Setting as a Character

I’m a storyworld-first author, as opposed to a plot-first or character-first one. So I tend to talk a lot about storyworlds. As I’ve been working on a new project and building up my world, I got to thinking that this time around, the storyworld really seems to have its own personality. That got me thinking that the setting has a lot of the same characteristics as a character does. Let’s take a look at what each need.

Characters Need
1. Backstory
2. Internal and external motivations
3. A story goal
4. Opposition
5. To believe a lie
6. For things to get uncomfortable in the story so they can …
7. Change or experience growth during the course of the story

Storyworld Needs
1. Culture (Which includes a level of technological advancement, ethnic groups, religions, governments, way of life, etc.)
2. Land (Which includes terrain, cities and towns, major landmarks or buildings, etc. And maybe a map too.)
3. Environmental factors (Like weather, animals, disease, resources.)
4. History (Include a political backstory, wars, and other major world events.)
5. A threat to some part of the world (Which can often be the same, or related to, the threat that the character is experiencing.)

Similarities
1. Both need a backstory or history.  To have a past is to have experienced good and bad things in life. These things add realism to your character or world.

2. Both need an opposition or threat and sometimes they are threats to each other. Even if you’re writing a romance about a teacher and a carpenter, oppositions and threats to your storyworld can be a good thing. The storyworld in a contemporary tale is simply the world your characters live in. Some examples of opposition or threats in such a world might be: a snowstorm that keeps your hero from reaching his destination, a business closing and laying off all its employees, a teacher who picks on the main character’s child, a cruel landlord who wants to evict your hero, a school that expels your football star, things like that.

3. Both need to change in some way. And maybe your story isn’t going to have a happy ending, but it should still satisfy the reader. In the end of the struggle, the character and his world should have changed in some way.

A great example of a character and a setting working beautifully together is in the book City of Ember. The city is running out of resources and so are the people who live there. So Lina must figure out how to leave the city before its too late. Both Lina and the city have a history. They both face the same threat. And they both change in some way, though it’s not the same way.

Take some time to think about your storyword. Does it threaten your character in some way during the course of the story? If not, think of a way that it might. Does it change? How?