How to Write a Good Story - All Elements

Setting

Setting is the specific place the scene takes place in.

Setting is made by: location, time of day, time of year, specific era, lighting, props, weather and climate. And of course the description.

Setting is vital in every story. It is used to create atmosphere and mood, this is done by the symbolism of each tiniest element and the imagery it creates. Also, it creates the genre and the theme of the story. For example, a haunted house tell us this can be a horror story. A setting of a castle could tell us that it can be historical or medieval story.

Location - this is the exact place that makes up the setting. It is made by symbolism and description. For example, describing a location that is roasting everything. And is with great cactuses, boiling sand and a vulture feasting on meat. Everything of this is found in a desert, and by this description, you automatically know it is a desert. This shows that description plays a big role in creating an actual or made up location.

Each location has a specific connotation/symbolism. For example, desert can create a connotation that the character inside is lonely. It can also connote the genre of western, if other codes and convections of a typical western are present (such as Wild West town, cowboys, duels, etc.). To conclude, a location can effectively build up a mood, theme genre or the era/historical period.

A sequence of correct locations can create events and a realistic story. For example, when a character gets a meeting in a bar, it would be logical to later describe him in the bar. Or, in some instances, you would not.

Time of day - time of day can be symbolised the sun and the moon. For example, if the sun is in the sky, you know it is midday. Sun represents day and moon represents night. Time of day makes the story make sense. For example, if events would take tens of hours, but you would constantly have day, then your story would not make sense (unless you doing fantasy or science fiction).

Time of year - this is created by symbolism. For example, snow signifies that it is winter (not counting the location in which snow is all the time, such as Alaska or Arctic). On the other hand, Santa clause signifies a more specific time span of Christmas. This is important as it builds a desired theme (such as Christmas) or because something important in the story will happen in the specific time span.

Specific era - this is made by symbolism too. It is made by specific objects, locations, human dressing style and historical figures. For example, pyramids can signify the location of Egypt. If you also include historical figures (such as Cleopatra or Tutankhamun) or dress people to the similar style like in ancient Egypt, you will build a specific era and location.

Lighting - the intensity and source of lighting tells the audience what time of day it is. For example, strong light that lights the whole outdoor, will tell us that is it day. A faint moon glow will tell us that it is night.

A figure in a shadow could signify wide variety of meanings. Such as that he is mysterious, evil, hiding, lost or weakened.

A figure/object in light, which is surrounded by darkness, could signify its importance, that he is good, oddness and many more.

Also, the subject that has lighting (such as in form of a torch or a candle), could suggest that he has power. This is because when there is no light, we are weak, lost and vulnerable as we cannot see, especially if we are not familiar to the location.

Another matter is that each colour or even shade, signifies a different meaning across. For example, red can symbolize danger, violence but also love and romance. The colour you use, symbolizes, indirectly, a specific meaning to your audience about the characters in the location or the location itself.

Props - with this, I mean every item used in a location. It can be used to build era or character, this is by its specific symbolism. For example, when a character smiles at a video game in his hands, this connotes that the character likes to play video games, it tell us something indirectly about the character. If the character would look angrily at the item, then he hates it. It is important to show the character's reaction towards specific items because, as an audience, we get to know the character better, his opinions or views towards specific items or ideas.

Some objects are related to its own era. For example, a primitive flint knife could relate to Neanderthals, and so it would build this primitive era. Objects have a symbolism depending when they were/are used (period within a day, year or era) and by who (group of subjects that use/used them). Stereotypes are a good example of this, couple items can symbolize a specific group of people. For example, chavs, gothics and hip hopers. Now, think about hip hopers, what objects can symbolize a hip hoper? Or think about an object and then, what sort of groups/nations use it?

Weather and climate - first of all, weather can indicate the time of year, day and the geographical location. For example, snowing can either signify winter or a cold location such as Alaska. Using weather and climate can build the location or time of year better.

Have you ever heard the term pathetic fallacy? If not, then it is a clever device that creates mood, connotes character's emotions or tells something about the location. For example, rain could tell us that the character is sad, as it could represent tears. It can also create a sad/depressing mood for the reader, or raining could be important, as it could drive the story on. For example, rain drives a scene in the film IT. As the character's paper boat is taken by a stream of water, it drives the story to the confrontation of the kid with the monster. If not the water made by rain, this conflict would have not happen in the first place.

Foreshadowing is also a big factor for some stories. Steinbeck was good at the use of location that used a lot of foreshadowing, mainly in Of Mice and Men. For example, you can use a lot of bad conflicts to happen in a specific location, to foreshadow that a disaster will happen later on in this location.

Description is also essential to build a location and the location's mood. Word choice plays a big role in the creation of a location. Let's make a neutral location, a house. It is just a noun. Now we can make the house look however we want, but we need to remember to make the image made by the words, to be seen as we want our audience to see it. For example, you would describe spooky house with words such as, dark, old and abandoned. This makes the mood of the story, spooky and fits well with the genre of horror.

Remember to use the right words so your mood and genre will get across to your audience, so they will see what you want them to.