Bringing a Story to Life: Description and Setting with Rosie Dub

Description is one of the fundamental elements in storytelling and has multiple functions.  We use it to ground and set a story in place and time, build character, mood, tension and suspense, shift pace, add plausibility, provide metaphors and deepen thematic exploration. In any story there is also a balance that should be sought, between action, reflection and description. Too little description and the story remains floating, ungrounded. Too much description and the story threads become lost. 

• Through a combination of discussion, readings and exercises, we’ll be exploring ways to create a convincing setting that enriches our stories, and we’ll be considering:

  
  

•  What more a scene is trying to tell us.
• How description can act as metaphor, an expression of a universal truth, a human emotion, a philosophical idea. 
• How we use description to transport our readers into the world of the story.

Dr Rosie Dub is a novelist (Gathering Storm and Flight), mentor, teacher, editor and facilitator of the Centre for Story9 (www.centreforstory.com), a platform for reimagining the world through story. Rosie spent four years as Creative Writing Fellow at Aberystwyth University in Wales, supervising PhD and MA students. She currently teaches on the MA in Writing program at Swinburne University in Melbourne and runs a wide range of workshops and courses, including the Alchemy of Story series. 

‘Rosie’s workshops have been incredibly inspiring for me. I love how she is able to express the inexpressible parts of human experience, and how she is artfully able to teach what she knows. I’ve also really appreciated Rosie’s capacity to encourage group participation and cohesion, so that the learning and writing is enhanced by being in a very alive, warm and enjoyable environment.’ Cindy Aulby

‘Supportive, clear, creative and inspiring. Opened new possibilities for me.’ Sarah Hamilton