems most credible?

If you can, spend some time following a real surgeon around her working environment.

The point is, take a good look at the setting you want to use and grow characters out of it. A woman surgeon in rural New Mexico can be equally as believable as a male surgeon in New York.

Whether you create your character first and your setting second, or vice versa, remember to make them fit together.

CASTING AGAINST SETTING
If you don’t mind taking a risk, create a character and put him in a setting where he won’t automatically fit in. Do you remember Northern Exposure? Dr. Fleishman, a Jewish doctor from New York City, was transplanted to Alaska. He was definitely cast against his setting. This creates surprise and contrast and can lead to conflict. Since he doesn’t fit his setting, he has continual and comedic problems.

Transplanting a character can work, especially in a comedy. But sometimes it doesn’t. Can you imagine transplanting Scarlett O’Hara from the Old South to the North? Do you think this would be a good or a bad idea?

American missionaries in a foreign land is also a good example of casting against setting. They’d encounter all kinds of culture shock.

USING SETTING TO CHANGE A CHARACTER
A writer can consciously change her setting to effect change within a character. The easiest way is to move the story person to a new setting. If you want the character to change, show her noticing the differences between the old and the new setting and make her react to it. The change can be as simple as changing neighborhoods or as great as moving to a foreign country with differences in topography, climate, language, food, music, social and moral values, culture.

At the beginning of Gone with the Wind, Scarlett O’Hara is a beautiful but spoiled southern belle. War changes her. In order to survive and take care of her home and family, she rolls up her sleeves and gets to work. Although it’s hard at first, she accepts her world has changed. She adapts. Eventually she learns she has a head for business. She’s a survivor like Rhett.

Rhett Butler has no problem adjusting to the changes caused by war. He becomes a gunrunner and even thrives and becomes prosperous. No matter what the circumstances (excluding love) he ends up doing well.

Ashley Wilkes wasn’t totally comfortable in the Old South and he certainly didn’t adapt to the new world of Reconstruction. He was brave but he didn’t conquer his situation and use it for the benefit of himself and his family, IMHO. He couldn’t move on with his life like Scarlett and Rhett did.

Think about how you want the character change.

I’ve been watching Indian Summers on Masterpiece. It takes place in 1930s when India was still controlled by the British. You can see how the Brits don’t want to lose their English identity and assimilate into Indian culture. The program shows how both groups of people interact with each other. They love, they rebel and they clash, often because of such differences in culture and power. The setting (an occupied country) and dissimilar peoples create lots of great conflict.

The writer has to decide which kind of change within the present setting will jar the character into changing something in his character. War is a great example of this. Some people rise to the occasion, others fall apart.

To push a story person into changing character, you can change the setting completely or make changes in the present setting. Or you can leave the setting essentially the same but have the character notice differences he never noticed before. Then you show how he changes because of the setting he’s in.

Can you think of any more changes in character that come about because of setting?

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Cara Lynn James joined Myra Johnson and Sandra Leesmith in writing Love Will Find a Way, a collection of three novellas. In Staging a Romance by Cara Lynn, a home stager Jenna Carlyle meets businessman Nate McKenzie who is trying to sell his family camp in Connecticut. They slowly fall in love while attempting to find a solution to their career issues which threaten to keep the apart.