The Setting generally refers to the time, location, and everything in which a story takes place. People have different ways of describing the setting, and here's mine:
I believe most settings are applicable to different types of literary media. The Setting is mentioned in most of my critiques/reviews. This post shall act as a guide on the settings I talk about.
Setting: Timeline
The time when the story takes places could be in any period of our history, and could also be set on a time that has yet to come. Of course, it could also be something that can be happening right at this moment.
A story could cover various time periods through flashbacks or if it's by generation. It could also travel to or to mix up different time periods if there's an existence of a time machine or the like.
There's so much you can play with the time element of the story's setting, but they can be categorized mainly into three:
Past (Historical)
pre-Earth, pre-mankind, pre-historic, B.C., Anno Domini, until 1990's(?), etc.
Present (Contemporary)
present time, millenium, modern, early 2000's, etc.
Future (Futuristic)
more than 10 years later, future, apocalypse, post-apocalyptic, 22nd century or later, end of the world, etc.
Setting: Universe
The place of where the story takes place isn't limited to the places that can be found on planet Earth, or could actually exist in real life. It could take place in a world that we know, a world outside our world, a world that is just imagined, or could also be a mix of various worlds.
There had been various ways to describe the universe of where the story takes place, but I've tried my best to generalize them, and I've manage to come up with six categories:
Real World
the world that we know.. and could something that we see everyday, or if we could see if we travel for it (as far as outer space)
Modified Real World
the world that we know is mixed up with things that couldn't possibly exist in the world we know
Alternate Reality
a possible world if only a different choice was make in the past or if only a particular event actually happened or something actually existed
Multi-Dimensional
our world is being connected to different kinds of other worlds or dimensions
Fictional World
a world that was complete created from one's imagination... at times could refer to some places in the real world, but majority of it is made-up
Mythical World
a world that seems fictional but considered real to those who believe (example: heaven, nirvana, Mt. Olympus, etc.)
Setting: Location
The place of where the story takes place may be in different kinds of worlds, but of course, since a world is so large, there's no way for the story to take place in all possible locations.
I generalized particular locations of where a story usually takes place into seven categories:
Urban
city, buildings, technology, civilization
Rural
province, farm, field, barn, wasteland
Institution
office, school, house, hospital, laboratory
Natural
forest, ocean, jungle, mountains, desert
Underground
under the sea, underground city, basement, sewer
Outer Space
space, spaceship, moon, satellite,
Others
simulated reality, nightmare, inside the human body, sky
This wraps up the list of what I would be considering as "different types of setting" in this blog. Of course, this is only applicable to the media that the blog covers (you can’t apply these to music you know... and I don’t blog about music anyway).
Take note that this is a personal definition and way of categorizing. If you don’t agree or if you think that there’s a more appropriate way to do so, I wouldn’t be surprised. Feel free to correct me, but remember that this post just clarifies the way I classify things, not the way they’re officially classified.
These categorizations are just the generalized versions. When it comes to my reviews/critiques, I will be trying my best to be more particular when mentioning the setting. As for my favorite types of settings though, that would be in another post. My favorites lists couldn't be this generalized, apparently, haha.
Artworks are by the following geniuses from deviantArt:
ftlongl, kerembeyit, jdillon82, denoro, 1oshuart, ailah, minyi, martanael, designanvesh, sabin-boykinov, zain7, fox-orian, lychi, forerunnergr (hopefully I didn't miss anyone x_x)
