Sense of Place & Setting
Welcome to Through Lines! Living creatively, thinking imaginatively, practicing the craft of storytelling, and uncovering your invisible strings
My family is not one of storytellers. I have very few anecdotes from my relatives, their roots, and their perspectives on life. My parents do not share tales of my childhood. When my grandmother was still alive, I’d ask her to tell me about her life when she was young, and her response was consistently, “You don’t want to hear about all that.” In fact, I did want to hear about all that! I asked for a reason! But alas, I could never draw rich, authentic stories from any of my family members.
Regardless, I’ve been able to collect some details about my family and where I come from over the years, like breadcrumbs snagged from a dirt trail before the birds arrive to disappear them away.
I know my grandmother spent her early years in the Greenwood Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, which became incorporated into Sunset Park in the 1960s, and is no longer a distinctive neighborhood—though Green-wood Cemetery still stalwartly remains.
However, I didn’t learn this until only a handful of years ago. I moved to Brooklyn after college and found my first apartment in a neighborhood a brisk walk away from Green-wood Cemetery, and still, no one in my family thought to explain my grandmother’s connection to this specific place that came to mean so much to me over time. Not even my grandmother spoke about it.
But my heart knew something. I felt it then, when I was 22, and I feel it every time I stroll through Green-wood Cemetery or the surrounding streets of Sunset Park, Windsor Terrance, up through South Slope. It’s like my feet relax into the pathways my grandmother walked decades ago, and my body calibrates to the surroundings in a profound way that’s entirely unique.
Clearly, I think about the concept of “place” quite a lot. What is a sense of place, for myself? For my children? I think about what “home” means, and how it feels. What we mean when we say we’re “from” somewhere, and why we phrase it however we do. How deeply a place can affect us, and what arises when our current location doesn’t align with our inner narrative.
I also consider these ideas in terms of setting, in story and art. As a creator, why do you choose the location you do for your picture book? Your graphic novel? Your novel? The portfolio piece you illustrate?
Considering Setting as a Storyteller
Setting is more than just the scenery—it's an active participant in a narrative. The environment shapes your characters' choices, challenges, and growth. This relationship between character and place creates tension or harmony that drives your story forward. The selective focus on certain setting elements—a quiet stretch of beach, a carefully tended garden, or a chaotic bedroom—provides insight into both the world and the characters inhabiting it.
For illustrators, setting offers rich visual storytelling opportunities. The way characters physically interact with their environment reveals their emotional state without requiring explicit text. Which details are included, and why? What do these nuances reveal about the characters and the plot? Color palettes, lighting, perspective, and scale all contribute to how setting affects mood and tone. A familiar location shown from an unusual angle or in unexpected weather conditions can transform its emotional impact on both characters and readers.
These choices, in both text and illustration, create meaningful subtext that enriches the reading and viewing experience.
Perhaps for certain stories or illustrations, setting isn't as crucial of a piece of the puzzle. If you're writing a nonfiction picture book about the ecosystem of the boreal forest, you're probably thinking more about setting than if you are writing about two friends throwing a party. But setting can be just as significant in character-driven stories, and it adds all the more texture and depth when it's thoughtful and intentional.
For young readers especially, setting provides context for understanding characters' emotions and motivations.
Story Starter Questions for Setting
For Writers:
✨Are there setting choices you rarely see in kid’s books, and is there a way to explore one of those places in a new story?
✨If your setting could speak, what would it say to your main character?
✨How does your character's relationship with the setting change from the beginning to the end of the story? What physical details might illustrate this evolution?
✨What sensory details (sounds, smells, textures) are unique to your setting that might be unfamiliar to your readers? How can you introduce these elements naturally?
✨How does the scale of your setting (vast ocean vs. tiny closet) affect how your character feels and behaves?
✨What secrets does your setting hold? Is there something hidden that only certain characters can discover?
For Illustrators:
✨Are there setting choices you rarely see in kidlit art, and is there a way to explore those places in new pieces?
✨Choose three different color palettes for the same setting. How does each change the emotional tone of the scene?
✨Draw the same setting from three perspectives: bird's eye view, child's eye level, and from below looking up. How does each viewpoint change the story it tells?
✨How can you use visual metaphors within your setting to reflect a character's internal state?
✨Experiment with varying levels of detail in your setting. Which elements deserve focus, and which can remain impressionistic?
✨What recurring visual motif could you incorporate into different settings throughout the book to create visual continuity?
The settings of our lives are never just backdrops—they're part of who we are and who we become. What places matter most in your own story?
Another treasure trove of inspiration! Thanks, Christie.