The giant misconception: who cares about the setting? -- The setting as a vehicle for characterization -- Setting matters: the importance of where -- The setting as a vehicle for delivering backstory -- The crown jewel of settings: sensory details -- Urban word building: the pros and cons of choosing a real-life location -- Common setting snags -- Other urban setting considerations -- The urban setting thesaurus -- In the city -- Restaurants -- Retail stores -- Sports, entertainment, and art venues -- Transportation -- Appendix A. Emotional value too -- Appendix B. Setting checklist -- More settings: The rural thesaurus.

Making readers care and feel like they're part of the story should be the number one goal for all writers. Ironically, many storytellers fail to maximize one of fiction's most powerful elements to achieve this: the setting. Not only can the right location become a conduit for emotion, it can also provide conflict, characterize the story's cast, reveal significant backstory, and trigger the reader's own emotional memories through sensory details and deep point of view. The Urban Setting Thesaurus helps you tailor each setting to your characters while creating a realistic, textured world readers will long to return to, even after the book closes.