Xzadion Writes

Following NaNo Prep Week 4 theme: Build a Strong World for Your Characters, NaNo guest Liza Wolff-Francis shares her expertise on how your setting can shape your story.

An obvious part of beginning a novel is the where of the story, the place, or setting, but sometimes as writers, we don’t think of it first, preferring to jump to plot or characters. The setting helps the writer and the reader feel grounded in a story. It also helps move the story forward. 

Setting includes landscape, like what a reader sees in a place. Where is this story happening? Other factors that make up the setting include season, weather, time of day, and time in history. Is where the story takes place an urban or rural environment? What’s the main religion? What language is spoken? Under what conditions do people live? You may or may not mention all of this, but as the writer, it’s important to know these things. 

Because there’s one person on AO3 who is writing Tsviet fic in a volume that brings tears to my eyes.

happy birthday get out of my town

i love you and you are a thorn in my side i love to roll on and dig in deeper

thank YOU, EVERYONE!! for clicking and reading even one line; your support and your involvement and interest has been a source of priceless joy and encouragement

harry and james would not be in the shitstorm that they’re in without you, konami; thank you for them but they’re mine now, i’m treating them better than you could ever hope to

and of many humbled thanks to my incredible friend Ren who has been editing since ch10. (with currently at ch58, one might understand the gravity, and all it took was one simple offer from her to me…………) i love you Ren; you have been an enormous influence on my writing skill and my storytelling. i think sometimes we could stab each other through the google doc, and yet you’re still here for the next one. you have been so supportive and endured so much. i adore you, but i also can’t find it in my heart to be sorry that i’ve got ch59 almost ready to go.

Hi,

that's a good question and I can totally understand why you're struggling with it :) if you wanna stay "real" then an exotic illness is something that's not very common in your area/your whumpees area, but might be common elsewhere.

These are my ideas or things I've seen around, but everyone: please, feel free to add your own

Hanahaki

Depending on how you do it something along the lines of vampirism or werewolv..ism :D

Getting bit by some bad mosquito (like the one that gives you sleeping sickness)

Or eating an excotic plant

I also just came across this article and now I can't stop reading, so I better post this and let others in on the fun :D