The Goal:
Setting a scene in such a way that the reader or player feels present in the story. The world of plagues and racism fades away and they brought into the world of the story. A different world, with fake plagues and imaginary racism.
There are a number of ways to accomplish this much sought-after effect, but the first and most important thing to know is how much you actually need to do. How much is not enough, and how much is too much?
Keep in Mind
The audience will meet you halfway.
People are generally hugely imaginative. Any given member of audience is likely already a fan of genre fiction, so they already possess a lot of the concepts and images in their mind. You don’t need to invent the adventuring tavern, or reimagine what a castle is supposed to look like, or describe in detail the finer points of what the hell a horse is. Anything you don’t describe in detail, they will fill out with their mind’s eye, and be able to visualize it, more or less correctly. Example:
“You walk into the tavern. There are rowdy individuals drinking, playing cards at the tables. A gruff bartender is serving drinks, and in the corner there is a bard playing on a lute. A wench slips between the tables bringing meals from the kitchen and taking orders. “
Several elements have been mentioned here, but none really described in detail:
- Tavern
- Rowdy people
- Drinks
- Games
- Gruff bartender
- Bard
- Music
- Wench
- Meals
Most people can absolutely work with this level of information. You probably were able to visualize each of those things. Aren’t you clever? You imagined a generic tavern, probably wooden walls, poorly lit. You might have imagined rowdy humans in farmers clothes, maybe beards, probably strong and a little intimidating. Games you might have visualized poker, or a dice game. What game it actually was probably doesn’t matter. The wench may be old, or young, may have an apron, or be busting out of her blouse. One audience member might have imagined a side of roasted chicken, another might have imagined a hearty brown stew. And whichever they imagined is fine because it doesn’t matter to the story. Unless it does.
Each of those things mentioned is an opportunity for worldbuilding. If the audience member has to think of all those things, they will go to the safest, most unremarkable example in their mind. Nothing they have to come up with will surprise them. No questions are raised, and there is nothing new to explore or discover that they can see. Now look what you’ve done. You’ve made a boring cliche tavern scene.
So don’t be afraid to take advantage of those opportunities, and take control of what they see to bring that tavern to life.
“You walk into the dimly lit tavern. The floor is a bit sticky under your heel, but the crowd is in high spirits. You hear laughter, and local gossip being loudly discussed amidst clouds of pipe-smoke.
Among the farmers and local laborers, there are a few orcs, mostly keeping to their own kind, but not dressed any differently from the rest. The bartender looks like he might be a former soldier, with scars on his broad arms and a tattoo on his arm you can’t make out from here. He taps frothy ale from a keg into a trio of horn-cups, which he then passes to a few thirsty farmers without looking. His dour expression suggests he is not the type of bartender who considers ‘listening” part of his job description.
The bard in the corner is young, and looks rather intimidated. He is trying to pluck out some love ballad on the lute but it is hard to make out over the din. He is sweating, and flinches whenever someone shouts at him to play something faster, or louder.
A young woman comes out of the kitchen, with a few trenchers, with skewers of beef and fire-baked potatoes which she sets in front of a few hungry farmers.
There is a clatter and a huge shout from a dozen or so human farmers and one orc gathered around a table where dice are being thrown. One of the farmers pushes his chair out and leaves the table in disgust, shouldering rudely past you as you stand near the doorway.”
Here I have set the same scene and, having filled out a lot of detail, it probably drew you in a bit more, yes? It gave you more to work with, and didn’t require you to fill in as much with your own go-to images. Also, it provided several questions that you cannot immediately answer, and introduces a little bit of intriguing detail on a few characters, or opportunities to learn more. Do you want to try to pry out the bartender’s history? Listen in on some of that gossip? Pester or maybe encourage the bard with a coin? Maybe the gambler is planning something dubious, or is in real need, or just gambled away his family’s money. You could even want to find out about the orcs, who clearly don’t seem connected to the rest of the community.
Of course you don’t need to do all of that. What I wrote above might even be considered too much, if there is something specific I am trying to highlight. Knowing that your audience will meet you halfway, you can use details to uplift certain elements that you want to draw attention to. Notice I barely described the wench at all, suggesting I’m not looking to draw much attention her way. She isn’t necessarily important to the scene I’m actually trying to create.
So be aware, and consciously use details to control the audience’s perspective, pique their curiosity, and get them more immersed into the world. They’ll never know what hit them. They’ll be having a good time and then BAM seventeen hours have gone by, they’ve finished the book and they’ve lost their jobs.
Another little trick I used there is something called the three-senses rule.
The Three-Senses Rule
Appealing to at least three sensory inputs can help activate your audience’s imagination.
This can make a huge difference. In the example above, I began the second description with a sticky floor, dim lighting, smoke clouds, and the laughter and gossip. The easiest of course is to look at sight and sound, but smell can be really powerful. Personally, I really like bringing in tactile senses, like that sticky floor. Also, there are way more than three senses. Balance, hot-cold, orientation, time… all told there are something more like 14 or 20.
So let’s look into some ideas and examples, shall we? No? Too bad.
Sight: (Don’t limit yourself to just the things that are present at the scene. Visual decriptors can be greatly expanded upon to flavor it). Consider dimly lit and cramped, fog swirling in the streetlamps, a cool blue or warm amber light, flickering firelight making the shadows dance, softness or harshness of the shadows and glare, apparent age and decrepitude, dirtiness, dustiness, or pristine cleanliness. There are lots of such descriptors you can use to overcast a scene.
Sound: Crowd sounds, bird song, wood creaking in the wind, distant thunder, wind whispering through the grass, the rumbling of wagon wheels on cobble, sailors and dockmen shouting from the street over, merchants hawking their goods, the bells of a temple some miles off, the sounds of blade on wood and martial commands as guardsman train in the barracks nearby, echoing drops of water in a deep cave, squirrels chattering and scrambling about in the trees, distant chanting, waves pounding the sand.
Smell: Roasting meat, stale beer, recently doused fire smoke, the smell of the ocean, rotten fish by the riverside, the sickly cloying smell of a slaughtered carcass, bitter smoke, sweet smoke, incense, body odor, fresh pizza, brownies in the oven, that freshly-peed on bus-station smell, wet dog, the smell of hay, a chemical soapy smell, freshly turned earth, the petrichor released by the rain after a long dry-spell, the smell of laundry, moldering decayed wood.
Tactile+ Misc.: Warm or cold air, breeze on the skin, cold rain drops soaking through your hat, the radiant heat of bright sunlight off white pavement, the crunch of snow under your boots, the mud sticking to your feet, sweating, unstable footing or imbalance, the rocking back and forth of a sea-vessel, disorientation vs being certain of your direction, stickiness, slipperiness, rigidity or softness, dizziness, nausea, a sense of deep relaxation, an unsettling tension you cannot place, uneven floor panels, time drawing out or going swiftly by.
Spying on the Real World
The last thing I want to discuss for this post is an exercise to help when you just aren’t sure what parts of a scene you want to highlight and fill in.
At the moment, this one might be a little more difficult than usual (I’m writing this in the midst of the pandemic). But I believe in you. The idea is to go somewhere you’ve never been before. Or at least somewhere you don’t usually go and are essentially unfamiliar with. The stranger the better. It can be a coffee shop, or a library, or a book store you’ve been meaning to check out. Obviously, if it can be similar to the scene you want to describe, that’s even better. Seek out a very different community from your own. If your character is coming in as an outsider, it helps if you can experience that.
When you go into this place, take note of what is there. What draws your attention? What are the wall decorations? What is the light like? What can you hear? What can you smell? How does the floor feel? Is anything impressive? Does anything look falling apart? What elements are familiar?Who is here and what are these strangers like? Are they speaking a different language? Are they using terms and laughing about jokes you don’t understand? Be respectful, but check into every one of your senses and consider what things strike you as you enter and spend time in this unfamiliar environment. Even if it is very different from what your character may be experiencing, even if it is not strange or unfamiliar to your character, remember that you will be introducing your audience to this new environment you’ve created. They will be strangers observing a strange land, so take note of what you, as a stranger in a strange location, will tend to take note of.
Conclusion
So there you have it! Blog post Number 1. I hope this was useful to you! I very much welcome your comments below. I’d love to hear if this helped you, if you have any contradictions, further advice, or any questions for me about the post, about the process, or about how to solve some of your own worldbuilding dilemmas.
See you next world!
—Charles