Story with a Setting

Writing settings can be hard. 

It takes a lot of skill and practice to take a picture that exists in your head and paint it with words so that it can shine in the minds of your readers.

How do you do it?

The key to every setting; the most important part of any setting are the Sensory Details. Sensory Details are details that appeal to or describe the five senses: seeing, smelling, hearing, touching (feeling) and tasting.  

Just by choosing the right Sensory Details, an author can help the reader visualize what's happening in the story. The right Sensory Details can help establish a mood for the reader (Mood = an emotion created for the reader). Sensory Details also help describe characters and develop conflict.

So choosing the right Sensory Details is something authors should plan, practice and revise for.

Here's some tips to help.

When planning your story, DON'T scrimp on the Sensory Details. Pay attention to the setting that you choose for your story, and choose it deliberately.

Step One: Ask yourself these questions:

1) Where would my character be?
2) What setting will make my problem more complicated?
3) What mood does this part of the story need?

Step Two: BRAINSTORM some ideas. 

Come up with as many details as you can possibly think of. It helps to be specific. For example, your setting doesn't just smell yummy, it smells like cinnamon and brown sugar. There isn't just a car engine, the car engine is rattling and clunking (or it is purring and humming).

Fill out the bubble map below to help organize your Sensory Details.

Step Three: Choose the Sensory Details that will be the most useful in describing your setting.

You should choose details that describe at least three (3) different senses for every setting in your story.
If you change settings, create another bubble map and choose three (3) types of Sensory Details to include in your setting description.

Step Four: Write Your Story!

Once you have your ideas planned out, put them down on paper.

One last tip, Sensory Details should be woven throughout the story. A great author will spend at least 25% of their word count describing the setting.

So... Now it is YOUR turn. 

Write a story that includes a setting. The story should have a beginning, middle and end, and include a specific, descriptive setting. The setting should establish a mood, it should describe the characters and help develop the conflict.

Click the link below to access the rubric for this assignment:

Story with a Setting Rubric

Due Dates:

Rough Draft due Tuesday September 29, 2015

Revisions due Monday October 5, 2015

Final Draft due Wednesday October 8, 2015

Writing about Yourself

The easiest things to write about are the things you know most about. And for me, I know the most about myself: my life and my likes.

But sometimes I know SO much about myself that it is overwhelming.

That's where brainstorming comes in. There are lots of way to write down and organize all the stuff I know and remember and think and do.

One way is using the ABC Box.

In the ABC Box, write down the stories or memories you have that start with the letter in the box. For example, under the letter "S" I might write down how I met my husband, Stan. Or under the letter "U" I might write down the words "Upside Down Cake" to remind myself of the time I dropped my brother's birthday cake.

Timelines are another effective way of mining story ideas. You could make a timeline that records all your writing history, or a timeline that illustrates your experiences with a certain sport, or a person.

Finally, an architectural blueprint is a great way to pull stories from different places. Making a blueprint of your house, your grandma's house, or even school and then writing memories that occurred in each room can help you organize the story ideas you didn't even know you had.

Once you have your ideas laid out before you, you can pick and choose and combine all or parts of stories. For example, combining details from my first date with Stan with details about a conversation we had months later in my mother's kitchen (when he first told me he loved me) can make a really heartwarming story.

So, this week's assignment is to come up with as many ideas as we can about ourselves.

What do you remember? Where do you remember it? What happened before and after?

Write it down and share!