Designing Your Story

As writers, we are the creators of entire worlds, whether realistic or entirely imagined. We must create compelling, engaging texts that cause our readers to feel dazed when they put our stories down. One way to explore this is to think of yourself as a designer. Breaking down the different parts of your story and exploring them with an eye to design can bring that world to life. And by connecting these elements to your character, you pull your reader in and keep them glued to the page.

Here are design elements to consider:

Lighting Design: Lighting isn’t limited to whether a light is on or off in a room. What about where the light is coming from (i.e. the moon, a candelabra, a neon sign, etc.) and how the character responds to it? Or how does the lighting communicate something about the character or create tension? How does the color or quality of the light speak to the scene at hand? All of these factors create ambiance while making your world feel real.

Sound Design: Music can be a great addition to a story, but the sound in your story goes way beyond this. Consider the slow creaking of a door or an old window rattling. Or things like crunch of leaves underfoot or the roar of a fire. Sound design has the potential to create tension, communicate season, hint at a character’s mood or temperament. And the world is far from quiet, so your stories shouldn’t be either.

Props: Give your characters things to play with! If you’ve got a scene where it’s just a bunch of dialogue back and forth, consider what props might be in that scene and how you can provide some non-verbal communication based on what the characters do with those props. Also, consider how a prop can make appearances throughout a story, popping up at significant moments, and the level of importance assigned to various props.

Costume Design: The clothes a character chooses to wear (or is forced to wear) communicates volumes about that character and the world around them. Beyond that, though, consider things like how a character cares for their clothes (do they polish their shoes every night or throw their clothes in a heap on the floor), what access to clothes the character has, and the emotional significance of certain clothes. And don’t forget to explore the cultural, historical, and religious considerations as well as social standing as it relates to clothing.

Hair and Makeup Design: A character’s hair can play an important role in their story. As with clothing, there are often culturally, historically, and religiously significant considerations to take into account. And many people, and therefore characters, carry emotional attachments or expectations related to hair. Sometimes hair choice is forced on a character, or they change their hair in connection to their journey. All of these points should be considered as part of this design element.

In theatre and on camera, a makeup designer would be responsible for things like bruises and scars, so while makeup design could be simply a character’s choice to wear or not wear it, try thinking like a theatrical makeup designer and see where this design element might show up in your story.

Scent Design: Yes, this is a thing and yes, it is important. Crafting how scent shows up in your story can have a major impact on a reader. Scents transport us, so consider what scents might be important to your character and how they might show up throughout your story. What are comforting scents to your character? What might be off-putting? As with all things, this should be character specific. A character who grew up by the ocean might be comforted by the salty smell of freshly caught fish, whereas someone who grew up in a country might be comforted by the smell of hay.

With all of the above, character research determines the elements of design that are the most important to include in your story. Excessive inclusion of any of these elements could distract from the story and have the opposite than intended effect, pulling the reader out of the world and overwhelming them. But if a scene feels flat or is full of dialogue with no action, or if you realize that one of the elements doesn’t come up in your story at all, try incorporating some of the above and watch your story come alive.

Denise Santomauro is an editor and writer who has too many houseplants and bakes way more than should be allowed. You can find out about her here.