The Social Setting of Your Novel

Once you have the Physical Setting of your novel, its now time to give the people who will appear in your novel a community to live and interact in. Your characters need a community with rules, a common language and a history. The social setting you place your novel will help the reader understand the reactions, motivations and behaviors of your characters.

It will influence how you eventually influence how you solve the conflict. If you create a setting that is unique, it will add depth to your plot, gives the reader something to remember. The social setting will often help you in creating believable conflicts for your character. The factors to remember as you research your setting include;

Research on the demographics of the setting of your novel. If it is set in a small town, how many people live in this community? Is it a close knit community where everybody is in each other’s business or will your main character never have met her/his neighbor. Your book may need for you to know what age-group and race is most predominant.

It is important to know the cultural background that your characters will be operating under. This may include the accepted rules of behavior that are unique to this community. If women are expected to walk around with head gear  you don’t want your character strutting about with her hair flying in the wind unless she’s got a point to prove. Establish the values of the people in your setting. Do the wealthy hold high status or is the studious. Do they insist on obedience or are individuals allowed to follow their hearts. Is the family unit valued or is divorce acceptable? What are the prejudices of the people around your characters are they racists, homophobic, classists?

Often handled inappropriately is the language of your people. Trying too hard will get you into more trouble than just sticking to English. Many un-indigenous writers will try to throw in a smattering of a language they don’t understand to spice up their book, words get distorted and critics get a hold of your book – then you’ll really begin speaking languages.

You should be aware of the economic conditions of the setting you’ll be using. Are they well off or did the recession hit them hard? Be careful to research on the technologies that are available in the setting you are using. There’s nothing worse than a character who uses a pencil in the 15^th century.  It is important to think about who runs your city and what effect this will have on your character.

As you think of these issues, do remember that the only perfect setting belongs in your mind and not in the pages of a book. Real settings are never perfect. On the subject of real settings, using them as is will often place your book at greater risk for criticism. For one, your novel will have a shelf life. Someone reading your novel ten years from now will wonder why Blue’s Bar isn’t next to Tevlo Groceries. To sidestep the difficulties presented by a real setting, place your action in a real city or country; then change the names of known landmarks.

The mark of having creating a good setting is that if you took your initial idea and your character to a different setting, then your plot and resolution of the conflict would have to change.It many need extra energy but it will be well worth it.

Additional Resources

Creating a Physical Setting