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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45624
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

DPT and Sara Costa have provided great points. (Sara beat me by 4 minutes!) Having the characters interact with the setting is a way to make it matter for the scene.

Most of the time when I see this addressed in writing craft books or online by authors, the solution is stated as making the setting _a character._

In practical terms, one way to make the setting important is to give the characters a reason to _be_ in that setting, when it makes sense to do so. For example, if they meet in a diner because it's where they used to hang out with their friends, then the setting is important to the characters, their history, and their development. Or maybe they met there, and so it carries significance that way to them. But the gist is, make the setting significant to the characters somehow.

But it's not always possible to have the setting be significant to the characters prior to the scene. The other side of that is making it significant by its menace, or what it's representing to the character(s). An old house is significant to the young characters who believe it's haunted and are afraid of it. The woods are familiar to the townsfolk in the daylight, but ominous and threatening and strangely UNfamiliar after sundown. That sort of thing.

You could also write the scene so that there's no way it could have unfolded without being there. An exaggerated example is the ancient burial ground trope, where it's significant because it's a place of magic and mystery. Reference Stephen King's _Pet Sematary_ for a great example of this trick, and don't forget _The Dark Tower_ cycle; that tower represents a significant location throughout the series and in the "Kingverse" in general.

If the setting is important to the general world of the story, or to its characters personally (if not everyone in that fictitious world), then it will have a lot of weight.

Original score: 6