Literacy Targets Summer Term First 2011 The targets this term are exploring STORY SETTINGS

Story Settings

What do we mean by the word “setting?” Where does your story take place? What time of day is it? What is the weather like? Is it inside Or outside?

Manipulate the reader with the setting. Use place as well as the weather, time of day and season, to create a setting. After all, a walk along a lane on a summery afternoon creates one atmosphere but the same lane on a dark wintry night would feel very different.

Use detail to bring the setting alive - base this on sense impressions. What can be seen, heard, smelt, touched and tasted? If the reader is to enter your world, s/he needs to be able to see it hear it touch it taste it smell it

Base settings on places that you know - plus some invented detail. Think of places where you have been. Close your eyes and look at all the details around you. What can you see? Now use your imagination to change the place. Add some interesting details. Do you want details to make your setting seem: dangerous? frightening? fun? safe? peaceful? strange/imaginary?

Use the setting to create atmosphere For instance, you might use a frightening place such as an empty house - or you can take a very ordinary place and make it seem scary by making it seem unusual, dark and cold.

Use invented names to bring places alive Names help to make your setting more real and more believable. ‘A boy walked down a street’ shows us nothing, but ‘Lugs O’Neill limped down Butcher’s Row’ starts to catch our imagination.

Can you guess where these stories are set? What are the clues?

The automatic doors opened swiftly as Jade strode in. She glanced quickly at the cluster of signs and pressed on down the wide polished corridor. Ahead of her a set of double doors flew open and a trolley, pushed by five concerned faces, passed rapidly by. The smell of antiseptic caught at the back of her throat. Pushing through the doors at the end of the corridor, she emerged into a brightly lit room. Rows of plastic seats groaned with injured people. Where was Manny? The call had been brief. All she knew was that Manny was here somewhere….

The warm dusty draught flapped at her coat, revealing the lining and causing her to pull it tight around her. She thrust her ticket into the metal slit and strode forward confidently. The dull whirring of the escalators carried her down, lost in the confusion of posters advertising West end shows and cheap phone calls. She thought she saw a familiar face passing upwards to her right and stared back to see if she were right….

The vegetables gleamed under the lighting as special offers swung giddily on their strings from the ceiling. He inched forward, keeping himself well hidden behind the woman whose child rocked in the metal cage provided at the back of the trolley. As they passed the cheese and milk a cool draught caught the back of his neck, sending a shiver down his spine…