I sit in the darkened room, thunder rumbling outside, raindrops morse-coding a dreary message of despair. This once was a bustling office, but now, it’s just me and the dog. A dog who can’t understand that barking at thunder won’t make it go away. It teases her again, and she responds in the only language she knows.
The next noise is not thunder, it’s a rap on the pane glass in the door, the shadow of knuckles just above my stenciled moniker: JAMES Q. DARMAN, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR. The door opens and in walks the smoothest legs…
How many times has that opened a story? More than once too many, and it’s too old now. But setting plays an important part in your story and can be revealed very quickly. There’s no need to describe every little detail for the reader to draw a picture. What picture did you draw of the office JQD was sitting in? See? I left that to your imagination. But you probably drew your picture from the description of the door with the name on the glass, recalling all those old TV shows and movies that started out in a very similar fashion.
And that’s the key. A small setting detail will give the reader enough to build their own location. It might be slightly different than yours, the house may be blue instead of brown, the trees twenty feet tall instead of thirty, but the overall feel will be what you impart.
Good luck on your story, and I hope to see you soon!
John
