On Tuesday this week in my class we discussed Setting and Time. The time element is broken down into:
Setting Era – does your story take place a long time ago, is it current day, or does it take place in the future?
Setting Season – what season is it and where does it take place? Is it winter and in a desert or winter near the equator or winter on one of the earth’s poles?
Setting Daily Time – what time of the day or night are you writing about? It’s obvious that this time will move around as we follow your characters.
When reading a story you can identify these elements of Setting and Time. Next time you read a story try ask yourselves what is the era, the season, and the time of day. Picture books might only show you bits and pieces of these elements such as in Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. I would take a stab that it is current day and timeless even though it was published September 3, 1947 and not a period piece from two hundred years back because of the items found in the room. The season is harder to tell, but the daily time is dusk that moves into night. Novels will show us these three elements to Setting and Time much better.
Another way to read critically is to identify these elements of time and how the author is doing with that.