how important is setting? how do you guys handle it?
i find my short stories often have a pretty clear setting in my mind, but I go sparse on descriptive detail in my writing, it's not only that I find writing location descriptions as tough and a little awkward, but I often feel like it may be extraneous.
the other problem I have is writing a story in some vague imaginary new york, but I have trouble describing it because I've never really been to new york. I give some barebones literary description of the big mean city, but I feel I probably don't communicate it much.
so?
Its only as important as its needed to understand the story. To fully grasp Tolkien's work you need to know about his setting, not so much with say a Borges story.
My philosophy is that a story arises from its setting. A setting is crucial to characterization, especially in a cultural and regional context.
