Writing Great Fiction

Lecture 18: Evoking Setting and Place in Fiction

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1. Try describing the same setting from the point of view of two different
   characters who want different things. For example, consider Sarah
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   lecture. As you may recall, they’re at a baseball game; try to describe
   the ballpark from Sarah’s point of view, bearing in mind that she’s about
   to ask for a divorce, and then from Brad’s, bearing in mind that he has
   no idea what she’s about to ask him.


2. Yo u m i g h t a l s o e x p l o r e t h e i m p o r t a n c e o f a p a r t i c u l a r s e t t i n g t o a
   narrative by setting a scene from a famous novel or story in a radically
   different place or time from the original version. Can you rewrite
   a scene from, say, 7KH $GYHQWXUHV RI +XFNOHEHUU\ )LQQ that is set
   someplace other than the Mississippi? Could one of the scenes from 7KH
   UHDWDWVE\ take place at any other place or time than Long Island in
   the Jazz Age?

Writing Exercises