Category: Setting

• May 6, 2024

  “Beauty and the Beast” and influence on Herezoth

  I always say Beauty and the Beast is one of my 3 favorite films of all time (the Disney classic animation). Casablanca is my favorite film. I also love Newsies. Beauty and the Beast had two major influences on the Herezoth trilogy, I think. The first was unconscious. It’s Belle’s “provincial town.” Belle may hate…
• July 26, 2023

  On Setting, Part 3: Crafting Unique and Memorable Action Scenes

  

  Before we launch into this, a caveat: what I will discuss here is a more critical technique for screenwriting than for novels or short stories. As I outline in this post on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, I firmly believe that the strength of the written story, even in an action sequence, is…
• July 25, 2023

  On Setting, Part 2: Characterization

  

  It’s almost trite at this point to tell writers of fiction that they should “show, not tell” what’s going on around their characters and in their minds. One way to do this is let setting do some of the heavy lifting of characterization. This is especially doable if you have early scenes set in a…
• July 24, 2023

  On Setting, Part 1: Mood, Lord of the Rings, and the Shire

  

  Setting is so critical to any work of fiction. Today I am starting a series of posts on setting and how to use to it effectively to: The first thing any writer probably thinks of, when they think about setting, is its connection to mood. That is so obvious (and critical to manage well!) We…