October Novel Prep Challenge

Now there's something I'm ashamed of. I have been learning literature in two languages for over 8 years (not English though), yet there's something I do not know.



Beforehand, I would have defined 'setting' as the milieu in which the novel is set, including socioeconomic levels and relations, geography and history in case of a custom world.

But looking at the setting list, I wondered: Setting!s!? List of settings? Isn't there just a simple setting? I grew lost and confused.

So I hit my bookshelf and look up this curious word. The first dictionary translates it to 'world description' in German, that's what I thought. Other dictionary, same in Hungarian. I don't understand.

I reach for google translate, my last hope. I punch in the word 'setting' and the first two German translations are 'Presentation' and 'Environment'. No help. But then I look at the left side, the itty-bitty-tiny script under the English word.

'cozy waterfront cottage in a peaceful country setting'

My head hits the wide-open dictionary on my desk. I finally understand the word. Or do I? I start to think about the settings for my novel. All the different tiny-enviroments for each scene. I realise that there's at least five dozen of them.

What shall I do? I turn back to google, punch in the words 'literary setting profile', nothing. I spend the next ten minutes tirelessly fishing for useful pages, but I fail.

So I'm turning to you, other OctoPreppers. I'm planning to create a new worksheet in my novel database excel document, but what details should I include? What is important in a setting apart from the global setting's description (time, culture, ...)?