Diary of a Mad Editor

Setting in fiction is generally defined as the time, place and social circumstances in which a story is set. However, setting is actually much more complicated than that. Setting is, after a fashion, an extention of character because the physical world a character inhabits helps to define that character and vica versa. Setting embodies the historical, the geographical and the cultural and these all influence character. But the setting depends in large part on the props that inhabit the stage as much as anything else. For example, let’s consider grandfather clocks. Clocks can symbolize a number of things that can become important to a story: the passage of time, a precise routine, death or doom (as in “The Masque of the Red Death”).

But not everyone owns a grandfather clock. What kind of character would own one? Is the character a man or a woman? Rich or modestly middle-class? Does the clock itself keep good time or not? Is it an old clock or a new clock? The varied answers to these questions would inspire different stories.

Let’s suppose our protagonist is a woman: early thirties, a lawyer, a workaholic who’s a Type A personality and, perhaps, mildly OCD. Just bought her own home. She’s crazy about grandfather clocks — not so much because of the craftmanship, but because she sees it as a bit of a status symbol. She’d probably choose a clock that’s more contemporary, like a Newell Grandfather Clock . It would look nice in her new place alongside all her other stylish furniture and, in the beginning, she’d take good care of it. But then something could happen. Maybe she meets a man who sweeps her off her feet and takes her out of her old routine. Or maybe something unpleasant like a breakdown or death. The clock would start to collect dust and eventually stop keeping time properly. The clock’s nature would change to reflect not only it’s own state, but that of the main character in the story. Best of all, it wouldn’t be a contrived changed, but a logical consequence of events.