Choose Your Setting Wisely

I fell in love with my field and profession because of reading stories at an early age. I would immerse myself in Westerns during the long winters in North Dakota, favoring in particular stories by Louis L'Amour. An element of storytelling that has long held my fascination is setting. I've been known to choose a story and a movie just because of the setting. This purpose is exactly why I selected A Haunting in Venice. This movie is equally charming because of its lead actor, Kenneth Branagh. He stars in one of my top five favorite movies in Hamlet, so I was willing to trust this movie. 

I'm not exactly in love with A Haunting in Venice. Interestingly, it's because we don't get enough glimpses of that setting. I wanted to experience more fully the darker side of Venice. Every place has a darker side; it's a missed opportunity in a horror movie not to experience fully this darker side.

When drafting my own stories, I try my very hardest to engross my readers in my setting in the first paragraph. I don't want my readers to have to work to create or understand a setting; I want them to immerse themselves in the setting and be free to appreciate my characters and plot.

A Haunting in Venice doesn't do a good enough job with intoxicating the audience with its setting. It certainly takes us there, but it needs to keep us there by reminding us throughout that this is Venice. Allow us to tour this city throughout the movie. Great stories have a way of never letting audiences forget where they are. We are fronted with setting at every turn because it is not a prop; it is our world.