Describing Setting Exercise

1. Describe in detail a place you know well. Make sure to use strong nouns and verbs and watch out for cliches and adverbs. try to appeal to at least three of the five senses.

The sunroom could sometimes be hard to look at from inside the house, so bright that you can barely distinguish the light yellow walls from the maple wood flooring. Old crock end tables were covered with books and magazines, inviting you to relax on the warm flower-patterned couch and chair. It always smelled like the outdoors, because the screen door was almost always open to provide a cool breeze, and birds provided music whenever the ancient radio wasn’t softly playing in the corner When you did give in and relaxed, you could always see the sky through the sunlights.

2. Now described that place again, attempting to communicate each of the following atmospheres in turn:

1. Romantic

With the radio softly playing oldies and the birds chirping outside, the windowed-filled space was perfect to watch the sun rise or set. An old, worn love seat sat in one corner, filled much more frequently than the chair adjacent to it.

1. Foreboding

At night, the many windows in the sunroom turned an inky, impenetrable black. No inner lights could penetrate the windows, and it felt almost as if the darkness was trying to impose onto the once-cozy space, invading the light with shadow. The shapes of the furniture and the stacks of books appeared dull in the darkness, like those of an abandoned house, and the only sound to be heard was the wind outside.

1. Cheerful

The sunny room was warm, but not uncomfortably so. The light reflected off almost all surfaces, and filled the room with buttery sunlight. The flower-patterned furniture matched the morning glories and daisies growing just outside the numerous windows. It was a good place to drink coffee in the morning. 

d) Mysterious

As the twilight fell, the lawn overlooked by the sunroom became darker, shadows growing over the children's toys and creating new shapes in the semi-darkness. The corners you had examined earlier that morning suddenly became undiscoverable worlds to you, and though you may sit on the still-comfortable flowery couch and do everything you once did in the cheeriness of the morning, you are given the sense you are merely an observer, and that you have no power over the future events.

3. Now describe the place again, but this time, try to describe it in such a way as to raise a question or expectation in your reader.

The sunroom was always filled with ample light and there were numerous books sitting on the crock side tables by the flowery couch and chair. However, the topics of these books were quite eclectic, with titles like Woodwork for Fun and Profit, Politics of North Korea, The Arsonist’s Cookbook. The oldies played quietly on the radio, lightly countering the silence like a child softly singing a nursery rhyme, and the numerous windows seemed to be trying almost too hard to give a feeling of transparency. 

4. Describe the same place one last time, attempting to set up the following plot potentials.

1. A suicide

Every sun rise and set could be seen through the sunroom windows, reflecting grey light over the fading old floral furniture. The books on the crock table sat dusty and unopened, and the ancient radio that sat in the corner had not been turned on in months.

1. An illicit tryst between a man and his mistress

Despite the many windows of the sunroom, the cozy floral love seat and soft lighting gave off a feeling of intimacy, the room glowing like a chemical concoction in the dark of night.

1. A robbery

The glass windows on the outside of the sunroom stood fragile barriers to the world, drawing only a fine boundary between the precious books kept inside and the city smog.

1. The discovery of some hidden treasure

The sunroom stuck out over the porch, clearly built after the rest of the building. The small room was stuffed with floral-patterned furniture, crock end tables, and numerous books. It looked like a room you could easily lose something in, despite it’s small size and open feel.