Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
National Capital Region
QUEZON CITY HIGH SCHOOL
SHS DEPARTMENT
CREATIVE WRITING

Name: ________________________________ September 30, 2019

Grade and Section: _____________________

CREATIVE WRITING: The Setting in a Fictional Work

I.OBJECTIVES
The learner can be able to:
1. Identify setting as used in creative writing;
2. Explain various techniques used in establishing the effective setting in fiction writing;
3. Write their own setting of a short story.

Time in setting can refer to the length of time in which the story unfolds (as short as a day or as long as 1000
years or more).
Time can also refer to time period, the historical epoch (for example the Middle Ages) in which your novel is
set.
Place’ is the ‘where’ of story setting. Place in your novel is the geographical location of the story’s events
(they take place on a specific planet (or in space), in a specific country, county, city or neighbourhood (or span
several).
The ‘mood’ of a story’s setting refers to the tone you create by providing details of time and place. The
mood of a dank and rustling wood is very different to that of a bustling, bright metropolis.

The Fundamental Elements of Setting

Here is a list of the specific elements that setting encompasses:

1. Locale. This relates to broad categories such as a country, state, region, city, and town, as well as to
more specific locales, such as a neighborhood, street, house or school. Other locales can include
shorelines, islands, farms, rural areas, etc.

2. Time of year. The time of year is richly evocative and influential in fiction. Time of year includes the
seasons, but also encompasses holidays, such as Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, and
Halloween. Significant dates can also be used, such as the anniversary of a death of a character or
real person, or the anniversary of a battle, such as the attack on Pearl Harbor.

3. Time of day. Scenes need to play out during various times or periods during a day or night, such as
dawn or dusk. Readers have clear associations with different periods of the day, making an easy way
to create a visual orientation in a scene.

4. Elapsed time. The minutes, hours, days, weeks, and months a story encompasses must be
somehow accounted for or the reader will feel confused and the story will suffer from a lack of
authenticity. While scenes unfold moment by moment, there is also time to account for between
scenes, when a flashback is inserted, and when a character travels a long distance.

5. Mood and atmosphere. Characters and events are influenced by weather, temperature, lighting, and
other tangible factors, which in turn influence the emotional timbre, mood, and atmosphere of a
scene.
6. Climate. Climate is linked to the geography and topography of a place, and, as in our real world, can
influence events and people. Ocean currents, prevailing winds and air masses, latitude, altitude,
mountains, land masses, and large bodies of water all influence climate. It’s especially important
when you write about a real setting to understand climatic influences. Harsh climates can make for
grim lives, while tropical climates can create more carefree lifestyles.

7. Geography. This refers to specific aspects of water, landforms, ecosystems, and topography in your
setting. Geography also includes climate, soil, plants, trees, rocks and minerals, and soils. Geography
can create obvious influences in a story like a mountain a character must climb, a swift-running river
he must cross, or a boreal forest he must traverse to reach safety. No matter where a story is set,
whether it’s a mountain village in the Swiss Alps or an opulent resort on the Florida coast, the natural
world with all its geographic variations and influences must permeate the story.

8. Man-made geography. There are few corners of the planet that have not been influenced by the
hand of humankind. It is in our man-made influences that our creativity and the destructiveness of
civilization can be seen. Readers want visual evidence in a story world, and man-made geography is
easily included to provide it. With this in mind, make certain that your stories contain proof of the
many footprints that people have left in its setting. Use the influences of humankind on geography to
lend authenticity to stories set in a real or famous locale. These landmarks include dams, bridges,
ports, towns and cities, monuments, burial grounds, cemeteries, and famous buildings. Consider too
the influences of mankind using the land, and the effects of mines, deforestation, agriculture,
irrigation, vineyards, cattle grazing, and coffee plantations.

9. Eras of historical importance. Important events, wars, or historical periods linked to the plot and
theme might include the Civil war, World War II, medieval times, the Bubonic Plague, the gold rush in
the 1800s, or the era of slavery in the South.

10. Social/political/cultural environment. Cultural, political, and social influences can range widely and
affect characters in many ways. The social era of a story often influences characters’ values, social
and family roles, and sensibilities.

11. Population. Some places are densely populated, such as Hong Kong, while others are lonely places
with only a few hardy souls. Your stories need a specific, yet varied population that accurately reflects
the place.

12. Ancestral influences. In many regions of the United States, the ancestral influences of European
countries such as Germany, Ireland, Italy, and Poland are prominent. The cities and bayous of
Louisiana are populated with distinctive groups influenced by their Native American, French-
Canadian, and African American forebears. Ancestral influences can be depicted in cuisine, dialogue,
values, attitudes, and general outlook.
Task 1: In the list provided below, identify the setting used in the following stories.

1. Alice’s Adventures in Woderland

2. Footnote to Youth by Jose Garcia Villa
3. Star Wars Series
4. Avatar
5. Heneral Luna (The Movie)
6. Harry Potter Series
7. Lord of the Rings Trilogy
8. Romeo and Juliet
9. Titanic
10. Thing Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe

Task 2: Select any setting that your mind can imagine. Describe the setting in a creative way just
like writing the riddle. Below is an example that you can use as a guide in writing your creative
description.

1. The room filled with darkness. A room of regrets. A room outside the world of freedom.
Room for sinners. (Describing a jail or a prison.)

2. The automatic doors opened swiftly as Jade strode in. She glanced quickly at the cluster
of signs and pressed on down the wide polished corridor. Ahead of her a set of double
doors flew open and a trolley, pushed by five concerned faces, passed rapidly by. The
smell of antiseptic caught at the back of her throat. Pushing through the doors at the end
of the corridor, she emerged into a brightly lit room. Rows of plastic seats groaned with
injured people.
 Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
National Capital Region
QUEZON CITY HIGH SCHOOL
SHS DEPARTMENT
CREATIVE WRITING

Name: ________________________________ October 1, 2019

Grade and Section: _____________________

CREATIVE WRITING: The Setting in a Fictional Work

Task 1: Read Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher and examine how the writer
established the setting used in the story. Write your observation and analysis inside the box
provided below:

In making your analysis consider the following questions:

1. Is the setting explicitly or implicitly revealed?

2. What helped you determine the setting of the story?
3. How do you feel about the setting?
4. What type of setting was presented in the story?
5. What is your general impression as to the technique used by Poe in developing the setting?

The Setting of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher
 Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
National Capital Region
QUEZON CITY HIGH SCHOOL
SHS DEPARTMENT
CREATIVE WRITING

Name: ________________________________ October 2, 2019

Grade and Section: _____________________

CREATIVE WRITING: Looking Through Point of View of Fiction

Objectives
The learner can be able to:
1. Differentiate the types of point of view;
2. Highlight the importance of choosing the right point of view; and
3. Write a fictional work using different point of view.

Point of view is essentially the eyes through which a story is told. It is the narrative voice through
which readers follow the story's plot, meet its characters, discover its setting, and enter into its
relationships, emotions, and conflicts. Point of view allows readers to experience the story as it unfolds.

Authors can choose from the first person, the second person, or the third person point of view. We'll spend
the rest of this lesson exploring each of these and practicing identifying them.

First Person Point of View

In the first person point of view, one of the story's characters serves as a narrator and readers watch the
story unfold through that character's eyes. First person point of view is easy to identify because the
character or narrator speaks to readers in his or her own voice, frequently using the pronoun 'I'.

The character or narrator is often a main character who is actively involved in the story's events, but
sometimes authors choose to tell the story through the eyes of a minor character who merely witnesses the
unfolding story or even through the eyes of a character who didn't directly witness the events, but retells
them secondhand. In any case, this point of view allows readers access only to the narrating character's
limited knowledge and understanding of the story and of his or her fellow characters.

Examples of famous works with a first person point of view include Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock
Holmes stories, in which supporting character Dr. John Watson narrates the great detective's adventures;
Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, which is narrated by the title character; and Harper Lee's To Kill a
Mockingbird, in which a child character tells the story.
Second Person Point of View

The second person point of view is relatively rare because it makes the reader a character in the story and
directly addresses the reader as 'you'. The Choose Your Own Adventure series of the 1980s and 1990s
features the second person point of view and allows readers to make decisions that affect the story's plot
and lead to various outcomes.

Third Person Point of View

In the third person point of view, the narrator is someone outside the story, who frequently uses pronouns,
like 'he,' 'she,' and 'they,' to describe the characters. The third person point of view is divided into three
subcategories:

1. The objective third person, in which the narrator knows or reveals nothing about the characters'
internal thoughts, feelings, and motivations but sticks to the external facts of the story (as in Nathaniel
Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter)

2. The limited third person, in which the narrator describes the internal thoughts, feelings, and motivations
of one character, usually the main character (as in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series)

3. The omniscient third person, in which the narrator knows and at least partially reveals the internal
thoughts, feelings, and motivations of all the characters (as in E.B. White's Charlotte's Web)
Task 1: Below are literary excerpts from the different fictional stories. Accomplish the form below
by identifying if the excerpt is using first, second, or third type of point of view. Write also your
consideration in identifying the point of view.

CONSIDERATION IN
EXCERPT POINT OF VIEW IDENTIFYING THE POINT
OF VIEW

“He is just what a young man ought to be,” said she,

“sensible, good humoured, lively; and I never saw
such happy manners! So much ease, with such a
perfect good breeding!” Jane Austen in Pride and
Prejudice

“ And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At

small parties, there isn’t any privacy.” – the Great
Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Eventually, you ascend the stairs to the street. You

think of Plato’s pilgrims climbing out of the cave,
from the shadow world appearances toward things
as they are, and you wonder if it is possible to
change in this life.” – Jay McInerney, Bright Lights,
Big City

“It was dark and stormy nights; the rain fell in

torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was
checked by a violent gust of the wind which swept
up the streets.”

“ I cannot but conclude that the bulk of your Natives,

to be the most pernicious Race of little odious
Vermin that the nature ever suffered to crawl upon
the Surface of the earth.” Gulliver’s Travel by
Jonathan Swift

“ Adjust the light so you won’t strain your eyes. Do it

now, because once you’re absorbed in reading there
will be no budging you. Make sure the page isn’t in
shadow, a clothing black letters on a grey
background, uniform as pack of mice…” If on a
Winter’s Night a Traveler by italo Calvino
 Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
National Capital Region
QUEZON CITY HIGH SCHOOL
SHS DEPARTMENT
CREATIVE WRITING

Name: ________________________________ October 3, 2019

Grade and Section: _____________________

CREATIVE WRITING: Looking Through the point of View of Fiction

Read The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe the story uses the first person type of approach. Pick an
excerpt inside the story and try to rewrite the excerpt either second ot third person approach.

The Raven Original Excerpt:

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Revised Version of the Excerpt:

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 Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
National Capital Region
QUEZON CITY HIGH SCHOOL
SHS DEPARTMENT
CREATIVE WRITING

Name: ________________________________ October 4, 2019

Grade and Section: _____________________

CREATIVE WRITING: Advancing Challenging Plots in Fiction

Develop a story following the four elements of plot. You can choose from the five categories below.

1. Adventure
2. Revenge
3. Forbidden Love
4. Discovery
5. Escape

Beginning

Once upon a time, theres a beautiful lady in the city of .

Rising Action

Climax

Falling Action