Comments on: Which Comes First?

By: Making the Introductions « Mechanical Hamster

Making the Introductions « Mechanical Hamster — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 16:35:43 +0000

[...] the Introductions Eliza left a comment on my last post concerning introducing characters and groups into a story. She goes into some more details here, [...]

By: Matt Keefe

Matt Keefe — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:00:20 +0000

I think the poll probably does under-represent the extent to which setting is a factor in people’s reading choices; not least because readers themselves probably underestimate its effect.
Most readers won’t see setting as a hugely important part of why they did or didn’t like a book, but I bet it’s a big factor in purchasing choices for many of them – surely that’s the case with Warhammer and 40K novels.
In a similar vein, much genre fiction relies on the setting in ways that perhaps aren’t accounted for in the way people express their tastes –many popular ‘stories’ are really explorations of the setting (a character gallivanting off around the world, visiting some mystical lost city, searching for an ancient, forgotten race, etc), and many ‘characters’ in genre fiction are often representative archetypes of the setting, or exceptions to them which play upon the norms constructed specifically for that purpose (this is something that Games Workshop used to swing back-and-forth on in regards to the purpose of their special characters, as I’m sure Gav can explain in more detail than I).
I suspect the truth is that setting isn’t a deal-breaker for anybody, so doesn’t figure particularly prominently in conscious choices, but it’s probably an underlying factor in most. The very fact that people to choose to read science fiction and fantasy at all is, in many cases, probably down to an underlying interest in the setting as much as the story or characters, but it’s not likely to show up as an active consideration in something like a poll or survey. There may or may not be sales figures, however, which support the idea that fantasy and science fiction books with a discernable and even a named ‘setting’ do better than those which use a largely undescribed or possibly real world (‘magic realism’) setting. It would be interesting to know.

By: elizaw

elizaw — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 23:19:10 +0000

Hey Gav! I was wondering if you’d do a post on something a bit related to character and setting.

I’m having some trouble handling groups of characters with some limited interaction. I wrote a post about it here… How do you handle characters that are important as a group, affect the plot, but aren’t always individually important? How do you transition from setting to character?

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

By: a_thousand_hats

a_thousand_hats — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 12:02:37 +0000

Good points all round Gav.

Regarding the importance of setting… I think when it comes to picking an untried author off the shelf, the setting does have an influence on my decision to purchase. Some might argue that that’s just ‘the genre’ influencing me but I disagree.

For example if I’m picking a fantasy novel up (by an unknown author) and the back of the book says it is a political intrigue set within an ailing Kings court I might not be overly enthused about it – it strikes me as a bit too confined to interest me. However if it says it’s a political intrigue set within the halls of a power-hungry Merchants Guild it could get my attention. Both could be very good books but my gut reaction is to go for the second one – it’s personal preference but it’s the setting that has influenced my decision.

The characters are the most important factor for my enjoyment of the book but the fact is I wouldn’t have given the untried author a go unless I liked the sound of the setting his characters were in.

When it comes to tried and tested authors then I already know their worlds, it’s the knowledge that they have characters I enjoy and care about that keeps me buying their stuff.