Setting is Important for a Smooth Read: My "Everybody Loves Raymond" Problem

We're always working toward that 'smooth read' -- writing that flows for its reader without a stumble.  Editing works to ferret out those bumps in content, and I admit that I write many things with my editor's voice in my head.  ("Stop using the word "that"!!!")

My Ray Barone House Photo vs. Interior Set Puzzle

Which brings me to "Everybody Loves Raymond," the classic television show that I can watch anytime I wish via my ROKU streaming TV device.

Here's the thing:  the exterior of the home that this series pops into view periodically in every episode for the Barone family home does not jive with the interior sets.  Just try and figure out how that garage in the show where Ray eavesdrops on his in-laws from the garage fits into the photo of that house.  Or consider how the back door fits into the kitchen set in the episode where Frank Paints the House.

These things bug me.  They cause me to break from watching the show to puzzling over why the setting isn't working in my head.  Sure, even if I'm watching these re-runs while I'm folding the laundry, it's enough to make me stop and ponder.

What I Learned: The Details of Setting are Important

What I'm learning, and wanting to share with you  Dear Reader, is this:  setting details can cause just as much of a problem in accomplishing a smooth read as misspelling or bad grammar or forgetting that a minor character had red hair or the villain is left-handed.  Something I had not considered much before now.

I didn't appreciate the importance of setting.  I thought I did.  I didn't.

It came to me last night as I was re-reading D is for Deadbeat by Sue Grafton.  Once again, she demonstrated to me why she's one of my favorite authors as I read details about Kinsey Millhone's small garage apartment (the first one, pre-explosion).  Not only could I visualize it in my mind's eye, down to its 15 x 15 square foot dimension,  it jived with other descriptions of Kinsey's place (and her landlord's house with its connecting walkway) in other books in the series.

Not only is this a comfort to me as a reader, it is a relief.  I can depend upon Grafton to provide a stable setting, allowing me to move forward in the plot without stumbling over bumps in my head where something in the description is nagging at me to figure out what's wrong.

So, setting.  I get now why I need to map out my locations, scene of the crime, etc. in great detail.  It's smart to do, and plus, it sounds like fun.  

Reading Great Writers – James Lee Burke for Setting

I’ve just finished James Lee Burke’s Feast Day of Fools.  It’s not a short read and it’s a violence one (no surprise, right?) but here’s the thing: you can learn so much from this guy.

I’m re-reading it now, marking things up, because he’s just so darn good at describing things.  Like the bleak horizons down on the Texas border with Mexico.  The colors, the sounds, you get the idea. 

There’s one scene, where a sociopath has taken his victim (I’m trying to avoid a spoiler here) out to his personal killing field and as the evildoer parks his “gas guzzler” and exits the car to walk back and open the truck where his victim has been tossed … well.  Not much word count, and I can still hear those boots moving, the sound of the truck opening, the barren surroundings, the breathing of the bound man.  Creeps me out. 

I’m not using his vocabulary. 

You need to read it for yourself.  Feast Day of Fools.

Amazingly good stuff.