Plot, character, and setting are the three elements that make up every story. Of course, their importance within each story varies, but getting them right is often the difference between a great reading experience and a book that is put on the shelf and forgotten.

The setting is one element that many writers struggle to bring to life. Outside of science fiction and fantasy, the setting takes on a smaller role in most novels. There are times that the setting of a book isn’t mentioned at all. However, including an immersive setting is a great way to draw readers into the story. Here are four tips for making an exciting and immersive setting.

1. Treat Setting as a Character

Whether your story takes place in a faraway galaxy on an imagined planet, a small New England town, or the streets of New York City, the setting should feel alive.

Write a character sketch of your setting. What does it look like? What is its history and background? How is it related to the protagonist and antagonist of your story? How do your character’s actions affect the setting of the story? How does the setting change as your protagonist follows their arc?

Treating your setting like a character will help you bring it to life and create the kind of immersive reading experience that will leave your readers hungry for more.

2. Find Ways to Include Setting in Your Plot

If your story takes place in an authentic setting, what landmarks can be placed in the story? For example, can your lovers have a cute meet atop the Empire State Building? Can your hero hide in the Appalachian mountains to avoid apprehension while he tries to prove his innocence? Can your villain attempt to blow up Big Ben to make a political point?

If you are working with a fictional setting, build that setting to enhance the story’s plot. Think of the classic science fiction book Dune. The desert setting is vital to every aspect of the plot from the quirks of the people to the dangers the characters face. Create a setting with obstacles for your characters to overcome and rewards for a triumph that naturally flow from that setting.

3. Choose the Setting Carefully

Too many authors are so focused on the plot and characters of their story that they don’t care much about choosing the setting. As a result, they may fail to describe where the action is taking place or give readers only the vaguest notion of where the characters live and interact. The outlining phase of writing is a great time to consider where the characters will spend the story.

What setting is most conducive to the story? What setting would be unexpected?

If the writer uses a real setting, it is also wise for them to consider places they know or places they can easily research.

If the author is creating a setting, they should be sure to consider what makes it different. For example, how is the small town in their book different from every other small town in the world? Fictional settings have so much creative space. Take advantage of that to make the setting memorable for readers.

4. Include a Map

If you are writing a complex setting, consider adding a map to your book. Especially in a made-up location, maps make it easy for readers to understand where the story is taking place and follow the characters’ movements. Having a custom illustrated map can also help you, as an author, navigate the setting of your world and see fresh opportunities for using your setting in new and creative ways.

Have you written an amazing story with rich characters, an intense plot, and a dynamic setting?

If so, InstantPublisher wants to help you turn your manuscript into a self-published book. Instant publisher offers a wide range of custom printing services, so you can bring your book to life with as much or as little help as you need. Whether you want to create a collectible hardcover, a classic paperback, or an ebook InstantPublisher’s expert book publishing team can assist you. To learn more, visit our website or call us at 1 800 259 2592.

National Novel Writing Month, also called NaNoWriMo, is right around the corner. As writers prepare for the challenge of writing a novel in a month, many wonder how they will manage it. Writing 50k words in 30 days is a daunting task.

These tips will help writers be more productive every month of the year. Especially for self-publishing authors, more time to write means more opportunities to write their bestselling masterpiece.

1. Use an Outline

Many writers like to let their story unfold as they write but doing so costs time and wasted words when the author realizes they are taking a detour they never planned and their story suddenly is heading in a completely different direction than the one they thought. This can result in thousands of wasted words and hours of wasted time.

Having a solid outline for a story is one of the best ways for a writer to use their writing time to its full potential.

2. Be Prepared Before Sitting at the Keyboard

This ties into tip #1. The time to plan and daydream stories isn’t while sitting at the keyboard.

Keyboard time is for writing. Thinking through scenes can be done while showering, washing dishes, or any other number of menial tasks that people do throughout their day. Before a writer sits down to write they should already have a solid idea of what will be said and done in the scene they are writing. This allows their time at the keyboard to be more productive as it will be spent turning the story into words instead of weaving plot threads.

3. Use Speech to Text

Most people can talk faster than they can type. A good speech-to-text program will increase the number of words most writers can get on the page in a writing session.

4. Create a Writing Routine

Write at the same time every day, if that is at all possible.

Many writers benefit from having things in their writing routine that signal to their brain it is writing time. That could be a specific time, a place they sit with their laptop, a hat they only wear when writing, an electronic typewriter that is only used for writing, or even the act of turning off the internet on a computer to avoid distractions.

Just as bedtime routines help children calm down and prepare to sleep, so too do writing routines get the writer in writing mode and call the muse forward to do her work.

5. Focus on One Step at a Time

Writing a novel can feel overwhelming and writers often feel as though they have to have all the answers when they sit down to the blank page. In actuality, most writers are more productive when they can focus on the scene they are writing today. Writers should not let themselves get distracted by things like interior book design or book manuscript formatting while writing their first draft. They also should not edit as they go but wait to edit until the first draft is completed. This eliminates unnecessary backtracking and time spent editing scenes that will be cut from the final draft.

Whether a writer is attempting to pen a novel in November or chipping away at the epic that is their magnum opus, time-saving techniques will help them find the time in their busy lives to birth their remarkable stories.

Once your story is created, InstantPublisher offers a wide range of self-publishing services to turn your draft into a digital or printed book. Call 1 800 259 2592, fill out our online contact form, or send an email to questions@instantpublisher.com for more information.