How Important is Setting?

[Flybynite1892]

When I'm not writing erotica, I'm writing horror, and setting and atmosphere is absolutely one of the most important parts of any story I write. It's also often my favorite part of anything I write.

For my Lit stories, I've created two fictional cities - Galena City and Acidalia - in the mountain western US, and I set pretty much all my stories in one of those two towns. What's fun is I've gotten to write about those cities across decades - most of my stories are set in modern times, but I have one series that's a noir thing in the 1920s and another that's a Western that's supposed to be in the 1880s. Setting isn't the ultimate point in an erotic story, of course (or at least, not usually), but the world building has been fun.

How important is setting for you in your stories here?

 

[StillStunned]

It depends on the story. If it's set in the real, modern world, then it barely matters, except as background, somewhere for the events to take place.

In my one EH story, it's very important. Besides shaping the mood of the story, the setting is also a reflection of the narrator's state of mind.

In my sword & sorcery series The Rivals, setting is important in showing that the two main characters are alone in an ancient and uncaring world.

In my sci-fi series The Dome, the setting is crucial for driving the adventure, with machine against man against nature.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

For me, it's usually very important as that's where I'm seeing my characters. In some stories it's a generic modern hotel room, partly so everyone recognises it. In many, it's a particular feature, practically a character. Everyone's experience of a city will be a different and I try to describe that - Las Vegas as a succession of excess heat followed by excess air-conditioning, for example. Side roads of London. A certain attic bedsit, various Cambridge colleges, a camp site, a wood with possibly enough privacy for sex - all important to stories, though the trick is always to describe enough to be convincing and give a sense of the place, without info-dumping.

My Erotic Horror story Londoner Calling has an immortal hellbeing observe London changing through the ages, before feeding on sexual thoughts. They're deeply associated with the city. My story Turkish Delight is basically a travel story to Istanbul. Even with all the sex removed, it works as a travelogue.

 

[ElectricBlue]

How important is setting for you in your stories here?

It depends. For some stories, setting is more important than others, and I evoke a sense of place that's detailed, "cinematic". In other stories, there's merely a hint.

 

[Flybynite1892]

It depends. For some stories, setting is more important than others, and I evoke a sense of place that's detailed, "cinematic". In other stories, there s merely a hint.

I definitely get that. What's an example of a story where setting is more important?

 

[Rustyoznail]

I definitely get that. What's an example of a story where setting is more important?

Any of the "Tales of Leinyere" stories came out of a world setting challenge. There were some really good ideas, all bound by the common mythology.

My first story in that world is https://literotica.com/s/the-leinyere-farmers-daughter

 

[LessThanAWord]

For my money (disclaimer: what I write is categorically porn and porn-first) setting is important insofar as it gives context and flavour to the character and their choices. For instance I have two stories about characters going back home, and where home is and what happened there before informs their emotional states and the meaning for what they're doing.

Images matter to your characters; how their experience transforms those images, and vice versa. A story about a hospital is very different depending on whether your characters are patients or healers, what their prior experience of hospitals is and what they expect of the setting.

Whether I'm writing or reading I want to know what a character's investment is in their surroundings. Lacking sufficient setting would probably take me out of a story, and likewise, too much worldbuilding is likely to make me feel that the author is worried their sex scenes are unjustifiable.

 

[mildlyaroused]

In general, both erotically and otherwise, I like to write in a sort of timeless setting. Sometimes it's a specific city or country on Earth, and sometimes it isn't - but usually I don't prescribe a specific date or era to the setting (outside of explicitly historical works), and often it's not 100% clear where it is. I like to let the characters and themes speak for themselves outside of a specific setting. That's not to say I don't take the time to build a sense of place, but usually that sense of place is slightly whimsical in the sense that it serves the characters and their journeys. This is probably exacerbated by the fact that I don't write politically: I'm far less interested in macro-level politics than I am the narratives on individual people(s). This is a criticism I've had directed at me before, in my non-erotic works, but interpersonal relationships and philosophical themes are simply more interesting to me than politics.

Maybe it's because politics are so exhausting in the real world.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I definitely get that. What's an example of a story where setting is more important?

In this one I conjured up Titan, one of Jupiter's moons (with an angel and an astronaut):

https://www.literotica.com/s/songs-of-seduction-fire-and-ice

In this one, Arthurian Britain (but it starts with a volcanic eruption):

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-dark-chronicles-ch-00

 

[TheRedChamber]

One of the interesting things I discovered while writing a recent story A Day with Miss May was that setting is a) important b) fun to research c) surprisingly easy to add in after the fact.

The story started out as being 'on a beach'. I wrote the first few thousand words not really knowing where this beach was. I'd beta-read a recent beach story another author set in Thailand so I was pretty sure it wasn't in Asia. I settled on possibly Greece or Italy. It was only much later in the story, when I concieved of the MC renting a sports car and taking the romantic interest for a drive along the coast when it suddenly became obvious that the story needed to be set 'somewhere'. I actually finished the story first, moving my characters from beach to restaurant to hotel. It was only once the story was finished and sent off to my beta reader that I actually started narrowing down where everything happened.

A quick reading of some websites on holidays in Italy and the famous roads to drive down and I quickly settled on the Amalfi Coast. I went back and added in all that colour to an already finished story. Sandy beaches became pebbled with huge climbs up and down stairs into cliff faces. Long stretches of coast became isolated coves miles apart and our heroes acquired bikes to nagivate them. Road-side vendors selling lemons and lemon-based products appeared along the route. Vague declarations that the food was great were replaced with detailed descriptions of what the food actually was.

All this was done with a notepad and about two hours worth of YouTube videos and was in itself a really interesting 'hobby' or way of engaging with a location I'd never been too. While it's might often be best to do this kind of research before hand, it was definitely a lesson to see how much it could be done after the fact. And I definitely benefitted from not stopping writing on a story where the characters were already flowing forth.

 

[THBGato]

I've often heard the advice "write what you know" but I want to write about women who are very different to me (in terms of ethnicity, nationality, neurotypicality, body type, profession, etc). But I also want to write things that are "true".

My compromise, if you like, is therefore to "write WHERE I know". Setting for me adds, I think (and several commenters seem to agree), an element of authenticity to my otherwise entirely fictitious stories.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Importance of setting varies greatly depending on the story. Setting is one of the pillars of writing but there is no rule requiring any of the pillars to be used. In shorter stories, things like setting or character development or heavy descriptions could be completely ignored. Of course removing any of these pillars removes a bullet from your writing gun, making it a bit tougher for the reader to relate or keep interest. That's why in a shorter story you can get away with missing pillars - in fact sometimes you might need to do away with something like setting, for instance in a 750 word piece, you need to get rid of something. However, the longer the story gets, it will be much easier if you keep your writing gun loaded with as many bullets as possible including characters and development, plot and motive, setting, imagery, theme, etc).

The main importance of setting is for immersion. It becomes much easier to hold the reader's attention if they are immersed in the story - if they feel like they are there next to the characters. If not a specific setting at least some sense of place, like that secret smoky room in the back of the club where the gangsters hang out, play cards and discuss business, or some forest trail on a crisp morning with the dawn sunrays cutting through the mist. Detailed description, natural dialogue and sense of place (setting) will do this for you.

 

[yowser]

Importance of setting varies greatly depending on the story. Setting is one of the pillars of writing but there is no rule requiring any of the pillars to be used. In shorter stories, things like setting or character development or heavy descriptions could be completely ignored. Of course removing any of these pillars removes a bullet from your writing gun, making it a bit tougher for the reader to relate or keep interest. That's why in a shorter story you can get away with missing pillars - in fact sometimes you might need to do away with something like setting, for instance in a 750 word piece, you need to get rid of something. However, the longer the story gets, it will be much easier if you keep your writing gun loaded with as many bullets as possible including characters and development, plot and motive, setting, imagery, theme, etc).

The main importance of setting is for immersion. It becomes much easier to hold the reader's attention if they are immersed in the story - if they feel like they are there next to the characters. If not a specific setting at least some sense of place, like that secret smoky room in the back of the club where the gangsters hang out, play cards and discuss business, or some forest trail on a crisp morning with the dawn sunrays cutting through the mist. Detailed description, natural dialogue and sense of place (setting) will do this for you.

Some good points here.

I think I am more sensitive to setting than most and I appreciate a writer who can plop me into the action so that I have a visual or visceral sense of where everything is happening. For me, far too many Lit stories are in generic/anytown USA places that remain colorless and vapid - too much white space. As a reader I like to be taken somewhere, with sights or smells or sounds, and when all of those are missing, I am disappointed. What, no humidity? No cricket sounds in the night air? If the folks in this story are without clothes, please tell me it's warm enough for this to happen.

A good setting can inject all sorts of magic to a story, especially if it reveals aspects of the characters, and the reader is provided a sense of what the place or season or time of day means to the individuals involved.

But yes, it all depends on the story you are trying to tell, a decision for the author.

 

[StillStunned]

A good setting can inject all sorts of magic to a story, especially if it reveals aspects of the characters, and the reader is provided a sense of what the place or season or time of day means to the individuals involved.

Used properly, setting can be a reflection of what's happening inside the character. Dark and gloomy or bright and sunny, it will put your reader in the frame of mind to understand what the character is feeling. A rough and stormy sea can represent inner turmoil. A desert might indicate despair.

These are very simple elements, and they can be very effective as long as you don't overstress them. Let the readers pick up on them, even unconsciously, and it will enhance their enjoyment of your story.

 

[gunhilltrain]

It depends on the story. If it's set in the real, modern world, then it barely matters, except as background, somewhere for the events to take place.

In my one EH story, it's very important. Besides shaping the mood of the story, the setting is also a reflection of the narrator's state of mind.

In my sword & sorcery series The Rivals, setting is important in showing that the two main characters are alone in an ancient and uncaring world.

In my sci-fi series The Dome, the setting is crucial for driving the adventure, with machine against man against nature.

The setting of a modern story can be important, and I have gone further afield from the Northeast (New York, a lot) recently. For https://classic.literotica.com/s/trucker-mom-1, I used highway U.S. 50 - "the loneliest road in America" - because it seemed like a good place for the mom to get away with some hijinks with her stepson. I've been to Nevada, but I've never been on that road. I happened to read about it when pondering the story, and it seemed like it would work as the setting.

U.S. 50

 

[MrPixel]

The setting of a modern story can be important, and I have gone further afield from the Northeast (New York, a lot) recently. For https://classic.literotica.com/s/trucker-mom-1, I used highway U.S. 50 - "the loneliest road in America" - because it seemed like a good place for the mom to get away with some hijinks with her stepson. I've been to Nevada, but I've never been on that road. I happened to read about it when pondering the story, and it seemed like it would work as the setting.

U.S. 50

I have been on that road. One thing to note vis-a-vis your story - very little truck traffic. I don't recall any the two times we traversed it. The problem with that stretch of 50 is hinted in the picture you linked to - the mountain range in the distance. There are four (IIRC) such ranges to traverse, the approaches are steep, and a couple are twisty. I specifically recall dealing with somebody towing a large camping trailer up one of the grades and they were struggling; there was no opportunity to safely pass until the summit. A straight truck like you wrote would be hard enough, it would be a brutal drive in an 18-wheeler.

We, however, had our fun in the isolation. She offered to "take a walk", if you know what I mean. Must have hiked a half-mile, only getting back in the car to cool off.

 

[THBGato]

Apropos of this, setting in the latest story by @Taylor_Knight is, I would argue, crucial to the tone of the piece. A hot tub surrounded by icy slopes is the perfect metaphor for what is going on in the now of the story versus the environment of their past.

 

[StillStunned]

The setting of a modern story can be important,

I agree. I just meant that in my own stories, so far setting hasn't been important if the story takes place in the modern world.

 

[SimonDoom]

Generally speaking, to me, not very. In most of my stories, I'm not interested in setting. I usually place my stories in settings that are somewhat familiar to me, which makes it easier for me to write them. The settings are usually bland and vague, because details don't play an important role in the plot. I place most stories in unidentified cities or other areas. I do so because 1) it's easier to write this way, and 2) I think the stories will be more broadly relatable to more readers if the setting isn't specific, and 3) the setting isn't really important to the erotic focus of my story.

 

[NotWise]

A common teaching approach says that characters, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution are the main components of a story. Whether they're important in erotica depends on how much story there is in the erotica. Some of what you read here has rather little story, and one or more of the components can fall by the wayside, or at least play a bit part.

You can write, for instance, about an encounter between people who are married (maybe not to each other), in bed, in the dark. You don't need to say how they got there. The setting doesn't need much more detail. The characters don't need much more detail. To the extent that the story needs plot, conflict, or resolution those details can be constructed in dialogue between the gasps and the moans.

I've experimented. I have one story (Her Dream House) in which I tried to minimize a lot of things. The characters don't even get names. The setting is an office building in a blackout. The whole thing takes place in about an hour.

Despite my attempts, one of my favorite readers pointed out that you actually know the characters fairly well by the end of the story. Not sure if that was a win or a loss.

 

[AG31]

It depends on the story. If it's set in the real, modern world, then it barely matters, except as background, somewhere for the events to take place.

In my one EH story, it's very important. Besides shaping the mood of the story, the setting is also a reflection of the narrator's state of mind.

In my sword & sorcery series The Rivals, setting is important in showing that the two main characters are alone in an ancient and uncaring world.

In my sci-fi series The Dome, the setting is crucial for driving the adventure, with machine against man against nature.

I think stories set in historic or sci-fi places can also work without much attention to setting. The lack of attention plays its own role. I think of a (for me) memorable sci-fi story. I wish I could recall the name. The MC is a sort of prisoner in an alien place, but he is treated very, very well. This goes on for weeks (months?). Then comes a time when he's told he'll be presented to the ruler of this place. He's to approach alone across a long hall. But he must be very careful not to look at the ruler in the face. He does this, and feels so loved and supported that he looks up in gratitude. Immediately soldiers surround him and carry him off to be executed.

There's absolutely no description of the setting except for the large hall (and then only that it is a large hall). The way the story is told has stayed with me for decades.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I've often heard the advice "write what you know" but I want to write about women who are very different to me (in terms of ethnicity, nationality, neurotypicality, body type, profession, etc). But I also want to write things that are "true".

My compromise, if you like, is therefore to "write WHERE I know". Setting for me adds, I think (and several commenters seem to agree), an element of authenticity to my otherwise entirely fictitious stories.

I do this a lot, too. My "primal city" is Canberra, where I lived for a decade. It appears, almost as a character, in several stories. I don't live there now, so my current city turns up a lot, but in disguise. The places are real, the street names are not.

 

[RetroFan]

I do this a lot, too. My "primal city" is Canberra, where I lived for a decade. It appears, almost as a character, in several stories. I don't live there now, so my current city turns up a lot, but in disguise. The places are real, the street names are not.

I like writing Australian stories in lots of details, with interesting places and landmarks featured. I enjoyed writing my story series 'Crazy Cornelius & the Magic Pills' which was sort of like a road movie, going all over Sydney in well known locations; to the Central Coast (Gosford) via Sydney's northern coast and the Hawkesbury; up to the Hunter Region (Newcastle and Port Stephens); back down into the Blue Mountains with a stop in Katoomba, through far South Western Sydney (Campbelltown region) through the Southern Tablelands to Goulburn and to Canberra, across to Batemans Bay, up the coast through the Illawarra region and to Wollongong, then north to Cronulla and back to Sydney where the story climax takes place in Hyde Park.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I like writing Australian stories in lots of details, with interesting places and landmarks featured.

Non Aussies seem to like that, when we write our own sense of place, and give them a feel for an English speaking society that's not English or North American. Most readers manage to cope with the different turns of phrase, and even @SimonDoom can cope with proper English spelling, you know: colour, labour, aluminium. The Labor Party confuses the fuck out of them though .

 

[gunhilltrain]

I have been on that road. One thing to note vis-a-vis your story - very little truck traffic. I don't recall any the two times we traversed it. The problem with that stretch of 50 is hinted in the picture you linked to - the mountain range in the distance. There are four (IIRC) such ranges to traverse, the approaches are steep, and a couple are twisty. I specifically recall dealing with somebody towing a large camping trailer up one of the grades and they were struggling; there was no opportunity to safely pass until the summit. A straight truck like you wrote would be hard enough, it would be a brutal drive in an 18-wheeler.

We, however, had our fun in the isolation. She offered to "take a walk", if you know what I mean. Must have hiked a half-mile, only getting back in the car to cool off.

I remember deciding early on that a tractor-trailer was wrong for the story, mainly because Marion came to the job later in life and she didn't want to deal with the complexities of a driving a big truck. It's not specified whether she has been on that route before, but she she seems to know something about it. I assume she got the truck to Provo okay. It's also implied that she probably stayed in a motel with the stepson there, so perhaps they went back the next day on the Interstate.