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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39479
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39479
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

If I am limited to Writing and Setting as you describe them, I have to choose Writing.

Because I think a fine story can be written in an unsurprising setting, about lawyers, or love, or comedy, or hacking. _Mr. Robot_ has no really exotic or memorable settings, I think that is excellent writing.

I think _Seinfeld_ was excellent comedic writing, it is set in very ordinary parts of NYC, the characters had pretty basic jobs.

The same was true for things like _Backdraft_, _The Perfect Storm_, and many other dramas.

_When Harry Met Sally_ has mundane settings.

I don't care how exotic your setting is, **poor writing** is just not entertaining, it is irritating. What makes a best-seller is an entertaining story and free and trusted advertising by word-of-mouth and free reviews, from readers that say they really liked it. They liked it because they liked the characters and kept reading to find out what happened to them, how it worked out, and were still happy after reading the last page.

"Setting" may provide some surprises and delight at its cleverness, but if the reading is a slog, these novelties fall flat. And I don't think an unusual "Setting" is required at all for a best seller, what is required is a compelling character with an interesting problem and the mystery of how she will solve it. To my, that falls more on the "Writing" side than the "Setting" side, because she can be a reporter in Anytown, USA, trying to send some evil crime boss to prison without getting herself killed in the bargain.

Original score: 2