by Lisa Norman

Interactive storytelling is transforming the way readers engage with narratives. It's no longer just about following a story—it's about shaping it.

This emerging trend allows authors to connect more deeply with their audience. Every choice the reader makes—provided and limited by the author—can alter the course of the story, making their experience personal and immersive.

Interactive storytelling isn’t just about crafting a story; it’s about creating an experience where readers feel their decisions matter. This type of storytelling engages readers on a deeper level. They become co-creators of the story, exploring different paths and outcomes. This method of engagement is particularly powerful in our digital age, where readers are not just passive consumers but active participants in the stories they love.

I’m going to give you an example of interactive storytelling in this article. Click your answer to the question below:

How much do you know about Interactive Storytelling?

1. Nothing—what is this you are talking about?
2. I’ve heard of it, but I have no idea how to do it.
3. I’m a pro. I could give you examples!

The Appeal of Interactive Fiction

Interactive fiction stories, or branching narratives, invite readers to influence the plot's direction. More than just offering a personalized experience, you are creating a bond between the reader and the story.

When readers have a say in the outcome, they are more likely to revisit the story. They want to explore different possibilities, making the experience feel richer and more engaging. Imagine the excitement of a reader who uncovers a hidden path, leading to a completely unexpected ending. This kind of engagement doesn't just entertain; it encourages readers to think critically about the story and their role in it.

My daughter told me a story about how this happened in a game she was playing and how it sparked a fan following that overwhelmed the game developer. For a while, it was the highest-rated game on the market. Almost 10 years after its release, it still ranks among the top 50, with the writing being credited for that success.

For authors, this opens up endless creative opportunities. Non-linear storytelling allows you to explore multiple scenarios within a single framework, offering a new level of depth to your writing. You can develop complex characters and intricate plots that reveal themselves in layers, depending on the reader’s choices. This flexibility can be incredibly rewarding, both for the writer and the reader. If you come to a point in a story where two possibilities both intrigue you, imagine the possibility of writing both outcomes! If you are a pantser, maybe you have even done that to help decide which way you want to go. In interactive storytelling, you write both endings. The reader chooses for themself which option they want.

A Visual Example

I’ve been following the author of a visual novel on Patreon and World Anvil known as The Sea Hears Our Cries. Each character has a rich back story, but the true magic of the story comes when you begin to play and influence their decisions. While the novel is still under development, you’ll see a lot of beauty there from writer SailingOcelot. Readers can engage with the world and story in a way that feels participatory, as they follow the progress of this ongoing project.

Tools for Creating Interactive Fiction

Several platforms can help you craft interactive stories, but World Anvil stands out for those who love world-building. Everyone knows I love World Anvil*!

In my own project, The Spaceport, I used World Anvil to create a brief narrative adventure where readers’ choices drive the story forward. They can discover different endings, all while exploring the world I've built.

World Anvil’s strength lies in its ability to combine detailed world-building with interactive storytelling. It is an ideal choice for authors who want to create complex, layered experiences. The platform offers tools that allow you to map out your world in detail, from character biographies to the intricacies of your story's timeline. This level of detail helps to create a truly immersive experience for your readers, who can explore the world you've created as if they were living in it.

If you want to get caught up in a world, check out The Comprilith from Stormbril and venture within.

World Anvil is not specifically designed for interactive fiction, but it creates an environment that supports it extremely well. They even have a tutorial on the topic that helps writers learn to plot interactive fiction..

Other tools you might consider—ones more limited to interactive narratives:

• Twine: A user-friendly platform for crafting text-based branching stories. It's perfect for writers who want a straightforward way to explore interactive narratives.
• Inklewriter: This tool is great for creating and sharing interactive stories online, allowing you to reach a wide audience with your branching narratives.

Incorporating Interactive Elements in Traditional Writing

You don't need to fully dive into interactive fiction to benefit from its principles. Small, interactive elements can bring new life to traditional formats.

Consider offering your readers a choice between two different endings in your novel. Or, run a poll on your blog where readers can vote on what happens next in your serialized story.

These small steps can make your audience feel more involved in the storytelling process.

Something as simple as inviting fans to help choose cover art can help them feel connected to your writing.

Interactivity deepens readers' connection to your work, making them more invested in the outcome. Imagine the thrill your readers will feel when they realize they’ve had a hand in shaping the story, even in small ways. This kind of engagement fosters a loyal readership, as they return not just for the story, but for the experience of being part of something larger.

The Future of Interactive Storytelling

The future of interactive fiction is bright, with new technologies like AI and virtual reality on the horizon. Imagine a story that adapts to the reader's emotions or unfolds in a fully immersive VR environment.

As these technologies develop, authors who experiment with interactive storytelling now will be well-positioned to take advantage of new opportunities. The integration of AI could allow for stories that evolve in real-time, adapting to the reader's choices and even their emotional responses. Virtual reality offers the potential for readers to physically immerse themselves in the narrative, exploring the story world in ways we’re only beginning to imagine.

Whether you're curious about these possibilities or just looking to try something new, interactive fiction offers endless ways to innovate in your writing.

Have you tried writing or reading interactive storytelling? Are you interested in exploring this art form?

About Lisa

Lisa Norman's passion has been writing since she could hold a pencil. While that is a cliché, she is unique in that her first novel was written on gum wrappers. As a young woman, she learned to program and discovered she has a talent for helping people and computers learn to work together and play nice. When she's not playing with her daughter, writing, or designing for the web, she can be found wandering the local beaches.

Lisa writes as Deleyna Marr and is the owner of Deleyna's Dynamic Designs, a web development company focused on helping writers, and Heart Ally Books, LLC, an indie publishing firm.

Interested in learning more from Lisa? Sign up for her newsletter or check out her school, No Stress Writing Academy, where she teaches social media, organization, technical skills, and marketing for authors!

Top image by Deleyna via Midjourney.

*This is an affiliate link.

by Janet Forbes

What is a fantasy race - and how is it different from a fantasy species?

A lot of worldbuilders get confused between these terms. Because even in our world, people are really complicated. And a lot of the language traditionally used to describe fantasy people is old, and steeped in problematic historical baggage. So, I’m going to attempt to give you the best advice I can for tackling this tricky subject!

And by the way, a massive thank you to the THREE different specialists (anthropologist, social psychologist and archaeologist) who made sure I got all the details and definitions here correct. You know who you are - and you’re MY kinda fantasy people! <3

What are people?

Let’s start with the basics. When we’re talking about people in the context of science fiction and fantasy worldbuilding, we’re talking about Sapient Species (also sometimes called sophonts). That’s your elves, dwarves, klingons, gnomes and other creatures with human-like intelligence, more or less.

Our world currently only has one sapient species - modern humans - but other early hominids certainly seem to have been sapient too. But fantasy and space opera settings with many sapient species living alongside each other are very common. And like in the real world, worldbuilders - and in-world characters - may divide and understand people in a whole host of different ways:

• Species
• Ethnicities
• Cultures
• National or citizen-based identities
• Ideologies or religions
• Settled vs. nomadic

You’ll have noticed that some items on that list are biological truths - like species (we’ll talk more about that in a moment). Some are about personal beliefs, like religions. And some are socially constructed, like national identities, for example, which in our world only really cemented themselves in the 19th century.

What is a Species?

Put simply, a species is a group of organisms (that is to say, people, animals, plants, bacteria, space whales etc.) that are similar to one another, BUT there’s an important caveat: only organisms of the same species can reproduce to create offspring… that are also able to reproduce. We’ll call this the “Viable Offspring” test, and it’ll come back later.

So what does that mean in real terms? Well, two horses can have foals. And when those foals grow up, they’ll also be able to have more foals. Horses everywhere!

Compare that to a horse and a donkey. They’re certainly similar-looking. And they can even have offspring. But their offspring, called either a mule or a jenny, will be sterile: they won’t be able to have children of their own. That means they DON’T produce viable offspring and AREN’T the same species. No horses everywhere.

This “Viable Offspring” test (i.e. offspring that can reproduce) does seem to have some exceptions in nature (you can share your favorite ones in the comments!) But in general, it’s how biologists define species.

So what is a fantasy race (and is it a real thing)?

But Elves, Dwarves, Dragonborn, etc… They’re “fantasy races”, right? Do a quick search on google and that’s what it’ll tell you.

At least, that’s what they’re called in The Lord of the Rings, and they continue to be called that in worlds that took their cue from Tolkein. While definitely not the first fantasy novels, Tolkein’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings had a hugely formative influence on fantasy. The world’s most-played tabletop RPG, Dungeons and Dragons, copies Tolkein’s elves and dwarves etc. pretty much verbatim. And in D&D, until literally two months ago, they were still called fantasy races. (They’ve finally renamed them to species in the latest edition).

What is a “Race” in People?

So that’s what a fantasy race is. All well and good. But how do we define a “race”?

Let’s start with what we know from science. All modern humans are the same species - Homo sapiens - as defined by the Viable offspring test. Every day, humans from different countries around the world fall in love and prove this, by having children! But even though we’re the same species, we clearly have different heritages, because people have moved all over the world for millennia and their biology became specialized to survive the conditions they found themselves in.

And then…. they moved about some more. There’s viking heritage in Crete, middle-eastern heritage in Spain and Sicily, and people of British heritage absolutely freaking everywhere. For historical reasons we won’t go into here. They’re all still humans, the same species, but they look a bit different.

The Difference Between "Race" and "Species"

But… unlike species, which is a biological term, “race” is a social construct - that’s to say, it’s defined by how people see, define, and group themselves, and more usually, others. And because heritage and identity is complex (even today, there is much metaphorical beard-pulling between anthropologists trying to sort this all out), racial descriptors were historically used as a simple tool, to carve a multicolored world into clear categories that don’t have any biological meaning. This is evidenced by the fact that the specifics of “race” identities and classifications have varied wildly in different eras and places.

The savvy amongst you will already know that these imaginary racial lines drawn between people have traditionally been more about dividing and controlling people than understanding them. And that’s why for so many (including myself), the use of the term “Fantasy Races” feels not just imprecise, but downright icky. It’s a term that’s loaded with historical oppression. And fortunately, it’s already on the out in much of the fantasy writing world. Plenty of Role Playing Games are moving away from “fantasy race” as a naming system for their peoples, and we’ll talk more about good fantasy alternatives (that don’t sound sciency) later.

So was Tolkein writing “races” or species?

So let’s go back to Tolkein. After all, he was the one that coined the “fantasy race” terminology.

We know that Tolkien actually thought about his peoples in terms of biological species, even if he didn’t call them that, as you can see from this excerpt of one of his letters:

“I suppose that actually the chief difficulties I have involved myself in are scientific and biological — which worry me just as much as the theological and metaphysical. Elves and Men are evidently in biological terms one race, or they could not breed and produce fertile offspring – even as a rare event: there are 2 cases only in my legends of such unions" (taken from Letter 153)”

It’s slightly hairy to speculate about what authors meant, especially when they’re not around to explain. But although Tolkein’s characters use the term “race” to describe these different peoples in-world, and Tolkein used the word race in his letters, it’s clear he’s referring to the “Viable Offspring” test, which can only mean species. The “scientific and biological” worries were clearly something he dwelled on: and even though he’s getting the actual biological term wrong - “dammit man, I’m a Philologist, not a Dr.” - he’s certainly thinking of his peoples as biological species.

OK, so why is this important? Can’t I just write whatever I want?

I mean, I’m not your mother, I don’t live in your computer and I’m not the worldbuilding police. But Fantasy and Scifi fiction has always been a grand metaphor for our world. Lord of the Rings is about war, and its harrowing impact on the world. Frank Herbert’s Dune, about the awful things people do to each other for resources, is intentionally about oil. I mean, Arrakis even sounds like Iraq, right? And Star Trek is absolutely packed full of metaphors for current affairs through the ages.

That’s what speculative fiction does. Sure it’s fun, and a mile-a-minute adventure is a great time. But fantasy and sci-fi has always held a mirror up to the world to help us understand and explore difficult topics. And at its heart, there’s often an opinion or message built into each aspect of a world and its stories. That’s why it’s so meaningful and important as a genre.

And that means it’s critical to consider what you’re saying with your world, even if it’s only to your friends around the RPG table. And especially if you’re publishing, and your work will reach even more people, it’s good to be mindful of what you’re putting out into the world.

What term can I use instead of “Fantasy Races”?

Species is a sciency word. There’s no getting around that.

For science fiction writers, that’s no problem at all. In fact, they might dress it up further as xenobiology, meta-species, or sophonts. The game Masters of Umdaar uses “bioforms”. Other ideas for science fiction or science-fantasy could be Genesis, Genespring, etc.

But for fantasy worldbuilders, especially those writing medieval-inspired fantasy, there’s a disconnect between the word “species” and your olde worlde-feeling worldbuilding.

Some awesome RPGs have already been pioneering away from the prevalence of “fantasy race” as a term. Here are some recent examples of equivalent words:

• Lineage (Pathfinder 2e)
• Kindred (Tunnels & Trolls)
• Stock (Torchbearer)
• Ancestry (Shadow of the Demon Lord)

Other good fantasy-sounding names for your peoples are:

• Kin
• Folk
• Heritages
• Kinds
• Origins
• Backgrounds
• Peoples

The “Viable Offspring” test in Fantasy - is it useful?

If you’re being less scientific about your peoples, do you even need the viable offspring species test? As always, it depends on what you’re worldbuilding! But there’s always an RPG player or beta reader who asks about half-elves, so regardless of your choice, you might need to be ready with an answer.

If it’s relevant for your kind of setting, you should choose which of your peoples (or folk, kin, etc) can have children, and if those children pass the “viable offspring” test. That’s especially important if your peoples live alongside each other in daily life. Even if scientists or wizards haven’t gotten involved, there’ll be anecdotal knowledge about couples who were or weren’t able to have children.

Of course, you might choose that all your different peoples can have children (that’s what I did in my recent world) which creates beautiful mixed peoples with interesting heritages. Or that none of them can. That’s totally fine too, just make sure you think of the ramifications this will have on your societies.

World Building Origins

If you are selective about who can have children with whom, this can speak volumes to the origins of your peoples. In many fantasy worlds, some peoples are more similar in origin than others. For instance, traditional D&D logic has gnomes and elves as closer in origin than, for example, dwarves. That might mean you can have an elf-gnome but not an elf-dwarf.

For some reason, humans seem to be able to procreate with anyone in D&D, especially if they’re bards. Maybe it’s just the Captain Kirk phenomena at play, but I’ve always assumed that’s because they’re made of the factory floor scraps of all the other species… that’s just my personal head-canon.

How do you handle this in your own fantasy worlds? Who makes babies with whom, and how do you refer to your different peoples? Or have you seen other AWESOME examples of people tackling this in the wild?

Let me know in the comments, and I hope you enjoyed this read!

About Janet

Janet Forbes (she/her) is not just a multi-lingual, multi-cultural mongrel, but a published fantasy author, professional worldbuilding consultant, and game developer. In 2017 she co-founded World Anvil (https://www.worldanvil.com), the award-winning worldbuilding, writing and tabletop RPG platform which boasts a community of over 2 million users. 

Top image by Deleyna via Midjourney.

By Lisa Miller

While doing some fun reading this Summer, I was struck by the impact small setting elements can have on the character development of the story’s protagonist.

The Hidden Power of Small Setting Details

I’ve come to realize that the setting is so much more than the physical location and the time period in which a story is set. There are also social and historical context components to setting.

The seating chart of the head table at a future wedding reception. A social media post. A letter announcing a birth found in a box of old stuff in the garage. A familiar postcard pinned to someone else’s wall. The jumble of spices in a kitchen cabinet. The well-worn dining table with all the leaves left in so the entire family would fit at a moment’s notice. The tall grass and weedy garden of a neglected backyard.

At first glance, none of these items or situations feel important or powerful. More likely something to skim right by and think nothing of. Yet, the small details can impact the protagonist in relation to herself and her family and future.

Beyond Time and Place: Expanding the Concept of Setting

These were new ripples in story building for me.

The stone was cast for me while I read Shauna Robinson's book, The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster. Warning: story spoilers in this article. I’ll explain how overarching, seemingly generic story concepts transform into these small pebbles of character discoveries.

This story is all about Mae Townsend learning how to be true to herself while still finding belonging and acceptance within her family.

How Setting Shapes Character Development

The protagonist, Mae, is a biracial woman in her twenties. Growing up, her mother’s White family made comments about her hair and occasionally used ugly language about Black people. Never letting her feel totally accepted in that family. Now about to be married into a rich White family, Mae’s fearful that the same will happen with her fiancé’s family.

Mae’s Black father died when she was a child. She’s had only a couple of interactions with any of his family because of a rift between the families of her parents. She treasures her childhood memories where he shared stories about his family and especially his mother and the meals she cooked. 

Another legacy he left Mae was that it was best to ignore those slights or racist comments that happened over the years from some of her mother’s White family members. No confrontation or questioning, just ignore.

In other words, don’t be true to yourself or value yourself enough to question others that hurt us or ask them to stop.

In the Story Structure Safari class I teach at Margie Lawson’s online school Lawson Writers Academy, we start the class needing to know what genre a story is or at least could be. Genre helps us understand other foundation elements that are important for the story and the protagonist. 

Using Domestic Story Elements to Enhance Emotion

If we look at what Genre this Townsend Family story is, it feels like a Domestic genre, a family story.

The Subject (what it’s about) of a Domestic story is the Health of the Individual vs. the Bond of the Family.

Other examples of story Subjects:

• Action Genre is Life vs Death.
• Love Genre is Love vs Hate.
• Crime Genre is Justice vs. Injustice

The subject of Individual vs Family feels very much like what Mae is struggling with. She has trouble claiming her own feelings and desires for fear that her new in-law family will reject her.

Her father taught her that ignoring and keeping the peace was the best way to get along. The message ingrained in Mae was that The Bond of the Family is more important than the Health of the Individual.

That feels out of balance to me.

For Mae, trying to build or maintain strong family bonds has caused her to make unhealthy choices that have made her feel bad about herself. She hasn’t stood up for herself when others made unkind or hurtful comments. She hesitates to give her opinion for fear it may be at odds with her new in-law’s ways of thinking or doing things.

An example of this Individual vs Family dynamic is at the beginning of the story, Mae and her fiancé, Connor, are making wedding plans with his parents. The wedding will take place at his family’s winery where they hold many weddings. Nothing but the best for their son and his fiancé. All their suggestions were so much more than Mae was used to. But she wants to be accepted into Connor’s family and so mostly goes along with what they want.

This also uncovers her Fatal Flaw: Being False to Herself.

Fatal Flaws and Internal Conflict

Each protagonist has an Internal Thread in the story that is made up of the Fatal Flaw and Internal Conflict. During the story, Mae will have to face that Fatal Flaw and make changes with how she reacts to and with others.

Overcoming her Fatal Flaw and becoming True to Herself or maybe to Value Herself is the result of that internal shift Mae must make during the story to become a healthy member of healthy family, righting her previous Individual vs Family dynamic in the process. Now how does any of this link up to my big splash up of linking small setting pieces to a story?

Let’s look at how four setting elements impact her goal of being true to herself and finding belonging and acceptance.

One of the small setting elements that impacts Mae right away is that pesky reception seating chart. Mae feels nervous because none of the invitations she sent to her father's family have received a response. The groom’s side has a couple of hundred or more coming. She overhears two of the groom’s aunts mentioning how few people were coming from her family.

So, we see this imbalance of expectations right off. In response, Mae lies to Connor’s parents and adds her dad’s sister’s and her cousin’s names to that head table seating chart. She doesn’t want anyone to know how estranged she is from her dad’s family. She just wants to fit in. Unhealthy lying sparked by the pressure of needing to fill all those seats. 

Her fiancé, Connor, understands and is totally supportive and wonderful to her. Her desire is to return that support at this important time of their wedding and in the future. She knows that at least with Connor she belongs no matter what. 

A Social Media Post

But planning for the wedding gets interrupted when Mae discovers that her paternal grandmother has died, and her funeral is listed in a social media post. Mae’s kept up with her father’s family only online through social media. She’s shocked and saddened by this loss and compelled to go to the funeral of this woman she missed connecting with after her father passed.

Social media posts feel like part of the setting too. A part of today’s society. This one, changes Mae’s goals in the short term. She wants to meet her father’s family and connect with at least some of them. Be a “Real” Townsend. 

Death and missing and remembering loved ones are situations most readers can relate to. So, I’m rooting for Mae in her journey to find connections with this family she’s mostly known through her father’s colorful stories. I want her to fill up that seating chart because the story and Mae’s situation has impacted me. I’m invested in what happens next.

Mae’s father would return alone to his hometown every Fourth of July for the family BBQ. That event became, in Mae’s mind, a mythic gathering. Something she hoped to attend one day.  

Details from the Past

The story shifts to her father’s hometown. Her father’s family is surprised to see Mae at the funeral, but her Aunt Barbara gives her a hug and calls her sweetheart. She had done the same at her dad’s funeral. Mae is grateful she has at least one ally. At the family meal after the funeral, Mae finds out there are no plans for that special Fourth of July BBQ in just a couple of weeks. No opportunity to taste her father’s favorite mac and cheese dish that only his mother could make. 

The family she just reconnected with feels like it is fracturing, with some moving away and plan to sell her grandmother’s house. Mae wants this connection to stick. She volunteers to move into her grandmother’s house to get it ready to sell and host one last Fourth of July BBQ. She’ll try her hand to recreate the mythical, coveted mac and cheese. This may be her last opportunity to get to know and be a part of this branch of her family.

A Massive Family Table

When Mae enters her grandmother’s house, she notices the well-worn, giant dining table with all the leaves left in. She can envision her father and all the family sitting down to a table covered with a variety of yummy, homemade dishes. So different from the house she grew up in and where she often ate alone when her mother, a nurse, worked the night shift at the hospital.

The massive table spoke to the importance of family meals, and everyone had their own spot. No splitting up on multiple tables or having to squeeze chairs in. Whetting Mae’s appetite for a welcome place at this family heirloom. Seeing this table increased her resolve to bring the Townsend family back together one more time.

Grandmother's Kitchen

The kitchen is well stocked with pots, pans, mixing bowls, and cooking utensils. The cabinet by the stove contains a jumble of spices. She could feel the energy, love, and connection that had filled the center of the grandparent’s home. If she closed her eyes, she could almost see her grandmother shooing her father away as he grabbed a quick taste of the welcoming, bubbling dishes.

Again, this setting a stark difference from the kitchen she grew up in. With its well-used microwave oven and frozen dinners.

As an adult, Mae loved cooking and trying new recipes. She feels like maybe that love of cooking was inherited from her grandmother Townsend. The new setting tells her she’s where she should be.

A Birth Announcement

While clearing out things in the garage, Mae found a letter from her father to his parents, in a box of old stuff. It announced her birth and there was a picture of her cute little newborn face. The letter referred to a hope that the families could get past some of the bad feelings from before. She had no idea what that meant, but at least her grandmother had saved the letter and the picture. When she showed the letter to her aunt Barbara, she found out the terrible rumors her maternal grandmother had spread about her grandmother Townsend when they were young girls.

This was the source of the families’ rift. Something neither of her parents had shared with her. Mae could at least better understand the hard feelings. 

But Mae could still feel a hesitation in the Townsends around her. She knew there was something else involved.

A Post Card

She’d made friends with her cousin Sierra and had gone shopping, becoming friends, cousins. They stopped at Sierra’s apartment. Mae noticed a familiar postcard pinned to a wall. One just like her father had sent her years ago and was still on her wall at her mother’s house. She unpinned it and turned it over. Right away, she recognized her dad’s handwriting. Signed just like the one she had: Love, Dad.

This was a lightning bolt revelation. Her parents had lied to her about being an only child, when she had an older half-sister. No wonder the Townsends acted weird around her. They didn’t know that she was clueless about the connection. Mae had some harsh words for her mom about keeping this secret all these years too.

Sierra had some soul searching to do too when she realized her dad lied about who she was to all his wife’s family. But Sierra’s dad had been dead for years, so there was no one to stay mad and hurt at.

Once Sierra and Mae came to grips with the reality of their relationship, they decided to make up for lost sister time. A stronger family relationship developed too. From them she learns how to better stand up for what she values and not be disrespected.

Dramatic Character Shift

With a sister and aunts and cousins rooting her on, Mae was able to find her voice to claim the respect she deserved from all those around her and express her own desires and feelings. Be True to Herself.

A social media post, that massive family table, a birth announcement letter, her grandmother’s kitchen, and a post card, five very small elements in the setting of this story. But they all sent ripples across how Mae’s view of herself and how she fit into both sides of her family. Each small setting pebble helped Mae discover more of her own true self.

Creating Emotional Impact with Setting in Your Own Writing

I’ll leave you with one activity. Walk through your house or apartment. Make a list of at least fifteen elements within that setting that could provide a nudge or a big wow for a protagonist in your story.

I’ll reveal a few from my list:

1. A picture, on my refrigerator, of my son and my nephew in front of a two seat Cesena plane. My pilot son had just taken him up for his first small plane ride.
2. One of my father’s paintings hung above the fireplace. This one of a blue jay and a flying squirrel.
3. In a box in the closet: The telegram from my father telling me he had just gotten remarried after divorcing my mother a few months earlier. I was starting my sophomore year of college. 
4. Hung on the wall in the garage: The canoe paddles my husband and I used while on our honeymoon in the Boundary waters in Canada.
5. Every time I turn on Brit Box to watch an English mystery. These types of shows were my mother’s favorite and we watched them together when she lived with my family.

Don’t sound all that wow, but with the right set up they could each have an impact on the characters in your story.

What small setting detail in your own writing has had the biggest emotional impact on your characters or readers?

About Lisa

A veteran teacher, as well as certified counselor, Lisa's passion for teaching met her love of writing contemporary, young adult fiction. A native Texan, her stories take place in Texas with strong, smart female protagonists in an ethnically diverse cast of characters. Lisa writes what she knows, what she lives, and what she cares about.

After not finding the writing classes she needed, Lisa spent several years on a deep study of story structure. She then merged her passions into a powerful and well-loved online course she teaches at Lawson Writer's Academy: Story Structure Safari. She is continuing to expand her teaching journey and has joined the staff at No Stress Writing Academy where she is developing new classes, including a new class based on these insights into setting. You be able to find that class in 2025 at Deleyna Marr’s No Stress Writing Academy.

Sle loves writing, reading–especially mysteries, movies–can’t ever get enough Cary Grant, Humphrey Bogart, and Audrey Hepburn.

Learn more about Lisa at her website: LisaWMiller.com.

Top image from Pixabay.