Hi everyone! It’s time to move on to Part Four of my horror-writing workshop. We’ve already had a quick look at ideas and characters, so today I want to talk about setting.

As always, if you want to check out the other parts of the workshop first then you can find them here:

Part One: Thinking about ideas based on your own worst fears!

Part Two: What if…

Part Three: Developing realistic characters

And feel free to download the worksheet that goes with this workshop here!

Part 4: Sim City

Creating a world for your characters is almost as important as creating the characters themselves. They have to have somewhere to live!

Readers don’t just want to see a location in their heads, they want to smell it, touch it, taste it – to feel like they are actually there. The best way to create a realistic location is to use all five senses (and more!) to describe it. This way you’ll build a world with real atmosphere – a place that actually exists.

Start by thinking about a location for part of your story. This can be somewhere familiar, like your bedroom or your school, or it can be somewhere strange and scary, like a graveyard or a battlefield or a haunted house. Decide what kind of atmosphere you want it to have – how you want your characters to feel when they are there – then explore it as if you were actually visiting it for the first time.

Location: Begin by thinking about what it looks like. You can draw pictures or make a map if this helps.

Next, think about what it sounds like. Can you hear the wind screaming? Is there traffic in the distance? Are there voices? A ticking clock? Scratching noises from beneath the bed? Write down some of the things you can hear.

Now think about the smells. Something cooking? Something rotting? Gunpowder? Blood? Write down what you can smell.

How about touch? What is the temperature like? How does the ground feel beneath your feet? Are the walls damp or bloodstained? What does the rain feel like against your face?

Memories: Has a character been here before? What was that experience like? Have they heard stories about this location? This is almost like a sixth sense because what they expect to happen in a location will influence how they feel when they are there.

Lastly, write a short piece about a character that visits this location (this doesn’t have to be part of your story, it’s just an exercise). How does that character feel when they are there, what is their emotional response to the setting? Does it make them feel welcome? Scared? Angry? Sad? Nostalgic? Happy? Hopeful? Try to work out which of the senses are contributing to the atmosphere. It’s a great way of working out why a place feels the way it does, and it will also help you develop your character!

Hopefully by now you’ll feel as if you have really visited your location, and your readers will too!

Join me next week for part five of the workshop, and if anyone has any questions then please feel free to post them here!

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