The Urban Setting Thesaurus: A Writer’s Guide to City Spaces (PDF)

Is your setting pulling its weight in the story, or is it just sort of…there? For readers to be fully engaged, they must be immersed in the character's world in every scene. That's where this guide comes in. This guide, with its instructive content and lists of sensory descriptions for over 120 modern locations, is like a masterclass on maximizing the setting.

This book will help you: 

• Transport Readers into the Story. Every entry explores the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures that correspond with a popular urban location, making it easier than ever to write authentic descriptions.
• Add Realistic Conflict Associated with Urban Environments. Cities are full of challenges and threats, such as crime, crowds, and socioeconomic dynamics. Whatever metropolitan setting your story needs (an alleyway, bookstore, or prison cell, maybe?), this book provides the complications and plot derailments that could naturally occur there.
  
• Use the Setting to Characterize and Trigger Emotions. In addition to showing you how to incorporate sensory details, you'll learn to make strategic setting choices that can be used to stir character emotion and trigger reader empathy. 
  
• Avoid Backstory Dumping. The setting has many superpowers, one of which is its ability to reveal a character's history without a big backstory dump. You'll find plenty of instructions on how to drop hints and create windows to the past without stalling the pace or boring readers. 

Note: This guide has a sister volume that covers rural and personal environments. Each book can be used independently, but reader reviews indicate that the two volumes together can increase a writer's knowledge of the setting and give them a more complete collection of locations to choose from.

Read a sample.
Available in Print and as an eBook.