Help your reader visualise the setting! | Narrative Writing

Hi everyone, this is Winnie or Miss Tang. Today we are learning to describe the setting. This is because we want to engage our readers. We also want our audience to be able to visualize the setting and what is happening in our story. We also want to orient our reader to understand what the time, the place, and the kind of environment that our story takes place in. Our success criteria today includes I can describe what the main character's world looks like, their place in it, and who they are. I can describe where or when the main character feels most comfortable. I can draw a map of where the main character comes from. I can identify where the main character will be when they face their challenges and their problems. I can use the 5 senses to brainstorm the description of the setting, and I can use adjectives to write a vivid description. Why is developing the setting important? Well, the setting gives the audience an idea of the time, the place, the situation of the story, and this will also influence the characters and the plot. For example, where and how the characters grew up will impact on their personality, and setting can also help you drive your plot as well. For example, there could be challenges for your characters to overcome, and they might be events that happen geographically or environmentally, and this also shape their characters and help them grow. So giving your audience an idea of where the setting is going to be will also help you develop the plot, the mood in the story, as well as your characters. At the beginning of your protagonist's journey, their world is usually pretty normal and ordinary. So a question you could think of is: Where and when is your main character— where does your main character feel the most comfortable? And while they are facing problems and challenges, their world is going to feel really scary and unfamiliar. So have a think about where your main character might be when they are facing these challenges. Here are some questions that you could think of. For example, where is your character? Where is your story going to be set? What is it going to be like there? What is the landscape like? What does it look like? What sights, smells, sounds, and sensations might you notice if you were a character there? And what is there? So are there objects or creatures or people that you can see? These are some questions that may help you flesh out an idea of where your setting is going to be. At the beginning of your protagonist's journey, their world is going to be pretty normal and ordinary, so here are some questions that will help guide us in coming up with their comfortable setting. We're going to use the characters that we have developed in the previous videos. So, um, in the protagonist video, we came up with the character Amber, who is a 10 to 11-year-old cheerleader. Um, so if you haven't had a look at that video, make sure that you check it out. We also came up with a villain for our story. Her name is Viviana, and she's a bit of a bully who causes a bit of chaos in that story. So if you haven't already checked that out, make sure that you have a look into that video there. All right, now we are going to come up with our setting, and we're going to do a bit of brainstorming and planning before we write the description. The first question is, what does the main character's world look What is their place like in it? Who are they? So I've just put Amber is a 10 to 11 year old cheerleader. She is in year 5. She has cheerleading training after school in the hall. She loves the sport. She works hard as the flyer, the person that they throw and catch. Amber is an only child and lives with her dad Rufus. So remember that when you are coming up with your own story, you can use your own experiences. So for example, you might have noticed I've started talking about cheerleading in my short story, and that's because I'm drawing from my own experiences. So the reason why I've put words like flyer in there and cheerleader is because I used to do cheerleading. So here's a, here's a photo of me, and here's a photo of my husband, and that's actually how we met. So yeah, interesting, interesting fact. Where and/or when does the main character feel most comfortable? I would say that, um, Amber probably feels the most comfortable maybe when she's at home with her dad. Um, maybe she loves chocolate chip cookies or the smell of chocolate chip cookies, um, when she comes home. Okay, so I've just written Amber feels the most comfortable when she is at home with her dad. He likes cooking and Amber loves coming home to the smell of chocolate chip cookies or warm banana bread just coming out of the oven. And then underneath, you could also draw a map of where your main character comes from or draw a picture of their home or their room. The next thing we are going to do is describe the uncomfortable setting. So during our, our narrative, our main character is going to feel uncomfortable when they go through challenges and complications. So one of the questions we're going to answer is: Where is the main character going to be when they face their challenges? Well, I think because our antagonist is another cheerleader who was a bit of a bully, um, Viviana, her, um, Amber is going to most likely face her challenges during cheerleading practice. I've just written, 'At cheerleading practice in the school hall after school.' The next question is, what would the character have seen and felt? What would they hear, smell, and/or taste? So this is where we are going to brainstorm our 5 senses and see if we can put ourselves in the character's perspective in that setting and brainstorm some words that will help us come up with our description. For see, Amber may see the rough thick blue mats to jump, tumble, and do stunts on. She might feel out of breath from training. She could hear upbeat mix of pop music for the routine. Something that she could smell could be sweat because they're, you know, training in the hall or the gym. And taste, maybe because if you're exercising a lot, you might be really thirsty, so you might feel dry mouth. Now we are going to describe the setting by using adjectives to write a vivid description. Okay, so in our first sentence, we will need to orient our reader into where they are. So I might mix in maybe sounds that they might hear, and we'll definitely need to talk about how they're in the school hall. So we could start off with the upper upbeat mix of pop music. The upbeat mix of pop music could be heard from Bubbleville's school hall. So I've just named the town Bubbleville, and I've popped that into the very first sentence. Next thing I want to do is talk about the description of the hall. The wooden floorboards were currently covered with rough, thick, blue mat for the Chaotic Cats cheerleading team to jump and tumble on. The hall had a high ceiling. That is really important to have a high ceiling, and I'm just gonna write down why. So this is essential, especially as flyers like Amber. So the reason why I'm putting this sentence in is because it's a great opportunity to, um, explain what a flyer is, especially for people who may not have done cheerleading before. This is essential, especially as flyers like Amber were constantly being tossed upwards in the routine. Okay, so now we have included the pop music, we've included what we can see. Now we can talk about maybe how she's feeling, maybe, um, the smell and the taste. So she's out of breath from training, so maybe we can say Amber was huffing and puffing with both her hands on her hips, trying to catch her breath. And then we can talk about maybe the sweat. You don't have to do all of the 5 senses. You can do some, most. You can do all if you'd like to. I think I might leave the smell of sweat out of it and I might just talk about maybe the feel of sweat. She wiped sweat off her forehead. And, and then we can talk about maybe her dry mouth. So maybe because she's really thirsty, she's gulping down, um, lots of water from her water bottle. And gulped down water from her pink metal bottle to soothe her dry mouth. And there you have it. So now we have a description of where Amber is. The upbeat mix of pop music could be heard from Bubbleville School Hall. The wooden floorboards were currently covered with rough tips thick blue mats for the Chaotic Cats cheerleading team to jump and tumble on. The hall had a high ceiling. This was essential, especially as flyers like Amber were constantly being tossed upwards in the routine. Amber was huffing and puffing with both her hands on her hips, trying to catch her breath. She wiped sweat off her forehead and gulped down water from her pink metal bottle to soothe her dry mouth. And there you have it. That's how you describe the setting in a story. Now it's your turn. So if you would like to, um, get a copy of, uh, Describe the setting template, I will, um, leave a link in the description box below. Up next, we are going to learn how to plan a spectacular story. See you in my next video. Bye!