1. Setting Notes

2. Vocabulary To Know Setting – where the story takes place
Customs – what the people do or are like during that time period
What does this have to do with setting?
Physical surroundings – weather, buildings, landscape
Time – date, day of the week, month, season, historical period
Place – place names, city, town, state, country, etc.

3. Vocabulary To Know
Conflict – the problem, the struggle between characters on opposing forces
Tone – the way the story is told or the attitude in which it is told
Mood – the atmosphere or feeling the story creates
Visualize – to use the setting and sensory details to create a picture in the mind of what is happening in the story
Sensory details – details that use sight, sound, touch, taste or smell

4. Setting is an element of Literature!
You can figure out a story’s setting by looking for clues in all of the following elements:
The means of transportation
The characters’ clothing
The characters’ speech
Setting may have to be inferred from the story.
It can play a key role in all elements of a short story except for point of view.

5. Setting is a Part of Literature
A setting can function as the following:
A character in a story
A symbol
A conflict (setting can also cause the conflict)
Effective settings are not just backdrops
Writers create effective settings by using customs that fit the time and place
For the setting to be realistic, it must be believable , even if science fiction or fantasy.
A story’s setting is best described as where and when the action takes place.

6. Self Check
Ask yourself these questions to help you recognize and understand setting:
Where is it?
When is it?
What is the weather like?
What are the social conditions?
What is the landscape or environment like?
What special details make the setting vivid?

7. Setting Story Prompt
Sometimes it's a single image that sparks a story. Have you ever seen something in your mind's eye that captured your imagination? Write about it. Make sure to include a description of all the five senses to really set the tone for your piece. Then try broadening your view of the image. Are there people there? What are they doing? Who are they? See where it takes you.

8. Example 1
"When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners. When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent streets. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness."
—James Joyce, "Araby"

9. Where is it?
In a middleclass neighborhood; I'm not sure yet where it is.
When is it?
Wintertime in the evening, during an era when it was still common to see driving horses—maybe the late 1800s.
What is the weather like?
Cold, and the night falls early.
What are the social conditions?
In this neighborhood it seems people mostly stay inside in the evening; the narrator is aware of "rough tribes from the cottages" nearby—probably members of a lower social class.
What is the landscape or environment like?
Dark and quiet, with a sense of heaviness that contrasts with the narrator's shouting and playing.
What special details make the setting vivid?
Sensory details: the violet color of the sky, the dim lanterns, the stinging cold, the ashpits' odors, the music of the horse's harness.

10. Example 2
I stepped into the room and looked around. The yellow paint was peeling off the walls in strips and bubbles, exposing the greyish wall beneath. The battered, deep brown wood floors were stained in several places with rust-coloured smears. They looked like old blood. Dust webs floated in the air, attached to the ceiling and fixtures somewhere in the shadows above my head. There was another door on the other side of the room, cracked open a few inches, but I couldn’t see what was beyond it.
How easy is it to visualize this room? Probably not too difficult. There are enough details that you can imagine what the room looks like; perhaps you’ve seen a similar room in real life and can fill in some of the missing details yourself. Notice, though, that the only detail I’ve given in this example is visual. You can see the room, but that’s all. Reading this passage and imagining it in your head is rather like watching television with the sound turned off, or like looking at the scene through a window.

11. Example 3
Tonight, the hay in the fields is already brittle with frost, especially to the west of Fox Hill, where the pastures shine like stars. In October, darkness begins to settle by four-thirty and although the leaves have turned scarlet and gold, in the dark everything is a shadow of itself, gray with a purple edge. At this time of year, these woods are best avoided, or so the local boys say. Even the bravest among them wouldn't dare stray from the High Road after soccer practice at Firemen's Field, and those who are old enough to stand beside the murky waters of Olive Tree Lake and pry kisses from their girlfriends still walk home quickly. If the truth be told, some of them run. -Alice Hoffman’s Here on Earth

12. Journal #7
You’re at a party, but it isn’t for a traditional holiday or a birthday. What is the party for and who is there? Use dialogue to show the conversations that people are having.

13. Journal #8
You have just received the happiest news in the whole world. Write a story about it!

14. Journal #9
You are a brand new student in Super Hero High School. Explain how your first day of school goes. (Be sure to tell what your power is.)

15. Quickly, I was hurrying around the corner when all of the sudden…
Journal #10
Finish the following prompt:
Quickly, I was hurrying around the corner when all of the sudden…

16. Journal #11
Today you can write about anything that you want. You can focus on any topic, story, or event, just make sure that you are writing something!

17. Setting Prompt
Based on the setting that you have chosen from the magazine, tell a short story about two characters who find themselves in trouble. Make sure that the setting contributes to whatever trouble they are in, and tell your audience how they get out of it. 
Things for pre-writing:
Who are my characters?
Where/when are they in this story?
How does this setting contribute to the conflict?
What mood do you want the audience to feel?