The Story Setting

The setting is the world in which your story takes place this includes the place, time, and mood. Without a setting there really is no story as this is what lays the framework for the rest of the story. When setting up the setting every prop that has a major emphasis on the story should be described as it relates to the story in some detail.



Place. This is the location the story takes place including the inhabitant’s technology and what abilities they may have

Description of the location example:

The story of Cyber.Beast takes place in a world called the Cyver world. The Cyver world consents of 8 satellites that surround a planet called the CNS which stands for Central Network square. The satellites and the planet both are habitable and all shares the same atmosphere and are all connected by trains that run from each satellites to the CNS. The galaxy the Cyvers resides in has 3 suns so they don’t have night fall. The only time when they have darkness is on the CNS once a week during an eclipse caused by any of the 8 surrounding satellites.

This is where you describe the key features of the setting. It even can be the description of something as small as a garbage can if that is where the story takes place or an entire planet like what is done here. Since this story is in another galaxy than our as well I describe that in small detail but not in full since it doesn’t play a major role other than the three suns.

Detailed Description of location:

Each satellite has a drastically different climate so they often can’t survive on each other’s satellite especially Lightek and Aquatronics.

• The one called the Lightek Network is a desert like environment

• The Aquatronics network is an arctic environment

• The two satellites called the Plantec network are both tropic environments

• The three satellites called the M.G.D. network has an autumn climate all year so it has no plant life

• The Airstreme satellite has a perfect climate all year not to hot or cold although it is very windy.

• The CNS share the climate of all the networks and similar to earth this is why all the other networks can come here and still survive.

Here the climate effects how the characters in the story are able to interact with each other interaction is important which is why this is describe.

Description of the inhabitants example:

Everyone on the planet has cat like eyes, canine teeth to drink the fluids in plants, and some form of pointy ears. On the moons and the planet there are no animals. Because of this the people are much like plants in terms of replenishment; they get their energy in the form of AQP from the sun through a glowing tail they all have on the back of their heads. They get any extra nutrients from water, fruits and vegetables. Because of this their blood has a faint glow that show through part of their skin in the shape and color of their element.

To give artist an idea of what to draw and what not to draw the basic description of how the people look or even dress needs to be described. This also helps anyone writing the story since it gives the overall functionality of the stories characters.

Description of special abilities examples:

There are 12 different elemental powers that everyone living on the satellites possesses lightning, fire, solar, water, ice, wind, sound, wood, rock, rubber, diamond, and metal. These elements are what dictate the color of their skin and the marking on their skin that represents their element. Every individual including those on the CNS also has abilities which are speed, strength, healing/poisoning, energy absorption/rebound, or duplication.

Sometimes the entire race you will be using will have something special they can do outside of what a normal human can do. Telling what they are and what they do can add an extra flare to the story as this can be what make that characters unique and shape the personality of a character especially if they are all different like it is here. But all stories aren’t same and your characters don’t have to have different abilities, there are plenty of other ways to define uniqueness in each character.

Description of technology example:

There are three major technologies in the story. The first is Cyberspace this is where much of the war takes place since everything is done in cyberspace. Battles in cyberspace are fought with what are called Cyber.Beast, which are advanced viruses that were discover when cyberspace became what it is currently in the story. They aren’t created but are born as random occurrences and only on the servers of the CNS and Airstreme. Then there is the Cyber Syncing Device which connects the world and allows the people of the satellites to use Cyber.Beast. It also allows the slaves of the CNS to use labor machines in facilities to work all day from their homes.

Technology is another important aspect of the stories setting even if it has very little or no technology at all. Here it’s important because it is the primary location of the war and is the major reason the war is being fought.

Time. It solidifies the time period of the story in relation to its past events and back story

The story takes place in the future where it is currently the year 222 ACB (after Cyber.Beast) for them. This is also the time they have been at war with each other 222 years

The time isn’t most crucial part of a setting but it is still important none the less. The time indicates the events that may lead to where the story is at now. Or if it is on Earth it can be what creates the setting for the story. If it is in the future the technology may be more advance or an apocalyptic event may have happened. If is in an alternate present or past you have some parts of the setting already in place to build off of from history.

Mood. It describes the atmosphere of the story and determines if the environment is enjoyable tense, scary etc. in other words its that way you want your readers to feel as the read as they pick up the mood of the character.

The mood of the story is hopefulness to create change for the better and tension in a totalitarian and war stricken world.

When giving the mood of a story I like to describe the reason for the mood. Although it isn’t necessary it can help when there is more than one person that will be work on a story. This is because the location and time can be what triggers the mood.

Example of mood :

It is world that has been at war and in consent turmoil for over 200 years now and those living on the CNS are in the middle of it all even though they aren’t the one fighting. The factions that are driving in this war are the Lightek network and Aqutronics network since they have very little resource. Because of this the people of CNS are treated only as slaves or resources to manage their resources free of charge.

The time periods relation to the mood is the fact that war has been dragging on nonstop creating despair for most of character involved in it. The setting creates tension because the two factions doesn’t have resources so they take from the CNS and enslave them. Hope is brought into the story with the introduction of a hero that creates the change they want.

Part 1 Summary
If this was to be a story you were working on your own you wouldn’t need to go into this much detail only enough to remind yourself as you write or draw. But since this is for other people to collaborate and build upon, more detail only makes that much easier for them to add to it while following the rules set by the setting.

A basic set of rules to remember when developing the setting is features of a location sets up the features of the people. The then creates technology based on environment and needs. This technology can then shape the mood or personality of the people. At times this can also lead to a change in the environment such as global warming.


The Story Setting by CC Network Square is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.