Which comes first, the plot or the setting? Does your plot create the setting or does the setting create the plot? For each writer, the answer is different. The location should be very important and should influence the plot, but it should not completely overshadow it. Its environment can also be a plot in itself.
In the case of science fiction novels, fantasy novels, and men’s adventure novels, the setting is critical. Scorching deserts, icy mountains, Middlearth’s unusual predators, and spy camps become antagonists. The setting acquires characteristics that seem to almost consciously try to defeat the protagonist. Whether your novel takes place in the past or the future, the plot should feel real to your readers and should match the personality of your protagonist. After all, you don’t want to give your character the power to see through metal objects, but after the whole story unfolds in a log cabin in Alaska, right? Of course not.
When it comes to setting, stick to stereotypical settings of particular genres. For example, if you are writing a fantasy story, consider the contemporary Los Angeles setting. A popular example of a fantasy set outside of a fantasy realm is Disney’s Enchanted, where Amy Adams plays a princess who has been banished to live in present-day New York City.
The setting can also greatly influence the plot in more direct ways. In Susan Hill’s Woman in Black, the setting and the plot are almost one in the same. The protagonist is a lawyer who is sent to a mansion where the previous owner had died. The mansion is located on the edge of the floodplains that keep you trapped when the tides rise. Around the mansion there is a swamp where the woman’s children are buried. Over the years, legend has it that every time the Woman in Black is seen, a child dies in the village. Now, as an author, if you replaced the setting with something other than a small seaside town in the early 1900s, the whole plot would collapse. This is an excellent example of how plot and setting are one in the same.
In another example, Romancing the Stone, the plot and setting are completely different, but they feed off of each other. The plot centers on Joan Wilder, a New York romance novelist who tries to rescue her kidnapped sister. The setting, which is in Columbia, is there simply to provide readers with conflict and adventure and has very little to do with the plot. Romancing the Stone could easily have taken place in Antarctica or the Sahara and instead of an emerald, the treasure could have been a priceless artifact or a bar of gold. The plot, in this case, did not have a direct impact on the stage, but provided originality and enthusiasm for the reader. And through the protagonist’s experiences within a new culture, the audience was able to see a new side of Joan Wilder and her vision of the world.
The setting and the plot go hand in hand. They are not completely independent of each other, but one does not outshine the other. Instead, they face each other like paddles in a game of ping-pong.