The setting in a piece of work is where and when the work takes place, but is also not limited to those two things. The setting itself is a piece of the story, without it the fictional and even nonfictional work would not be the same.

A setting doesn’t have to be stated directly, as it can be described in such great detail that the reader can picture exactly what the author is trying to convey. The setting should be seen in the reader’s mind, not just on the page, that’s what makes it so special. The audience should be able to smell, see, taste, and hear every aspect of the place in which they are transported when they read the work. Without this, there is a sense of vagueness that keeps the readers from connecting to the work, it takes the experience of it all away from them.

However, the setting is also a mood or emotion of sorts of a situation. The tenseness between two ex-lovers seeing one another for the first time in over a year, exchanging awkward greetings as a mutual friend tries to get the both of them to engage in the conversation is the setting when where the two are is not as important. Either way, the setting gives the audience something to go off of and something to resonate with.