Writing Forum

From what I understand, one of the main ways to making a setting "come alive" is to give it some sort of emotional impact on the character(s). The setting can't talk or directly act for itself, so how it is experienced and perceived is important.

"The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allan Poe has an opening that is largely considered a good, albeit old-fashioned, example of a strong, atmospheric setting. That is primarily because instead of treating the setting as a simple backdrop, Poe made the main character have a strong emotional reaction to it, and the details (like the "vacant eye-like windows") reinforced the emotional reaction.

Of course, not every setting is going to be as strongly atmospheric as what Poe wrote, but the basic idea of having the setting affect (or as KMH noted in her excellent discourse, reflect) the character(s) in some way is important to having a strong setting.

I'm no expert, though.

~Dream Justly~
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