Tips for Setting in Your Novel

When you're writing a novel, sometimes the plot calls for quite a few scenes in the same location. Say, you're writing a sci-fi novel, and most scenes are set on a starship. Or, your main character is imprisoned in a tower for months. Or, has a dead-end job in a factory. I'm sure you can think of books where one setting recurs often.

How does a writer differentiate the scenes, so it doesn't feel like a continuation of the same thing? Of course, the plot will move things along, and hopefully your character is changing little by little. But here are some other possibilities to add variety:

Change the location. Kind of a no-brainer, but it takes creativity to pull off. You can switch to another character's point of view, and tell what's happening to the main character from a different perspective. This secondary character doesn't even have to be in the "main" location, but can be elsewhere in your world, maybe discussing the MC with another secondary character. Or, you can take your main character out of the  'usual' location for some reason. The hero on the starship can stop to explore a new world, or have to visit a neighboring ship for some reason. The character in the tower can try an unsuccessful escape attempt, or could be brought in for further questioning. The factory worker might need to train in another area, or might be part of a company picnic.

Change the weather. Throw in a storm, an asteroid field, a drought, an eclipse, a swarm of locusts. It will force your characters to react to the situation in new ways, and might inspire some plot twists.

Change the atmosphere. The mood and tension in your story should never stay the same, even if the setting does. An impending event, a deadline, a major injury, a rejection, a big evaluation, a potential war, a holiday: all these things will change the feel of the story.

Change the participants. Adding a character, or on the other hand, removing a character your MC has come to depend on changes the dynamics in a huge way.  Choose characters that will add either positive or negative tension. Maybe a grasping, conniving coworker for the starship recruit, an abused and rescued dog for the prisoner, and a suspiciously flirtatious new supervisor for the factory worker.

One book that does a great job with this challenge is Book of a Thousand Days, by Shannon Hale.

What else would you change in a story with a repeated setting? Do you know of other books where the author has handled it well?