The Power of Place: Mastering Setting for Richer Storytelling with Gila Green

On this episode of The Ingenium Books Podcast we dive deep into the craft of storytelling and the art of writing. In today’s episode, we’re exploring a fundamental yet often underestimated element of great stories: setting. 

Whether your tale unfolds in a bustling city or a quiet countryside, whether you’re writing fiction or nonfiction, the way you use setting can shape your story’s tone, atmosphere, and emotional impact.

But setting is more than just a backdrop for your characters—when used effectively, it becomes a character in its own right, with its own personality, mood, and influence on the narrative. Today, we’ll unpack how to treat setting as a dynamic force in your writing, how to use it to reflect themes and character development, and why specific details matter.

We’ll also discuss how setting can drive your plot, evoke symbolism, and even shape your characters’ behaviors and choices. And, of course, we’ll touch on the importance of research and cultural sensitivity when crafting believable and immersive settings.

So, whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, stay tuned as we explore how to make the most of your story’s setting and transform it into a powerful storytelling tool. 

Our guest on this episode is Gila Green, a Canadian author of four novels, with a fifth and a sixth on the way. She has written books that span the Ottoman Empire, British-mandate Palestine, modern Israel, the Canada of the 1980s, present-day Canada, Johannesburg, and Kruger National Park in South Africa. She has a Masters Degree in Creative Writing She has taught creative writing, and she also teaches English as a Foreign Language at the Jerusalem College of Technology.