What’s your story’s setting? Is there a place–a city, a building, a park–the characters keep coming back to?

For this prompt, think about the main or recurring setting. What’s its history? How long has it been around? What was it before? Who used it before? What interesting things, big or small, happened there? When? Why?

What remnants remain?

Do any of these things or happenings impact or shed insight on your story?

Could they?

Okay, so this isn’t so much a scene prompt as a pre-writing exercise, but it’s still useful. Knowing your setting’s backstory is part of how setting can become a character.

Do some research. If you’re not using a real place, liken it to a real place and research that for inspiration. If you don’t find anything good, make something up. I bet you’ll be glad you did.

Book that inspired this prompt

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That’s it for me!

How about you? What kind of things do you like to think about when you’re developing setting? Share with us in the comments.

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