Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

66%
+2 −0
Q&A How do you show, through your narration, a hard and uncaring world?

These answers are all really good, so I'll just add a couple of things. Imagine your setting as a character. You've already personified it by making it "uncaring" and "hostile". Now, make it be...

posted 5y ago by matildalee23‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T12:05:18Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/45741
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar matildalee23‭ · 2019-12-08T12:05:18Z (over 4 years ago)
These answers are all really good, so I'll just add a couple of things.

1. Imagine your setting as a character. You've already personified it by making it "uncaring" and "hostile". Now, make it behave like an uncaring and hostile creature/character. Your setting can interact with your characters just like they I react with it. "As much as Mary was determined to survive, the wasteland was determined to kill her."

You can give your setting a backstory, mood, emotion, even motivation, all of which can contrast with that of your characters.

1. Make sure that your characters are seeing your world through all five senses. It will help draw your readers in and help them experience your environment more thoroughly. Your characters can see the wasteland and feel the burning sun, but they can also smell the decay, taste sulphur in the air and hear metal against metal grinding in the distance.

This will also give you more material to contrast against your characters. "Mary hummed 'You Are My Sunshine' to drown out the sound of metal grinding in the distance."

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-06-04T16:31:58Z (almost 5 years ago)
Original score: 6