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the three rooms she had furnished. The other eighteen rooms were empty.
    Blomkvist ended his tour in her office. There were no flowers anywhere. There were no paintings or even posters on the wall. There were no rugs or wall hangings. He could not see a single decorative bowl, candlestick, or even a knick-knack that had been saved for sentimental reasons.
    Blomkvist felt as if someone were squeezing his heart. He felt that he had to find Salander and hold her close.
    She would probably bite him if he tried .
    –The Girl Who Played With Fire – Stieg Larsson
     
    I’ m not advocating using so much word space to des cribe the living space of every character, or even using such long descriptions of Setting in every kind of story, but in this 724-page story the author chose to show much of Salander ’s personality via her personal space.
    The reader saw only three rooms , and only the furnishings of those rooms because that’s what mattered to Salander. These rooms made her appear as if her life was full and positively changing. But because we were able to get a different perspective on Salander’s private space, from another character, Blomkvist, it allowed the reader to see Salander in a very different light and to feel, much like Blomkvist felt, that this young woman was very isolated and alone. By allocating enough words in his descriptions, he brought home the shock of the contra s t of those descriptions.
     
    Here’s another example from mystery author Walter Mosley. The POV character, Easy Rawlins, has tracked down a lead on a missing person he is seeking. Instead of describing his impressions of the missing person directly, Mosley reveals the character through what he sees of the man’s home environment.
     
    It was a studio apartment. A Murphy bed had been pulled down from the wall. It was unmade and jumbled with dirty clothes and dishes. A black-and-white portable TV with bent-up rabbit-ear antennas sat on a maple chair at the foot of the bed. There was no sofa, but three big chairs, upholstered with green carpeting, were set in a circle facing each other at the center of the room.
    The room smelled strongly of perfumes and body odors. This scent of sex and sensuality was off-putting on a Saturday afternoon.
    –Cinnamon Kiss – Walter Mosle y
     
    What if Mosley had decided to short change the reader here and go for a more ab breviated room description:
     
    It was a messy studi o apartment. The man must have been a low-life loser to live in such a place.
     
    Sometimes that’s all a reader needs, but that is telling, not showing. W ith a few more lines, the author brought the reader deeper into the missing man’s character by showing who he was via Setting .
     
    Note: The important element to remember is that place can and should be filtered through a specific character’s emotions, impressions, viewpoint, and focus. How one character sees a Setting can be more important than the Setting itself.
     
    Ignoring the powerful use of characterization and Setting decreases the subtext of your story and also decreases the immediacy a character feels in your story world.
     
     
    ASSIGNMENT
     
    Using Setting to reveal character :
     
    If you are not currently working on a manuscript or feel more comfortable work ing on a generic situation try Part 1 of this assignment. If y ou have a WIP [Work In Progress] feel free to try P art 2. Do w hichever part works for you to understand the power of Setting to show characterization.
     
     
    PART 1:
     
    Choose a room in your home. Look for a more private or personal room — a bedroom, writing area, kitchen, etc . — vs . a public space — living room, bathroom, anywhere you’d feel comfortable having strangers come in and walk through. Now describe this room in 2 - 4 sentences max imum from the following POVs:
     
    1) Yours .
    2) An acquaintance or relative you think may disappr ove of you or your life choices .
    3) Your POV [1 st or 3 rd person] while giving an