Day-to-day challenges themed after something that take place over, well, 30 days
So concludes the 30 Days of fictional settings–thanks to everyone who participated–and here’s a free space for spare thoughts: Were any obvious categories left out? Do you have a particular setting of any sort that you’d like to discuss a … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge: Epilogue
Actual cities, the most densely populated zones in our word, are obvious choices for story settings. Filming in them comes with some practical challenges attached, given how much IRL activity there is to accommodate; nonetheless, the film industry makes it … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 30: Real Cities
One type of imaginary world that overlaps in a literal sense with the real world is the theme park. Disneyland, its many spinoffs and its competitors create spaces in which visitors can take a brief vacation to another sort of … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 29: Theme Parks
Because I miscalculated and needed an extra category, let’s take a day to discuss games that are played without a screen (or at least, without a screen as part of the game itself). From basic board games such as Monopoly, … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 28: Tabletop & Board Games
Human culture has been deeply wrapped up in the changing of the natural seasons since time immemorial. Especially in regions farther from the Equator, which see distinct variation between hotter and colder temperatures, we often find our experiences closely associated … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 27: The Seasons
Back to life, back to (fictional) reality. Today’s topic is essentially, nature. That is, wilderness filming locations off the grid of human infrastructure; let’s say loosely, no evidence of “civilization” other than maybe a road or path. What is your … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 26: Natural Settings
Let’s get right to the main prompt for today: What is your favorite fictional non-Earth planet? Real Bonus: What is your favorite portrayal of a real planet or place somewhere in the universe other than Earth? Speculative Bonus: Is there … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 25: Other Planets
Dreams are as old as sleep, mystifying or otherwise affecting us in uniquely vivid yet often fleeting ways. Naturally, fiction can make use of the dream as a sort of sub-medium. Cinema in particular has at times elevated the portrayal … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 24: Dream Sequences
Sometimes, a new setting for a story is created not by traveling to a different place in the prevailing reality, but rather by exploring how that reality might differ in another timeline or parallel universe. This can be directly tied … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 23: Alternate Realities
There’s certainly some creative crossover between animated film and other mediums such as comics and video games: portrayal of environments via artwork rather than photography. Animation, like games in particular, spans a vast continuum of quality, from relatively cheap cartoons … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 22: Animation
You’ve heard the expression “Let’s get cozy”? Well today’s theme gets coz-zay, thoroughly and consistently: settings that are, simply, comfortable. They don’t have to involve a fireplace, but that is a go-to element. What is your favorite example in fiction … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 21: Cozy Places
Video game level design deserves way more than one day, given the breadth of what is out there, but I suppose that previous challenges have afforded lots of discussion space for the medium, so for this month, today will be … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 20: Game Levels
Beyond the physical or contextual nature of a story’s setting, the penciling, inking and coloring styles of comic artists contribute immensely to readers’ perception of place. What is your favorite example of artwork creating a setting on the pages of … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 19: Comics & Graphic Novels
Similar to songs, novels describe places using words, rather than images (cover art and music videos notwithstanding). Though a picture, they say, is worth many words, books have many, many words, and the benefit of leaving at least the final … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 18: From the Written Page
There is a real art to creating environments within the spatial and rotational constraints of a stage production. Whether electively skewing towards the minimalist end of the spectrum, or filling the stage with as much opulent detail as possible, there … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 17: Stage/Musical Sets
Song lyrics, in addition to often focusing on emotions, interpersonal relationships and general storytelling, also sometimes describe places, either real or fictional, even nameless in some cases. The main prompt for today is: What song comes first, or best, to … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 16: Places In Song
And what of the oceans, rivers and lakes of Earth? Seagoing vessels can be as large as small cities or nearly as tiny as a person. Plenty of stories have been told of adventures on or under the water. Which … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 15: Out to Sea
Outer space is inhospitable, but a good starship or space station can offer some relatively comfortable breathing room for the telling of off-world human stories. What is your favorite ship or station in science fiction? Bonus: Separate from its origin … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 14: In Space
Maybe the most famous utopian setting is the future imagined by Star Trek. Humanity united, no longer using money, exploring the stars in (generally) altruistic pursuit of knowledge and understanding. Sci-fi utopias can be tricky, because sometimes there’s more than … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 13: Utopian Futures
Tomorrow we’ll consider Utopias, but today the topic is yes, the dystopian setting. Depictions of dystopias have shown up in media for many decades, but the word arguably rose in vernacular usage with the wave of YA books and book … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 12: Dystopian Futures
Top tier antagonists in cinema (and beyond) tend to have a flair for the dramatic, a case of synergy between medium and content. Whether it’s room to house an army or a giant machine, a premium on hiding from the … Continue reading 30 Day Fictional Settings Challenge, Day 11: Villains’ Lairs
