Setting

Setting is the place and time in which a story happens, giving context to events and the decisions characters make. A dark, stormy setting suggests danger or mystery, just as a sunny, cloudless setting suggests beauty and peace. Setting not only hints at what is to come but also influences how we feel.

As a mental model, setting teaches us that where you do something influences what you can do. It also reminds us to think about what’s around us, because our choices and options are always confined by where we are. Too often, we assume we can move an action to a new location and expect the same result.

How Setting Works in Stories

Novels, plays, and movies all have a setting, even if vague (e.g., "on some other planet, sometime in the future"). Nonfiction also has a setting: the time and place of the events described. Considering the setting helps us avoid assuming information applies everywhere and forever.

Nested Settings

Books contain settings within settings. A broad setting (e.g., Berlin in 1975) encompasses more specific ones (a guardhouse at Checkpoint Charlie, an apartment overlooking the Tiergarten), all of which must be consistent with the broader context.

Subjective Qualities

Setting is fluid—it is not an inert, objective backdrop. The description of a setting comes from a narrator or character, revealing personality and impacting plot. As Carmen Maria Machado writes: "Places are never just places in a piece of writing. If they are, the author has failed. Setting is not inert. It is activated by point of view."[^1] For example, three characters might describe the same countryside in three different ways. Whether a graveyard feels creepy or sad depends on the characters’ perceptions and the action taking place there.

Archetypes and Stock Elements

Certain settings carry archetypal qualities. A Western can be set in the American West or on Tatooine, but probably not in modern downtown Beijing. Settings thus have stock elements that guide audience expectations.

Setting as Constraint

Setting places valuable constraints on story development, narrowing the storyteller’s choices. For instance, setting an ordinary domestic scene in 1975 rules out the casual use of smartphones or today’s public internet.

The Venue Shapes the Art

David Byrne explains how performance spaces have historically influenced music and performance:[^2]

"In a sense, we work backward, either consciously or unconsciously, creating work that fits the venue available to us."

• African drum music: Percussive music carries well outdoors, where people might be dancing and milling about. The intricate, layered rhythms don’t get sonically mashed together as they would in a gymnasium or cathedral. "The music perfectly fits the place where it is heard, sonically and structurally."
• Classical music: As symphonic music moved to larger halls, composers wrote music that emphasized texture and used audio "shock and awe" to reach the back rows.
• Modern concert behavior: Around 1900, audiences began sitting quietly during performances. This allowed composers to write extremely quiet passages because every detail would be heard.
• Arena rock: In the 1960s, pop music performed in basketball arenas and stadiums (which have terrible acoustics) led to the creation of arena rock—a style that worked in those massive, echoing spaces.

Maria Irene Fornés underscores this: "I would direct a play very differently if the space is different, if the space is deeper, if the space is taller: something begins to happen that is different."[^3]

Applying the Mental Model

Before moving an activity to a different setting, identify what the original location made possible: access to people, equipment, acoustics, privacy, or time. Then ask which of those conditions the new location provides.

[^1]: Carmen Maria Machado, quoted in the original text. [^2]: David Byrne, How Music Works (2012). [^3]: Maria Irene Fornés, quoted in the original text.