Choosing the Setting for Your Fiction Novel

When most people read books, they rarely think about the importance of the setting to the plot of the novel. Do authors set their novels in their hometowns just because they are familiar with the area? Do they choose the year, the month and the day just off the top of their heads? Usually not. If you're hoping to become a novelist, you must learn to think of setting as an integral part of the plot, and not just an arbitrary guessing game.

Choosing the setting for your fiction novel should be one of the first things you decide before you begin. For example, if your characters will be involved in a blizzard, you'll probably want to set your novel in the winter. If your main character is a stock broker, you'll want to set your novel in a large city, like New York.

The setting of your fiction novel dictates the course of the plot, whether you realize it or not. If at all possible, you'll want to use the setting to increase the tension of the plot and to make your main character's life more difficult - in other words, creating more conflict. For example, if your main character is pursued by a group of super-smart murderous monkeys that escaped from their lab, you might want to make the setting a small town where it is more difficult for your main character to find help.

To help you in choosing the setting for your fiction novel, here are a few questions that you can ask yourself to get the creative juices flowing:

What year is it?

The setting of your novel includes everything related to the scenery, including the year. You wouldn't want to set a slave-trade novel in the twenty-first century, just as you wouldn't want to set a novel about finding a cure for AIDS in the 1800's. The setting for your fiction novel doesn't have to be that broad, however. You can choose a specific year if you feel that the history of that year will have some impact on your characters.

What city and town do your characters live in?