Setting and Scope

Recently, I read two essays in the collection, When the Rewards Can Be So Great. Both were quite well written. But one seemed more useful for novelists, and the other, poets.

First, let’s start with “The Created World: Setting and Mystery,” by Claire Davis, where she emphasizes the importance of a story’s setting. The Davis piece was particularly interesting to me. That piece reminded me of something I often forget: setting is not something to be relegated to the background, but is an active participant in the story, often shaping and defining the scope of the conflict that the characters are experiencing. I frequently tend to ignore an exploration of my setting in favor of dialogue and inner reflections of the characters. But what I learned is that you can, through a good reflection on a character's surroundings, accomplish just as much examination of a character's interior life as any internal monologue or dialogue. A good reminder.

Now consider, “A Match Flaring Up in a Dark Universe,” by Sandra Alcosser, where she emphasizes the importance of saying few words with maximum emotional effect. This piece was also interesting as well, but perhaps a little less helpful. It was clearly aimed at poets. As I have reflected on previously, I think authors of fiction, not just poetry, have a tendency to want their works to be about everything. I think, though, that I am struggling to distill a principled rule from that piece the way I got from Davis. So many meandering and sprawling works in fiction offer so much to the reader by being deliberate in their pacing. Letting the characters breathe, letting you fall in love with them. Of course, it is basic advice from Strunk and White: be concise. That does not mean, I think, that one cannot linger in places and contemplate. Alcosser's basic premise too, that epics wither but short pieces survive, seems to be faulty as well. The foundational texts, still remembered, of so many cultures are sprawling epics. There is truth to her ultimate point: don't try to say everything. But it is cloaked in much that is not necessarily true. In that sense, she herself said much more than she needed to.