The setting...feelings bound up in places...the crossroads of circumstances...the setting. There is something about watching a movie set in a locale I know well that is appealing, exciting even. I watch to see how the characters move through my city or town. I look for the familiar. Didn't you do that as you watched Silver Lining Playbook? I knew that was Upper Darby HS. I knew there was no way he jogged to the diner from where he lived, but the family home was so accurately staged. I do the same thing when eading a work of fiction that is set in a locale I know well.
While setting may sometimes seem trivial, it can make or create the tension needed to move the story on. I thought more about my own writing as I read this chapter. The setting is key in A Shot of Jack. And, my unfamiliarity with the setting causes the tension that creates action and moves the character and the story to a climax. I hadn't thought about that before.
Where are you in your writing? Is your setting a backdrop for your story or an integral part? Is there an odd fact that you can play with to bring your setting to life? It's your writing...play a little and see what happens.
Setting for me has always been more of a scent than anything visual. I’ve been trying to capture that in my narrative for a while now and I’m struggling. But I know that any time I’m out and I catch a whiff of Jovan musk, I’m instantly transported to my Nana’s house. Although, that scent was usually overpowered by the smell of grease and fish—odd combination, I know. My grandparent’s owned a seafood store in Philly and I spent a lot of time there as a child. The scents are all quite strong, each struggling to outweigh the other; and when you add in the fact that they were big smokers, the setting becomes, well, almost noisome. Yet the atmosphere of their home is in direct opposition to those smells: warm, loving, jovial, enveloping. Hoping to play on that dichotomy to bring the piece together.
ReplyDeleteIn my own writing I've found it helps me to describe the setting using my 5 senses as Fletcher suggests. I'm stuggling with the concept of background and integral setting. I recognize both in all the reading I do but when I think about writing I have to separate the 2 to see how my story settings can work. When I think about setting in real life I see that some days, depending on my mood I notice things around me--some days I don't. The weather may bother me if I'm in a bad mood, if things are positive, I might not care if it's raining. So I think about characters being influenced by or reacting to a setting. As I write if I create a setting are my characters doing certain things because of the setting or is the setting what it is because of who is around to be in it or see it? I'm coming up with more questions than answers and this is unsettling!
ReplyDelete"Reactions to Chapters 9 and 10, Ralph Fletcher"
ReplyDeleteChapter 9 - When I was a kid I remember learning about the three kinds of stories that people tell. I was in fifth grade and I remember sitting in the third row somewhere in the middle of the class. I wrote down the words verbatim in cursive: "Man vs. Man" "Man vs. Nature" "Man vs. Self." The page looked like a ticket for a major prize fight in Vegas. The first two were easy. "Man vs. Man" - one guy fights another guy. G.I. Joe fights Cobra, Tom fights Jerry, I fight my brother. Easy. All the best movies told this story. Star Wars, Red Dawn, Raiders of the Lost Arc. Easy. The next one was pretty simple too. "Man vs. Nature." Snow is cold and if you stay out in it long enough you freeze to death. Fire is hot and it can burn you alive. Falling off mountains hurts. This really wasn't too hard to figure out. The last one stuck with me though..."Man vs. Self" (or what Fletcher calls the "Internal Conflict." I didn't understand this one. Why would a man fight himself. Good guys fight bad guys...not each other. What is the "Internal Conflict."
When my kids were younger they used to watch a show called "Thomas the Tank Engine." Thomas was a blue train that traveled all around a small island carrying out orders from Mr. Top Hat. The thing about the show was there were never any bad guys. Thomas didn't fight anyone...all of the trains were friends. Occasionally they had to pull their cargo through a blizzard or a mountain slide, but they rarely had much trouble. I couldn't understand why my kids loved this show. After thinking about it for a while I realized - Thomas the Tank Engine tells the story of the "Internal Conflict." Thomas is trying to figure out what his role is. He is not the strongest or smartest train. He is not the fastest or the biggest. In fact - Thomas is a very ordinary train. I realized that the internal conflict is the real meat that makes fiction worth reading or watching. Good guys fighting bad guys is easy...the real story shines when there is no good or bad...there are only trains.
Chapter 10 - I use a lot of literature in class to as primary sources. My favorite - and everyone else's favorite - is "The Great Gatsby." There is a passage in the novel where Nick describes Gatsby's mansion. The language is beautiful. The description of the curtains blowing in the sea air and the luxuriousness of the staircase is the perfect metaphor for the affluence of the 1920's. It is incredible. When I read it aloud I tell the students to forget about the plot and concentrate on the description, on the setting. As a history teacher, setting is one of the major components that affect the outcome. It is really the main way to make students understand the universal nature of history. Time is a key component of history. As historians students must read every source within the context of its setting. Without setting - there is no history.
Moira Messick Reflection
ReplyDeleteI appreciated John Gardner's analogy of good writing being a vivid and continuous dream. Sometimes if a setting's description is too verbose, the author risks losing his reader's attention.
This chapter forced me to take a long, hard look at my personal narrative. It is already three pages! I do not want to appear long-winded! I concluded that my setting is far from developed. It is a bit of a transient story so I must figure out how to clearly channel that world that only I and five other passengers know. I wondered how I could "show" the disgusting smell and feel of that eternal van ride. I love the idea of describing the setting through my five senses but fear it will bloat my narrative past readability. Will it be too long?
These are concerns that I will bring up with my PAWLP editors on July 1st.
Get ready...
After reading these chapters, I realize I have a lot of work to do on my personal narrative, I've written more about the "experience" then the actual setting. So many novels I've read have such descriptive detail—To Kill A Mocking Bird for example, I could picture myself in Maycomb County, Alabama during the Great Depression, I could feel the tension property brought. Through all the vivid details, I felt like I lived in this small town.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy escaping to new places and experiencing new things, that's why I read. Setting is paramount in a book and I lost my way and forgotten that.
Jeanne Mastriano
ReplyDeleteSetting - could it actually be within the person who is the focus of the piece? In this piece I'm mulling, I'm not thinking about a literal, physical place as much as the person. She gives me my sense of place.
Chris SantaMaria
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading Matt's comments above. And I agree completely that the key to understanding history is to understanding the setting of events. Human character is the constant throughout time, it is the setting that changes, and the events are shaped by the interplay between the two. Primary sources, when used effectively, can hook students into the setting as much as they can reveal information about the subject.
Chapter 10 Sense of Place
ReplyDeleteAs I have been writing my narrative, there are snapshots of setting, but my characters seem to be more at the forefront. After reading this chapter, I would indeed be inclined to return to the narrative and see if there are more opportunities to bring out the setting to enhance the feelings of "home" and how they help to enhance my character.
In reading this chapter, I couldn't help but think of two amazing books where setting was so key to the tension on the book. One was a childrens' selection by Marguerite Henry entitled Misty of Chincoteague and and adult selection The Help by by Kathryn Stockett. In both of these books, the sense of place greatly enhances the stories. While reading The Help, I was very uneasy as Skeeter and Mini took the chances they did to bring to the forefront the plight of the help in the time where the story was set. I found myself worrying for the their safety and cheering them on in their mission to continue the writing of the book. In the other book mentinoned, I spent summers on Assateague island, the island that joins Chincoteague. Ms. Henry takes great care in bringing that island, both the time and the place, to her readers. Although it doesn't add to the tension of the story, it does provide the perfect setting and greatly enhances the depth of the story. Connecting with this place, brings back the many warm and wonderful memories as this book was meant to do for the children who worked so hard to aquire Misty. With this in mind, I will return to my narrative to enhance what has been written and attempt to make it more detailed for the readers.
My narrative is bound with the setting, but not just the places -- also my chronological age and the places where I was in my life. I think that the influence of setting on my theme and mood are evident, but perhaps not on the speech. That is tricky when writing about the past, especially one's childhood. It can be tricky to marry a reflective and authentic tone. I agree with Fletcher that setting is "integral" but I am not sure that I incorporated that. I will try.
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