I was supposed to dedicate this lesson to someone, but I made a mistake of deleting the chapter where they commented on ; n ;;; If you happen to be the reader who requested for a lesson about settings, please tell me so that I could dedicate this chapter to you. 

Okay, so I classify setting as two things:

1) the surroundings

2) the universe the characters are in

I'll be divulging stuff about no. 2 later on, but for now, as per the request of the reader, we shall talk about the journey of the readers into the world of the author.

In other words: describing the background that the author is imagining with words to paint a mental picture in the readers head.

Lesson 3 ||  Setting and the Beauty of It

If you ask me, as a reader, the first thing I would notice would be the choice of words the author has chosen to describe the surroundings of the characters. 

From my own works, here's an example:

The Mourning Samurai || Chapter 10: The Sun Rises and the Moon Falls

Then also here to acknowledge authors who are just marvelous: 

Aeipathy || one : monday 

By Nashoba

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psyche | aomine daiki || three : his disregard

By serayume

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YOUNG GOD || Chapter I : The Spider's Thread

By SEOKJINISM-

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CASTLE OF HEARTS / BNHA || Chapter 9: Tightropes and Explosions 

By TDOROKI

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Mourning Doves | Tokyo Ghouls || 1 : Darkness

By violinfreakk

* * * *

So the ones above are among the authors I highly respect because of their skill in writing descriptions. If you notice, there are again, two things authors, like the people above, describe: the surroundings of the characters (main or not) and the emotions of the characters (main or not). 

Descriptions are used in order to drive the mood in the story. If you've read all the descriptions above, they're all heavy. Welp, I read heavy stuff I don't read comedies. Good descriptions are able to set the mood quickly using only the first few sentences. If not, possibly the first paragraph. Other than using descriptions merely for detail, take note that it should carry the mood, as well.

I go by two rules when describing descriptions: poetic or straight to the point. By poetic, I mean it's metaphoric in the sense that you don't instantly get what's happening. This is because the author chooses their words carefully in such a way that aside from describing the background, they also mix in the emotions or origins of the character(s) with the rest of the excerpt. If you notice the  excerpts I've chosen above, that's what the authors did. They indulgently used fancy words to wholly describe one thing which is used to describe something else at the same time.

I find the excerpts above mesmerizing. Though I describe settings pretty good, each author have their own distinctive design in mesmerizing their own readers. But I'm terrible, I only finished Mourning Doves, I have yet to continue reading the rest (mine is not included).

To start writing, you only need to ask yourself two questions: 1) what do I want my readers to see? and 2) what do I want my readers to feel?

For the first question, you simply need to imagine all of this like an anime. Picture that scene that's running in your head. Remember in anime, like to add suspense or drama, some shots that are unrelated to the story just show up, right? Describe what your eyes could see. You look at one angle, you see the cherry blossoms fall from the tree branches. They slowly fall like snowflakes. 

Then you picture a car that's parked along the sidewalk. On its hood, you could see the cheery blossoms laying on it. Then along its clean and shiny side, you could see the reflection of two kids walking by. Those kids are busy chatting themselves away, laughing without a care in the world.

But this is just to paint a picture. You're supposed to cast a spell on the readers--to hurl them into the world of your characters. The vividness of the story is one of the keys in making a great one. Stories are supposed to engage the senses of the readers, and in order to do that we use metaphors, similes, personifications, and other figures of speech. 

Something like this:

Saruhiko froze in his steps. His ashen pallor seemed to suck the life out of him as if he had just seen a ghost. His eyes trembled while his whole body shook like a building amidst an earthquake. His lips quivered violently, disabling him to speak his running thoughts. But even more so when his teeth chattered against each other. The heart inside the cage of his ribs pounded with loud thuds, and they quickened as each moment passed. The boy wondered if before him was Death himself.

Basically I described a boy who was scared out of his pants, enough that he couldn't move. But if you read carefully, I described one thing after another. I described what my eyes could see and then I described it accordingly while using similes and metaphors.

Another example that I could show you guys by showing two comparisons of describing something or someone:

Example A

Feeling a tight squeeze in her chest, Aoi dug her trembling hands against her chest to calm her beating heart. Her legs were like freshly cooked noodles, while her cheeks were as red as tomatoes. The joy of speaking to him sent her head straight into the clouds. It was such a bliss, her lips couldn't help but curl into a smile.

Then compare that to this one below:

Example B

Speaking to him, Aoi felt her heart pound in excitement. She couldn't help but feel so much joy that she smiled.

They mean the exact same thing, but the first one was far more vivid than the second. We get the idea that she's happy, but we don't FEEL it. Books can't enamor their readers if the readers can't feel what the characters feel. Books, unlike movies/videos that allows the readers to see and hear to feel, only have words to paint the imagery in the readers' heads. The readers could read, but not immersed in the world of the story.

Another good way of describing something could be like this:

The night was ghost-quiet, but the silence is broken by the hush of the wind against oak trees and the drips of water on the puddle along the moist earth.

Notice that I used evokes a particular quality of sound to describe the surroundings. This allows me to place a sense of texture to the description. It also adds motion to the picture when I described the motion of the trees against the wind and the water dripping on puddles. This gives us an abstract picture that this scene is prior to a rainfall.

The word "ghost-quiet" describes the night to be really quiet, in a creepy and somehow ominous perspective that puts us in an uncomfortable position rather than allowing us to feel the peace of silence. I didn't use the phrase "quiet as a ghost" because it creates a different sense to it, which would put a distancing layer between the reader and the experience. But the term "ghost-quiet" gives an implied, rather than an overt, comparison. Credits to Tobias S. Buckell (author of Hurricane Fever) for coining this metaphor.

Writers are always told to avoid cliches, and I have to say that includes the way writers describe the setting. There's little engagement in overused images like "red as a rose" or whatever else we're all familiar with. Instead of saying "red as a rose," we could use "cherry-stewed," "red as blood," or something else. It allows the readers to wonder what shade of red those descriptions could mean.

This is why I keep a dictionaries and thesauruses (mobile or directly from the internet) with me as I write. These two are my primary tools in writing the setting to engage in the sense of sound, sight, smell, taste, and movement. Then you could also make connotations as you write to send your readers into the world of your book. 

To sum this up, use the method I use: imagine everything in a moving picture and put everything into the right words. Do it anime style! This is a guide to writing anime fanfiction after all.

As simple as that.

Although this is mostly used for third person, which I also call as God's POV because this person point of view allows us to see many things in a multi-anonymous perspective unless specified. Unlike the third POV, the first is limited and most of the time it's used to describe the character's emotions and thoughts rather than the setting.

In the case of first POV, the way the surroundings are described would be based on the character's POV. Using their stream of thought (this is an actual term, you could look it up), we witness all the events through a single person's eyes while monitoring their reasons, thoughts, and emotions. Somehow, I guess quiet people are the most observant, thus it is safe to conclude that the book would be moderately descriptive. 

It is logical in a sense after all.

People sometimes don't even notice the color of someone's tie or ribbon. That's why I use third POV rather than first to give me the opportunity to captivate the readers' thoughts and emotions. Using third POV allows me to feel like God, lol, in which all the characters and everything they are is controlled by moi.

♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦

I hope you found this helpful, please comment your thoughts, suggest ideas, and good luck on your writing!!!

//hugs

See you at the next chapter! And don't be scared to request lessons, or something.

FRIENDLY TIP:

Don't over describe stuff! And by this I mean, don't describe your character's appearance in so much detail unless it's an important element to the story arch (you could describe the tattoo, scar, or whatever to make him/her standout. I used to describe the tiniest bit of detail about my OCs when I was just beginning to write, like the detail in her dress or something. Don't do the same mistake I did. The readers don't need everything to imagine your OC. Just give the basic description needed to help them imagine the character.