Setting

Reader,

Literary agent Nathan Bransford has a great blog for those aspiring to be writers.  He posts 5 days a week, asking questions of his readers, critiquing work, writing articles, and reviewing the week in publishers.  Now that I've graduated his blog is one of the many 'classrooms' I frequent to continue my reading.  If you have yet to check him out, feel free to do so.

On Thursday he wrote an article on Setting which got me thinking about my work in progress.  I had already considered making the river in my current Work In Progress (WIP) a character in it's own right, however otherwise I wasn't planning on exploring the setting very much further. 

As I read Nathan's post though, I got to thinking more about the importance of setting.  Even now, years after reading The Dragonriders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey, I remember different elements of Pern with fond memories.  Likewise who, having read even one Harry Potter novel, wouldn't want to visit Hogwarts at least once? 

So I've decided to develop my novel's world a bit more.  It has the potential for change underway, there are three distinct regions built into the setting, with the flow from hunter gatherer to farmland to growing bustling city.  I already planned to give it at least some of it's own character, but I'm wondering more and more if the river can't tie all three together in someway or another since it's already tied the first two together.

This focus on further world building might be exactly what I need to jump start this project from it's mostly stagnant status.  I might not be writing the actual novel for a while, true, but the more I know about the setting before hand, the more I can just let loose and write later.

Is setting important in what you read? 
What are a few of your favorite settings?

Until next time,
Rose