My Top Ten: Settings

To make a story feel real, really real, then there needs to be some awesome setting, details that make the world uniquely its own. And so, here's another one of my top tens. Again, this isn't ranked.

1. Hogwarts/The Wizarding World, Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

I think that J.K. Rowling has convinced many people that Hogwarts and the Wizarding World actually exist. The precision of details is astounding. And I think that the strongest suit that Harry's world has is that there are parallels to the Muggle world (the Ministry, sports, banks, shops, etc) that it feels natural to us, but so much more magical at the same time.

2. Avonlea, Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery
After reading these books, I wanted to go and live in a place just like Avonlea. The description is so beautiful, and it almost seems magical. There's a real special feel that Montgomery gives Avonlea, a quiet but fun town that's home.

3. Panem, The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Now this is a place that you wouldn't want to live in. But the world and all of its chilling circumstances creates a vivid world to the readers.

4. Narnia, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

The fact that this series focuses around the events in one setting means it really had to come alive, and it did. Whenever I read one of these books, the land and its inhabitants, the very soil of it, is so fantastic, and yet I never felt that it could be too far from truth.

5. Inkworld, Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke
This Inkworld seems to incorporate all of the elements of fantasy; from the creatures, to the countries and political divides. Everything is marvelous, but at times also deadly, and amazingly described.

6. Uglies world, Uglies series by Scott Westerfield
This was the first dystopian I'd ever read. The inventions, the rules, the philosophy, all of this became a possible future for us. When Tally goes to the Rusty ruins, that part always chills me, to think that's what we could become.

7. The Moors, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

 The moors become like its own character in Wuthering Heights it's astounding. The wildness, the unpredictability of it, it's the only place that Cathy, Heathcliff, and their children's story could have been told, as it reflects the mood of it perfectly.

8. Venice, The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke
I've never been to Venice (unfortunately) but after reading The Thief Lord I almost feel that I have. The description of the city is thorough, and I can just imagine the kids running through the streets and into the movie theater, and all of the boats around it.

9. Wonderland, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Just another one of those fun, quirky type of settings that's interesting to read about and discover. I love all of the twists on reality that Carroll brings to the (tea) party.

10. Paris, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
While this had a tourist-y feel to it, it's appropriate since Anna essentially is a tourist in this town. But Perkins describes a lot more of Paris than just the sight-seeing locations. They're really beautiful descriptions, and makes me want to go to Paris even more.

Setting Collage

As I'm working on developing a story that's been in my head for about the past month, I realized that I really needed to get setting down. It's the entire background of the story, I needed it to be right. And, as this story is a fantasy set in a made-up medieval land, there are a lot of different ways that the reader could picture it: Disney-fied, dark and gritty, maybe some Lord of the Rings; medieval fantasy has so many different possible connotations that I wanted to make sure mine was clear.
But how would I do this? Well, I had to know what I wanted, for one. And then I had to make sure that I would stick to it. The character collages I did earlier really inspired me. As I don't have magazines on medieval castles and landscapes, I instead browsed around the internet and made up a quick collage with the different parts of setting that will be important to my story. This is what I made:

This is the collage for the exterior at least. I'll probably do one on the interior as well. I'm hoping this will help me as I write to establish the setting by having a visual to refer back to when I need to describe something.

Setting

On my eleventh birthday I greatly anticipated my acceptance letter to Hogwarts. I didn't get it (to which I thought, It's because I'm American, isn't it?!). I had done more than fall in love with the story and characters in Harry Potter. I had fallen in love with the setting as well. So much, that I wanted it to be real, and I was sure it was. There was no way that J.K. Rowling could have made up such a place! It was too thoroughly described to not be real.
I've come to realize that I suck at setting. But setting is important. Imagine Harry Potter with a weak setting. It wouldn't have done nearly as well--and forget about a theme park. The world our characters inhabit should be as vivid and real as them. Something else to add into my  list of improvements on writing.

But a trick I learned in creative writing today is to write the setting as if you're shooting a movie, and "pan" through the setting. Start out broad, and then move in through the setting and into the characters and the situation. In fact, if you look at a lot of scenes describing setting going this way, only now I realized how people used it.

Of course, now I want to go to the theme park in Florida to see Hogwarts. Because now it is real.