Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Setting and Atmosphere
Setting and Atmosphere
1
Setting and Atmosphere
Choose a Place
You have to choose a place to situate your story in. Is it as exotic as an African savannah or
the Amazon jungle? Is it confining like a gray-walled office? Is it as mundane as your
classroom? Is it home in which you have managed to trap yourself?
There should be a setting, the address of your little story.
Some writers like to be vague about it. They would not say what state or country the story
has been set in. However, they still have to describe either the warmth or coolness of the
climate, the scenery (natural or artificial), and the place’s relationship to the character(s)
(familiar or strange).
Course Module
In Creative Nonfiction
In literature as a whole, successfully describing the place allows the readers to fully
believe that the events have happened. There is, after all, a logical and tangible place
that one can imagine while reading the story. You probably will not “buy” the idea of
a person wearing cut off shorts and a tank top walking on snowy ground without a
good reason to back up the strange decision to do so.
In creative nonfiction, it is all the more important for the place to stand out. The
readers should be able to fully empathize with what is happening in the creative
nonfiction piece.
For example, you are writing about waiting for a bus for two hours. Check the two
scenarios below:
Scenario One: I was there, carrying a duffel bag, waiting for a bus. It took the next bus
two hours to arrive.
Scenario Two: I was there in a tiny waiting shed, which stank of pee – human or
animal; I didn’t care enough to know or to investigate. My fully-packed duffel bag
strained on my shoulder. I could not even safely lay it down on the cemented bench,
which sported strange discolorations. I glanced at my watch – it was only twenty
minutes past two. I could not have been waiting for only twenty minutes. I had to
entertain myself on my feet for more than an hour more before the bus arrived.
The second scenario is not only noticeably longer, but it also emphasized the
description of the place and the passage of time. We may not feel as much sympathy
for the character if the writer had left the scene at scenario one draft levels. If you
also added a particular actual place, then people might end up nodding in agreement
or realization. Oh, so that happened at Rose Street? Yeah, I have been there. The bus
stop really stank and the buses have terrible schedules. You have just stamped your
creative nonfiction with proof of the facts that you have stated.
Choose a Time
In stories, time is part of the setting. Time covers the actual time: did it happen at four o’
clock in the afternoon? Did it happen at night? It also covers the duration: the whole scene
happened in the course of two hours or the whole story happened in the course of 24
hours. Others are more ambitious, writing about generations of families, with a narrative
that spans years or even decades. The era or period is also important. Is it the Victorian
era? Did it happen during the late seventies? The era decides a lot of the other details: the
places, the clothes, and more.
In Creative Nonfiction
In creative nonfiction, time influences how you should interpret the events
described. For example, the friendship between a white boy and black boy
would have a different depth if the story were set in 1950s America, despite
the current resurging race tensions during the present day. Children of today,
even without the racial tensions, are simply different from the children of
yesteryears. Today, a lot of children have phones and tablets.
If you are going to write about your life abroad, the same thing applies. Living
abroad as a Filipino during the 19th century is certainly different from living
abroad as a Filipino today. Filipinos today are more often than not seeking
better jobs compared to the Filipinos of centuries ago.
[Creative Nonfiction - SHS
3
Setting and Atmosphere
If you are writing creative nonfiction, then you choose a particular duration
in your life (autobiography) or somebody else’s life (biography) to write
about. With autobiographies and biographies, you have to start from the
beginning of the person’s life story. With a memoir, however, you merely
have to select a certain period of time. It may focus on the time you were
admitted to the hospital for months because of a mysterious illness. It may be
about meeting with and understanding your new adopted child. Usually,
these slices of your life are very compelling and different from what the rest
of the world is churning out as true to life stories. They should not be
sensational or treated sensationally if you want your work to be given
literary relevance, instead of tabloid attention.
Build Atmosphere
Now that you have a place and time, you can now use them to build atmosphere. How do
we build atmosphere? Here are some tips:
In Creative Nonfiction
In creative nonfiction, you use the same exact devices to create the proper pacing.
Even true stories must convey a certain atmosphere or mood. With the appropriate
atmosphere, your audience will better empathize with what is going on.
Glossary
Atmosphere: the mood of the literary piece
Era: a marked and extended period in history
Memoir: a biographical or autobiographical piece that only covers a distinct period in the
life of the main character
[Creative Nonfiction - SHS
5
Setting and Atmosphere
Sensational: arousing great public interest because of the scandalous or morbid nature
of the story
Tabloid: a version of the newspaper that deals more with sensational stories
Course Module