Details and Setting

In writing, small details make setting come to life. They draw the reader in with visuals. These details can also set the scene within a time in history.

For example consider something as simple as a clock. If you read a scene about a young wife winding her clock before climbing into bed, or staring at the second hand sweeping over glow in the dark numbers and falling asleep to the steady tick-tick-tick...when you move on to show she is thinking about her husband in the war and longing for a letter to arrive by mail the small details put you in the past to WWI or WWII...maybe the Korean war or even the Viet Nam War.

On the other hand, if the young wife checks the clock in the lower right hand corner of her computer screen and double checks her email one more time for a message from her husband who is away at war...the clock and other details helps set the time of the story to more recent history.

Pumping Your Muse Prompt

For today's prompt write 2-3 paragraphs for one or more of these items. Set each paragraph in a different time.

Clock

Coffee maker/pot

Getting the news

Shoes

Donna Sundblad
Author of Pumping Your Muse

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Check out my latest interview at Stories That Read You.And my 4 star review for Beyond the Fifth Gate at Teens Read Too!