hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2753.txt

Episode: 2753
Title: HPR2753: Specific Settings In Storytelling
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2753/hpr2753.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 16:21:25

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This is HPR episode 2007, 153 entitled, specific settings in storytelling and in part of the series, random elements on storytelling.
It is hosted by Lost in Bronx and is about 17 minutes long and carries a clean flag.
The summary is Lost in Bronx looks at why you might choose specific settings for your tales.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by archive.org.
Support universal access to all knowledge by heading over to archive.org forward slash donate.
Hello, this is Lost in Bronx and you'll have to forgive the sound quality I'm in the car right now.
Today, I would like to talk about the importance of setting in storytelling.
Now, I know I've covered this topic in the past, at least tangently in different other episodes that I've done.
But today, I would like to focus on the importance of a specific setting.
What do I mean by that? Like, say you're telling a story, you're creating a story that is a historical story.
Right now, historical stories, especially if they revolve around a particular moment in history,
something well known, war, a revolution, some large event that's well documented.
So if you're doing a story set in the American Revolution, now that's a particular time period.
Obviously, it stretches from one set time to another and of course you can choose which time period
that includes because you can include the antecedents all the way up to the time the war was over and beyond
and the ramifications there are. In other words, the scope of the story is up to you.
However, if you're going to tell a story about the revolution, it more or less has to happen
somewhere where the fighting took place. Not necessarily. Again, you could be talking about
what was going on in Europe during all this, what was going on in the far east during this time
period, what was going on in North America but not in the colonies. And all of those things most likely
talk to some degree about the revolution based on the things that were happening there. But
not a lot. Obviously, that isn't really going to be the focus of people's lives in those areas.
So that's likely not going to be the focus of your story. So in many ways, especially when you're
talking about historical events, the setting is dictated by the story itself. What you're telling
where you're telling it, you're going to have a setting that you have to more or less adopt,
research and present to your audience. Now, specific settings for specific sorts of stories,
that's very simple when it's historical. As I say, it's dictated and you don't really get a choice.
You could tell, I suppose, you could tell a story about a spy for the British government,
the crown during the American Revolution, but that spy is stranded on a desert island.
So what's the point of him being a spy? There's no point to that at all. If the story takes place
on this island and has absolutely nothing to do with the American Revolution, why is he a spy?
It doesn't make sense. So in a situation like that, the story you're telling has got nothing to do
with that sort of setting. So there's no point in trying to dovetail that sort of stuff together.
Now, perhaps the reason you're setting it there is because this was an era when people could get
stranded and be lost for years on end on a desert island. And there was an awful lot of ocean
travel at that time and you want your character to be English. That's a valid reason for setting it
in that time period. It is not a valid reason for your character to be a spy because if he's going
to be a spy, he needs to be part of that setting. That kind of character is linked to that kind of
setting and that kind of story, a spy story, an espionage story, a war story. That's where he's linked.
So in that case, character in a way is defining your setting. However, of course, it all depends on
how you structure your story, where you start. Did you start with the idea of, I want to tell a story
in the American Revolution. What sort of great character would fit well in that environment that
hasn't been done over and over and over and point of fact, spies have been done over and over and
over for the American Revolution, but that's true of any war story that's been told. There's always
that sort of espionage angle that many people enjoy. But the point here is depending on how you
approach your tale and the construction of the story from the start, your character may dictate
your setting. I want to spy from the American Revolution. If that's the character you want to
tell a story around, then you've got to put them in the American Revolution or perhaps a little
bit before or sometime afterward, but the revolution will dictate the events of that story.
What happened there has an impact on the character and should have an impact on the tale as a whole.
Whether or not the actual events of the story you're telling take place in that setting,
that setting casts a long shadow over your tale. So if that's the kind of character you want,
you cannot get away from that setting. Even if that setting isn't exactly where the action of
the story is going, it is impossible for your character to escape that setting. And it should be
that is a major event. And the character has a very specific sort of job or at least did during
that time period. That character is going to have incredible things that happen to them. And
that is going to have an impact on what type of person they are. So if you approach it that way,
your setting is dictated. If you approach it from another way, you have a little more freedom.
Say you want to tell a spy story. You start it that vaguely. And yes, you want it to be historical.
You have all of human history, written history, recorded history, to choose from.
Some things are much better documented than others. That may be a hindrance for you or it may be
a strength. It may be a reason why you might want to choose being a spy in that time period.
So if you go from that angle, you're not locked down to the American Revolution. You can say,
I want them to be in the Crimean War. I want them to be in the Hundred Years War.
One of the world wars from the 20th century could be a modern tale with spies in Afghanistan or
the Middle East. There could be a lot of options if you approach it from what type of story you want
to tell. But once you start narrowing it down, your setting becomes hard and fast. You can't get
away from a specific setting when you're talking about historical events. That's just the way it is.
So what if we take a more fanciful approach? What if we're taking a genre story such as fantasy
or science fiction set in the future? Fantasy on another world. Well, now you're not constrained
by setting. You can say, I want to tell a story about a civil war that occurred in
this fantasy world at one point. And I'm going to talk about a spy who was working for some
wizard's guild. Well, you can make all of that up right on the spot or over time or likely.
And in this case, you can decide what sort of story you're telling in advance, what sort of
character you want in advance. And you can create the setting around that character.
But that is not what I would call specific setting. That's tailored setting. You have created the
setting to fit the story you want to tell. Not the same thing. And that goes for science fiction
in the future. If it's near future, not so much. You probably are dealing with places that
everybody's already familiar with. But the further from our time period you go, the more freedom
you have and the more you can tailor your setting to your story. But what if you're not telling a
story like that? Maybe you're telling a romance. You're telling a love story. And maybe it's one
set in modern times. It's a romance, a straight up romance or a comedy romance, light-hearted.
And you want to set it in a specific place. Well, one thing to keep in mind, especially,
especially for real places that people are familiar with, certain places have very specific
effects upon your tale. I'm not just talking about we're going to have a romance, but we're going
to set it in a volcano. Well, obviously, that's going to have a very specific effect on your tale.
But you want an urban love story. A love story set in a big city. Well, there are many, many big
cities in the world that you can choose from. And people are falling in love and all of them
write this very moment. The fact is, a love story set in New York City, as opposed to one set in
Paris, as opposed to one set in Moscow, as opposed to one set in Tokyo, are all going to have a
very different character to them. The influence of that setting, and that isn't just the city,
but also the country that's in the culture of that place, should have a huge impact on your tale.
When the story is done, the reader, the audience, the listener, whatever format your story is in,
when it's done, that person should say, what a great tale. It makes me want to go there.
It should be a setting that comes alive. Now, you've heard probably many times the phrase that
the setting was a character all on its own. Well, not just any place can be that way. Or I should
say, probably any place can, but it's much, much easier for certain places in the world to exert
themselves upon the character of a story than it is in others. And mostly that has to do with
familiarity. How familiar is your audience with that place? If that place can be captured
so that it comes alive, so that your audience, your readership experiences that story and says,
I really felt like I was there. Suddenly, that's a specific setting. Now, whether you love them,
whether you hate them, Woody Allen has done quite a few films set in New York City. And one continual
observation of his tales is that they are New York tales. They really can't be told anywhere else.
Any story that was like it, set somewhere else would be a very different story. Manhattan comes
to mind, his film from the 70s, very, very, very much a New York story, very much a Manhattan
story. A story that sat in any other burrow of New York City wouldn't quite have been the same.
So the setting in a tale like that, in a movie like that, is absolutely vital. It's very,
very specific. And if you want to tell that exact story, it can't be set anywhere else.
There are other cities, very, very easily. The city becomes a character in that tale. New York
is one, Paris is one, London is one. There are other cities that are like that. Cities very,
very often are given that power over our emotions that the city becomes a thing. This city exerted
its character in the tale. And if they're accurately portrayed, you will feel like that city was
endemic to the story. You could not tell the story anywhere else. The better you can capture that,
the better it is. However, you could capture it perfectly. But if most people aren't familiar with
what's going on, it may still feel generic. And that's why stories that are set in rural environments
very often do not have that same feeling. And it's not because the author didn't capture
the character of that specific place, but because people lack familiarity with the place.
To many people, a farm is a farm is a farm. Now it wasn't always that way, but it is today.
And a farm in Kansas versus a farm in Iowa in reality have very different aspects to them.
They're not the same things at all. A farmer from either of those places will tell you that,
and they can explain probably in quite exquisite detail why those places are very, very different
from each other. Those differences are largely going to be lost and people that are unfamiliar with
those places. Those are relatively sparsely populated areas. Many people are unfamiliar certainly
with rural living in those areas. And as a result, you can try to capture the flavor of Iowa and Iowa
farm. But as far as most readers are concerned, it's just the farm in a rural place. If your setting
is unfamiliar to most of your readers, you have to work doubly hard to try to capture the character
of that place. And very often, you have to take something a bit out of context for that place.
Perhaps the weather on occasion can be really bad in Iowa. I know that. I know that's true.
On occasion, it can be really bad. Well, perhaps in this particular story, you need to take a piece
of that really bad weather. Be it a tornado or a horrible snow storm or something like that,
and make that part of your tail in order to try to capture a sense of this place. Now, why do I say
it's a bit out of context? Because you're specifically putting that event in there. Perhaps it's
also part of the plot, but you're putting it in there in order to try to give a sense of place,
because sometimes Iowa is like this. Of course, there are many places in the world where it's
sometimes like that. But in Iowa, it's sometimes like this. This is a part of this specific lifestyle
in this location, this setting in your tail, and you're going to try to capture it. Maybe in your
particular area, perhaps there are a lot of drugs. Yes, there's a lot of drugs in Iowa. There's
a lot of drugs everywhere in the United States. So perhaps there are drug addicts there in this
particular area, this rural area. That never used to be a problem, but it is now, and you can take
advantage of that for your tail. You can capture that setting, so you give it bad weather and a lot of
drug addicts. Suddenly, this isn't quite like any other rural setting your reader may have ever
read about, ever seen on a movie. Suddenly, this becomes much more specific, and the more you tailor
that setting. And again, you may have to pull out some of the most outrageous elements of that
setting in order to get a better sense of it. But the more tailored it becomes by the time the story
is done, your reader, your viewer, whatever, will think back on the story and say, wow, what a
weird place that is. And they remember it. It's suddenly from now on, that's a specific place in
their mind. You can go back and set another story in that exact same place. Take advantage of
some of those bizarre things that you've talked about, those out of context things. And you now have
a very specific setting that people can hang their hat on. They're now familiar with what makes
this place unique. Now, millions of people live in New York, millions of people live in Paris,
and many, many, many millions have come to visit those places. Many people are familiar with what
makes those places unique. It's not hard. And very often, people will set stories in big cities
for exactly that reason, because everybody knows this place. The place has a very specific character
to it, and you can drag that into your story. Your setting becomes vital to the tale, because that
setting has such a huge impact on everything that goes on. It's very specific, and you've chosen
it deliberately. Even if it's not a historical tale, if you can capture what makes that place unique,
if you can bring it across to your reader, it becomes a specific setting that they can hold onto.
They can refer back to it. They can remember it as a distinctive place, all on its own.
Anyway, this was just a very fast, rambly look at specific settings in stories.
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