Exercises to inspire creative use of setting, from Lizzie Enfield
Setting is important in fiction. If a reader doesn’t know where the action is taking place, they’ll feel disorientated. But that does not mean you have to spend pages recounting every last detail of a place. It can be as simple as two people having a conversation sitting at a table. Depending on the type of fiction you’re writing, a setting can be a simple background to the story or elaborate and as much a part of the story as the main characters (think George RR Martin’s Game of Thrones or Ian Rankin’s Rebus novels).
The extent to which you need to describe your setting also depends on your characters’ knowledge of the place. Do they know it so well they barely notice it? Or are their surroundings novel enough for them to react?