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Mary Buckham

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Writing Active Setting Book 1: Characterization and Sensory Detail Kindle Edition

by Mary Buckham (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.5 216 ratings

Book 1 of 3: Writing Active Setting

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Have you tried to take your writing skills to the next level but don’t know where to begin?

Do you dread the thought of writing narrative description because as a reader you skip over it when you read novels?

Or are you a writer who ignores Setting description totally in your novel writing—but know your story needs it? You just don’t know where.

Active Setting, explained in comprehensible bites with clear examples from a variety of published authors can help YOU breakthrough with your writing skills.

Readers usually remember the plot and characters of a story, but setting is every bit as important in creating a memorable world. Novel writing can be enjoyable once you’ve mastered a few of the writing skills necessary to bring a story to life.

If you’re tired of your Setting descriptions being ho-hum and are ready to create a compelling story world, regardless of what you write, or your current level of writing skills, keep reading.

In WRITING ACTIVE SETTING Book 1: Characterization and Sensory Detail you will:

Discover the difference between Ordinary Setting that bogs down your story, and Active Setting that empowers your story.

See how to spin boring descriptions into engaging prose.

Learn to deepen the reader's experience of your story world through sensory details.

Notice how changing characters’ POV can change your setting.

Explore ways to maximize the setting possibilities in your story.

This book goes straight to the point, putting theory in plain language, adding examples from authors in a variety of genres, and finishes each section with exercises designed to help you work with your Setting in a way that will excite you. . .and your readers!

Editorial Reviews

Review

The Active Setting series takes an all too often overlooked technique, and elevates it to a next-level game changer for powerful fiction. ~ Cathy Yardley, author of Rock Your Plot WRITING ACTIVE SETTING is a powerful combination of fresh insights, practical examples, and how-to advice on the often overlooked but critical element of Setting ... written in a quick-to-read and easy-to-understand style, and packed with useful application exercises. ~ Kelly L. Stone, author of THINKING WRITE: The Secret to Freeing Your Creative Mind If you're a writer, then Mary Buckham's book, Writing Active Settings, is a must-have tool for your writer's toolkit. Creating settings that are rich and believable is not an easy task, but with this book, I found that each chapter gave me great tips that I could immediately implement in my manuscript. ~ Laurie G. Adams, author of Finding Atticus

From the Author

A few fun facts about me
I'm a fiction addict and a non-fiction enthusiast.
I love learning from Robert McKee, Cathy Yardley, Donald Maass, Karl Iglesias, Blake Snyder, and too many other authors to name.
I have been known to stay up all night to finish a new novel, devouring first and then re-reading to analyze.
I love teaching others about ways to improve their own fiction because I too have learned from other writers.
I'm a USA Today Bestselling author who has fan girl moments at every writer's conference I attend.
There's not a type of fiction that I don't love and study (except horror, if it's done really well it can scare the willies out of me and then I get nothing done for days! So I moderate my horror consumption).
I love being an author of both fiction and non-fiction work.
Love writing. Love talking about writing. Love sharing writing. And I love hearing from readers. Email me, anytime, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.
marybuckham.com

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B009MRLXQW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Cantwell Publishing, LLC (October 7, 2013)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 7, 2013
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 899 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 58 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #805,952 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #538 in 90-Minute Education & Reference Short Reads
- #912 in Creativity Self-Help
- #923 in Writing Skill Reference (Kindle Store)

Customer Reviews:
4.5 216 ratings

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Mary Buckham

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USA Today Bestselling author Mary Buckham credits her years of international travel and curiosity about different cultures that resulted in creating high-concept urban fantasy and romantic suspense stories. Her newest Invisible Recruit series has been touted for the unique voice, high action and rich emotion. A prolific writer, Mary also co-authors the young adult sci-fi/fantasy Red Moon series with NYT bestseller Dianna Love.

Mary lives in Washington State with her husband and, when not crafting a new adventure, she travels the country researching settings and teaching other writers. Don't miss her latest reference book Writing Active Hooks.

Please visit www.MaryBuckham.com for more information.

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4.5 out of 5

216 global ratings

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Gluten Free Momma

Content is great but formatting is iffy

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2012

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Edited to add: Originally three stars, but since the author contacted me and will be making changes, I am going to change this rating.

This book has been packed full of wonderful information, and I have finished my first read through. I will be going through soon again with notes in hand this time. This author uses several examples of well known works where setting was described without slowing down the story, giving a visual, and yet leading the story ahead because of this bonus.

While I would love to give it a five, I have been reading it on my Kindle to PC 2, and something is quirky. Most of the book is readable, but when sections are highlighted, there are enough missing words in between that I know I've missed vital information not being able to be read.

I would say about 94% of the book is readable. Most of the book is okay and there are several highlighted areas without missing words so I have no idea where this glitch is from.

If this gets fixed in the future, I would be happy to come back and change my review.

6 people found this helpful

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Robins

Excellent detail

Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2014

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I've read quite a few books on writing now and this one is particularly helpful because of the amount of detail it goes into. Books on writing always tell you to read, read, read. But what if you don't know what you're supposed to be on the lookout for when you read? Well, Ms. Buckham breaks down sample paragraphs so you can see exactly how active setting can help create characterization and subtext. Well worth the small fee she charges.

The content is worth five stars. I knocked off one star because of the number of e-book formatting errors, typos and the irritation of seeing the word 'Setting' so many times when I'm quite sure it's a generic noun and should not be capitalized (please correct me if I'm wrong). Every time the word appeared, it jarred me and I lost my focus.

Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2016

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I was so happy to discover this book. My writing is very sparse and because I always equated Settings and Descriptions with Exposition, I never included it. As a result, my dialogue and action scenes are really good but disjointed. I couldn't figure out how to draw the reader in. When it finally clicked that I needed to expand on describing environments and characters at least a little bit, I tried google first. No luck, couldn't find anything beyond overviews and generalities. Nothing that actually helped me. Then I remembered that I had "Writing Active Settings" in my Kindle library from when it first came out as a promotion. The writing is crisp and examples make concepts very clear. I particularly enjoy the exercises. I could see from exercise to exercise how my writing improved. I've re-read it twice now and will come back to it in the future. I'm working my way through the 2nd book now - if Settings are difficult for you, GET THIS BOOK!

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Vince

Excellent material with outstanding examples. Well worth the price!

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2014

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I’m an experienced advertising copywriter and copy chief who has taught advertising at the college level. I bought this book because I’ve always had a big interest in 5-sensing advertising copy to make it come alive and maintain a reader’s interest. I wanted to see how the author approached this same issue in writing fiction. I was pleasantly surprised by the many different takes the author has on this topic. I learned a great deal in just over 60 pages. I felt the information was well worth the price and I immediately bought the second book in the series. This is saying something because $2.99 is at the top end of a 65 page craft book price. If Book II is just as good as book I, I will be more than delighted. I will also immediately buy book III.

As good as the theory in the book is, it is the outstanding examples from other authors that makes the book such a valuable learning experience. Some of my favorite authors are cited in this book and yet this was the first time I appreciated why I so enjoyed the authors’ writing. I can’t wait to start book II which I will do tonight when I get home from the office. I give this work my highest craft recommendation. 5-stars!

3 people found this helpful

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P.S. Ritchey

Extremely Helpful

Reviewed in the United States on May 1, 2014

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My writing group began studying Mary Buckham's "Writing Active Setting" books last fall and finished Book 3 at our last meeting. I can't say enough about how much we/I learned! She takes prose from well known authors and breaks it down to the minimum, then builds it back up one step at a time to show how to turn your first draft into a deeply moving, fast paced story. Best of all, it's easy to follow!
I recommend this book and all others in the set to everyone who wants to improve their craft and attain published status.
This set was so helpful that we're working on Mrs. Buckham's and Diana Love's collaboration, "Break into Fiction" next!

One person found this helpful

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Jesse

Practical

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2020

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This book is full of hands-on, practical skills. Something to go back to again and again for reminders and encouragement. Easy to read and understand. Improved my understanding and use of setting.

The examples used in the book are from genre, rather than literary, works - had it included more examples from literary works, it would have been 5 stars for me.

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2022

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Mary Buckham is an amazing teacher. Most of what I’ve read about description was just telling the writer to use all the senses. Ms. Buckham goes way beyond that to explain how describing setting can benefit the story. Lots of examples show how some big authors have done this. This book is a must have for anyone who writes fiction.

Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2022

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Informative and engaging narrative and instructions. I needed this more than anything right now, especially as I'm knee-deep into my third draft of my outline of my first endeavor at a novel. Or, at this point, novelette (novelito?).

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Top reviews from other countries

Katerina V

Very helpful tool for writers

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 28, 2024

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Very helpful tool for writers

Amazon Customer

worth it

Reviewed in Australia on December 2, 2019

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Setting and character involvement in the setting, using it for mood and tone - read this book. The value of an active setting will be immediately obvious.

bindu

What a treasure!

Reviewed in India on March 26, 2017

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An extremely well researched book! Lots of extracts from different sources that deepen your understanding of crafting a story setting effectively.

Sieran Lane

Loved reading the examples and their analyses

Reviewed in Canada on July 26, 2015

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This was a very helpful book, especially when Mary gives examples and analyzes them. Having these examples is great because I can read them and observe my own reactions to the passages. I tend to be one of those readers who just skim or even skip setting descriptions, but I can see what Mary means by how more detailed descriptions (rather than the short and simple ones) can convey character and other things.

But I find that setting descriptions with emotion in them are a lot more engaging to me as a reader. Sometimes I read a setting passage, and later remember nothing about it except for the mood! I know a lot of writers would hate me for that, but at least I found a way to motivate readers like me to read setting descriptions, lol, by creating a clear emotion or emotions in the passage.
I must confess that a lot of the time, I prefer the really short and straightforward descriptions that briefly state where the character traveled to and when. That's because I prefer as a reader to get "just enough information" and then continue on reading the story.

But it was good to read this book, because it shows that some OTHER readers DO care about setting descriptions and are more patient in reading them. With these latter readers, it would be good to develop our setting descriptions. What would be the fun challenge, is to write setting passages that both satisfy readers who care about setting, AND don't bore readers who are super impatient with setting descriptions. I'm sometimes bored by even one or two sentences of description. So again, emotion seems to be key in engaging even the impatient reader's attention.

The sensory surround section of the book was helpful too, because I'm one of those readers who don't *really* care about being able to sensually experience the scene, so I'm happy when authors use a very simple and minimal description. Yet, seeing the examples of sensory surround here let me appreciate how good being immersed in that world can feel.

Yes, I admit that I am still very impatient with setting descriptions and will probably just skim or skip such sensual descriptions the next time I see them in books, but I think I have a better appreciation now of what readers who ARE patient with setting enjoy in these sensory descriptions. :) Particularly pleasant or particularly unpleasant sensory details tend to catch my attention more too. Again, I love how Mary's many examples let me watch and analyze my own reactions to the setting passages, and learn a lot from the experience!

Jhaydun

It was okay. Did what it said it would.

Reviewed in Australia on January 20, 2017

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When you have not long ago finished Jordan's novel, Make a Scene, you can't really expect to find a book with as much detail on almost anything.

Mary Buckham has written a lovely novel on writing Characterization and Sensory Detail by using Active Settings. The novel stretches across a few topics within its pages, it touches on anchoring the reader, using subtext in setting, pacing, revealing character through setting, POV, and Sensory details.

Although it did not help me very much, the information within can most likely help many other writers.

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Writing Active Setting Book 1: Characterization and Sensory Detail Kindle Edition

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