Setting & Atmosphere: Using Style and Vocabulary to Enhance Place in Short Fiction

Setting is always more than just a backdrop. Or it certainly should be. You can use your setting to shape your characters' behaviours, hide thematic clues and carry some of the story's emotional weight. The ways in which the writer chooses to set their scenes, the vocabulary they choose, the rhythm, those all important sensory details, all contribute to the atmosphere of their piece. 

We'll begin by discussing a story which achieves an extraordinary sense of place, then work through a series of prompts designed to inspire you to do the same.

WestWord members can attend this workshop at a discounted rate. 

Can't make it live? Everyone with a ticket gets the replay link after the event.

Workshop Host: Martha Lane is a flash fiction writer and workshop facilitator. She writes extensively about loss, love and all things unrequited and draws much inspiration from the ex-industrial landscapes of her past and present. She has delivered workshops for many organisations including The Cystic Fibrosis Trust, Mslexia and WestWord.