• 150 settings
  • Checked October 2026

Story Setting Ideas

Press the button for three places and times, with a sound or a smell and the trouble each brings.

Story Setting Ideas

All 150
  1. A tide pool at the foot of a sea cave.Smell of salt and seaweed. Trouble: the pool is a clock, and it is filling.
  2. A zoo at feeding time, before the gates open.Smell of hay and fish. Trouble: one headcount comes out short.
  3. A drive-in movie lot in the days of tail fins.A tinny speaker hangs on every window. Trouble: everyone can see who came with whom.

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All 150 settings

Small and closed 25

  • A broom closet that doubles as the school's lost and found. Smell of bleach and old sneakers. Trouble: everything here belongs to someone who stopped looking.
  • A dorm room on move-in day. Tape screeches off boxes. Trouble: two strangers, and only one side has the window.
  • A dressing room backstage, five minutes before curtain. Smell of hairspray and dust. Trouble: one costume, and two actors sure it is theirs.
  • A food truck in a thunderstorm. Rain drums on the awning. Trouble: two cooks, one window, and no customers to hide behind.
  • A glass-bottomed boat over a reef, with its engine stopped. Water slaps the hull. Trouble: everyone is looking down, and nobody is watching the tide.
  • A kitchen at two in the morning, lit by the open refrigerator. The motor hums. Trouble: two people have come down for the last slice of pie, by different doors.
  • A motel room with a door through to the room next door. The ice machine rattles outside. Trouble: that door is locked from the other side, and someone is knocking on it.
  • A night bus with every window steamed up. The wipers thump. Trouble: nobody can see which stop comes next.
  • A pantry during a game of hide-and-seek. Smell of onions and floor wax. Trouble: the door opens only from the outside.
  • A photo booth at a county fair with the curtain drawn. A whir, then four flashes. Trouble: the strip that drops out has five pictures.
  • A piano practice room with a window in its door, in exam week. Scales come through both walls. Trouble: the next player is watching the clock through the glass.
  • A rowboat in the middle of a lake at noon. The oarlocks creak. Trouble: whatever is said out here cannot be walked away from.
  • A sugar shack in the week the maple sap runs. Smell of woodsmoke and boiling sap. Trouble: the fire cannot go out, and two people must share six nights of watching.
  • A tent in a field on the first night of rain. Drops drum on the nylon. Trouble: whatever touches the wall gets wet, tempers included.
  • A treehouse in the summer its builders turn thirteen. Leaves hiss on every side. Trouble: it holds three now, and there are four of them.
  • A two-person space capsule during forty minutes without radio. Fans whir, and two people breathe. Trouble: there is nobody to ask.
  • An attic bedroom under a tin roof in August. The metal ticks with heat. Trouble: the one window is painted shut.
  • The back seat of a car on the second day of a three-day drive. Smell of warm crackers. Trouble: nobody can walk away from the argument.
  • The drying room of a ski lodge, full of other people's boots. Smell of wet wool. Trouble: two pairs are identical, and one owner has already left.
  • The kitchen of a houseboat sitting on the mud at low tide. Mud pops outside the hull. Trouble: the floor tilts, and everything round rolls to one wall.
  • The last row of a school bus on the long route home. Smell of orange peel and warm vinyl. Trouble: the driver's mirror sees everything.
  • The press box above a high school football field on a windy Friday. The loudspeaker pops. Trouble: the announcer's own son has dropped the ball, and the crowd waits to hear it said.
  • The sound booth at the back of a school auditorium on opening night. The play is a murmur through the glass. Trouble: the cue sheet on the desk is for last year's show.
  • The ticket booth of a small-town cinema on a slow Tuesday. Popcorn smell comes through the slot. Trouble: the seller sees who arrives, and with whom.
  • The waiting room of a ferry terminal on the last night of the season. Smell of diesel and wet rope. Trouble: the last boat has gone, and the next one sails in spring.

Towns and streets 25

  • A border town where the line runs down the middle of the main street. Two radio stations play from two doorways. Trouble: the rules change when you cross to buy bread.
  • A bridge between two towns that share one high school. Tires hum on the steel deck. Trouble: everyone who crosses has to pick a side.
  • A bus station at four in the morning. A floor polisher drones. Trouble: everyone here is between two places and trusts nobody's bag.
  • A college town on the day after graduation. Mattresses thud onto the curb. Trouble: the people who stay watch everyone else go.
  • A crosswalk outside an elementary school at 8:29. A whistle blows. Trouble: one minute, forty children and a bus that is late.
  • A dead-end street at dawn on trash day. Bins rumble on their wheels. Trouble: every household's week is out at the curb to be read.
  • A harbor town in the week the fishing fleet is out. Ropes tap on empty flagpoles. Trouble: everybody left ashore is waiting.
  • A main street on the morning after the parade. Smell of spilled soda and horses. Trouble: something was left behind that nobody will claim.
  • A new housing development with one family moved in. Sprinklers tick over bare dirt. Trouble: there is nobody to borrow anything from.
  • A playground at dusk, when the lights come on. Swing chains squeak. Trouble: the big kids arrive as the little ones are called home.
  • A railroad town where the express no longer stops. The express goes through without slowing. Trouble: the timetable on the wall is a memory.
  • A river town on the day the flood water goes down. Smell of mud and wet plaster. Trouble: everybody's belongings are in somebody else's yard.
  • A row of identical houses on the day one of them is painted yellow. Smell of fresh paint. Trouble: the whole row has an opinion.
  • A seaside boardwalk in February. Shutters bang in the wind. Trouble: the only people here are the ones who never leave.
  • A street closed for a block party in a heat wave. Smell of charcoal and sunscreen. Trouble: two neighbors who do not speak are handed one grill.
  • A street market as the stalls pack up in the rain. Smell of wet cardboard and oranges. Trouble: prices drop, and so do manners.
  • A street of shops where every sign is in a different language. Five kitchens can be smelled at once. Trouble: a newcomer needs help and cannot tell which door.
  • A street on the morning the water main breaks. Water chuckles down the gutter. Trouble: one house uphill still has pressure, and everyone knows whose.
  • A street so steep that the houses have steps where the sidewalk should be. A dropped can rattles for a long time. Trouble: whatever falls ends up at the bottom, in view.
  • A town square while the clock is being repaired. Hammering comes down from the tower. Trouble: the whole town is late and blames each other.
  • A town with one traffic light, on the night it fails. The control box clicks and clicks. Trouble: nobody remembers who goes first.
  • A traffic circle with a statue nobody can name. Tires hiss around it all day. Trouble: the town must vote on what the plaque will say.
  • A village with one shop, on the day a second one opens. A new door chime rings across the road. Trouble: every purchase is now a statement.
  • An alley behind the restaurants at closing time. Smell of fryer oil and dish soap. Trouble: every back door can hear every other.
  • The parking lot of a closed mall, where teenagers learn to drive. Brakes squeal, then someone laughs. Trouble: the security guard has an hour left on shift.

Wild places and weather 25

  • A bamboo grove in a high wind. The stalks knock together like doors. Trouble: every direction sounds like someone following.
  • A beach at the lowest tide of the year. Smell of kelp in the sun. Trouble: the walk out is slow, and the water comes back fast.
  • A beaver pond in a dry year. A tail slaps the water. Trouble: it is the only water for a mile, and the farmer wants his field back.
  • A canyon with one way in. An echo answers late. Trouble: the creek at the entrance is rising.
  • A cliff path in nesting season. Seabirds shriek overhead. Trouble: the birds object to walkers, and the drop is on the left.
  • A desert road at night, a hundred miles from a light. The engine ticks as it cools. Trouble: the stars are no help with a flat tire.
  • A dry riverbed an hour before the first rain of the year. The dust starts to smell sweet. Trouble: the camp is pitched in the channel.
  • A fire lookout tower in the dry season. Smell of hot pine resin. Trouble: the person on watch has not spoken aloud for nine days.
  • A forest in the week after a windstorm. Leaning trunks creak. Trouble: every path is closed by a fallen tree.
  • A gravel road across the tundra in July. Mosquitoes sing. Trouble: the sun does not set, and nobody knows when to stop for the night.
  • A heath crossed by one footpath, when the heather is out. Bees drone on every side. Trouble: the path forks, and the signpost has no arms.
  • A hillside orchard in a hailstorm. Ice rattles down through the leaves. Trouble: a year's crop, and ten minutes.
  • A hot spring in a snowfield. Smell of sulfur and wet stone. Trouble: getting out is the cold part, and the clothes are far away.
  • A jungle river in the hour before dark. The frogs start all at once. Trouble: the boat's motor has been quiet for too long.
  • A lake so still that it shows the sky. A loon calls once. Trouble: sound carries, and so does a secret told on the far shore.
  • A marsh at dusk in mosquito season. A whine in both ears. Trouble: the boardwalk ends before the map says it does.
  • A meadow above the tree line in wildflower week. Bees are the only sound. Trouble: it is so pretty that nobody watched the weather.
  • A mountain pass as the cloud comes down. Cowbells ring somewhere below. Trouble: the trail markers are farther apart than anyone can see.
  • A prairie in a week of wind. A screen door bangs all day. Trouble: tempers go the way of the topsoil.
  • A sand dune that has moved since the map was drawn. Sand hisses over the crest. Trouble: the well is underneath it.
  • A tide pool at the foot of a sea cave. Smell of salt and seaweed. Trouble: the pool is a clock, and it is filling.
  • A volcanic island one year after it rose from the sea. Steam hisses from the black sand. Trouble: nothing grows yet, and it is on no chart.
  • A wheat field under a green sky. The wind stops, and so do the birds. Trouble: the nearest shelter is the one place they were told not to go.
  • The edge of a glacier in a warm summer. Meltwater roars under the ice. Trouble: last year's path is gone.
  • The mouth of a cave in a thunderstorm. Water drips, and thunder rolls in after it. Trouble: something already lives farther in.

Workplaces after hours 25

  • A baggage claim hall at one in the morning, with one bag still going around. The belt squeaks. Trouble: nobody is left to claim it, and the tag has your name on it.
  • A car wash after dark, the brushes still dripping. Drips echo off the tile. Trouble: somebody has left a car inside.
  • A dairy barn at the morning milking, an hour before light. The machines pulse. Trouble: the cows keep the clock, and the new hand has overslept twice.
  • A diner at the hour the night shift meets the early shift. Coffee and wet mop. Trouble: two crews, one booth, and an old grudge.
  • A dry cleaner's at closing time, with one ticket unclaimed for a year. Hangers ring on the rail. Trouble: the owner has come in at last, and the coat is gone.
  • A fairground on the morning after closing night. Smell of cold fried dough. Trouble: the rides come apart faster than the crew's friendships.
  • A farm stand at dusk, with a cash box and nobody minding it. Coins shift in the tin. Trouble: the count has been short all week.
  • A florist's cold room on the night before a holiday. Smell of cut stems. Trouble: two hundred orders and one card that was misread.
  • A furniture showroom after the doors are locked. The escalators click to a stop. Trouble: one of the display beds has been slept in.
  • A grain elevator at midnight in harvest week. Trucks idle in line, and chaff hangs in the air. Trouble: the scale reads light for one family's loads only.
  • A greenhouse on a night of frost. The heaters tick. Trouble: one pane is broken, and the orchids are worth more than the car.
  • A hotel kitchen between the dinner rush and the breakfast shift. Bleach over garlic. Trouble: the night porter eats what the chef was saving.
  • A lifeguard tower after the beach has emptied. The flag snaps on its pole. Trouble: one towel is still on the sand.
  • A museum on the night the new exhibit is hung. A drill, then tissue paper. Trouble: one crate holds something that is not on the list.
  • A newspaper delivery depot at four in the morning. Bundles thud onto the dock. Trouble: one route has no carrier today, and it is the long one.
  • A public library ten minutes after closing. The book drop thumps. Trouble: one reader is asleep between the shelves.
  • A school cafeteria on the day before summer break, with the chairs stacked. Smell of floor wax. Trouble: the cook is not coming back, and nobody has said goodbye.
  • A school gym on the night before the science fair. Tape rips, and hot glue smokes. Trouble: one volcano has already gone off.
  • A ski resort in July. The empty chairlift creaks. Trouble: all the summer staff took the job to get away from something.
  • A theater after the audience has gone home. Seats flip up one by one. Trouble: one lamp is left on, and someone is still in row F.
  • A weather station on a mountain top during the night watch. The wind gauge whirs. Trouble: the reading is one that nobody down below will believe.
  • A workshop where a boat has been half built for ten years. Smell of cedar shavings. Trouble: the builder's children want the space.
  • A zoo at feeding time, before the gates open. Smell of hay and fish. Trouble: one headcount comes out short.
  • An ice rink after the last skater has gone. The resurfacing machine hums. Trouble: one set of blade marks crosses the fresh ice.
  • An office on a Sunday with one person in it. The vents sigh on a timer. Trouble: whoever else badges in will ask why.

Other times 25

  • A barn raising in the days when neighbors built one in a day. Smell of fresh-sawn oak. Trouble: the frame goes up only if two feuding families lift the same beam.
  • A caravan stop at a desert well. Camels groan as they kneel. Trouble: two caravans, one well and one night.
  • A castle laundry on the day before a royal visit. Wet linen slaps on stone. Trouble: one shirt is missing, and it is the king's.
  • A city street in the years of gas lamps and fog. A lamplighter's ladder knocks on iron. Trouble: a face is clear only under a lamp.
  • A dance hall in the years of the big bands. Brass, and the smell of floor wax. Trouble: the floor shows who cannot dance, and everyone is looking.
  • A drive-in movie lot in the days of tail fins. A tinny speaker hangs on every window. Trouble: everyone can see who came with whom.
  • A general store with the town's only telephone. The bell on the wall rings. Trouble: every call is taken in front of five listeners.
  • A longhouse in the far north at midwinter. The fire hisses. Trouble: the food was counted to last until the thaw, with nothing to spare.
  • A medieval market on the day the tax collector comes. Geese complain in their crates. Trouble: every price changes as he walks past.
  • A mill town when the factory whistle ran the day. Looms roar from six to six. Trouble: nobody can hear, so everything is said by lips and hands.
  • A one-room schoolhouse on the prairie in the first snow. The stove pops. Trouble: the oldest pupil is taller than the teacher.
  • A print shop in the days of metal type. Smell of ink and hot lead. Trouble: one wrong letter goes out a thousand times.
  • A railroad camp on the frontier that moves a mile a day. Hammers ring on spikes. Trouble: the town is packed up every week and built again farther on.
  • A rock shelter at the end of an ice age. A lamp of fat sputters. Trouble: the herd did not come this year.
  • A Roman bathhouse at the hour the offices close. Voices boom off wet stone. Trouble: every deal in town is made here, in a towel.
  • A room of copyists in winter, when the ink freezes in the horn. Quills scratch. Trouble: one copyist has been changing the text.
  • A sail loft above a harbor in the days of tall ships. Smell of tar and canvas. Trouble: the ship leaves on the tide whether the sail is done or not.
  • A shipyard in the week before a launch, when ships were built of oak. Mallets knock along the hull. Trouble: the owner has run out of money and told no one.
  • A stagecoach station in a dust storm. Harness jingles in the dark stable. Trouble: six passengers, and a driver who will not leave.
  • A tea house on a mountain road when travelers went on foot. A kettle rattles over charcoal. Trouble: the pass closes at dusk, and there is one room.
  • A telephone exchange in the days of switchboards. Plugs click in and out. Trouble: the operators can hear the whole town.
  • A typing pool on the top floor of an office tower. Forty typewriters at once. Trouble: whoever types the letters knows the news first.
  • A village in the year the railroad arrives. A whistle nobody has heard before. Trouble: the carter and the ferryman both hear what it means.
  • An ancient library where scrolls are shelved by a tag on a string. Papyrus rustles. Trouble: one tag has fallen off, and nobody knows what the scroll is.
  • An ice house beside a lake in the years before refrigerators. Sawdust smell, and a steady drip. Trouble: the winter was mild, and more ice was sold than cut.

Places that do not exist 25

  • A city where every street leads back to the same square. The fountain can be heard from everywhere. Trouble: nobody has ever left.
  • A country the size of one rooftop. Pigeons, and a flag rope tapping. Trouble: its border dispute is with a chimney.
  • A desert whose dunes are made of unread letters. Paper rustles in the wind. Trouble: one of them is addressed to you.
  • A floating island that drifts over other countries. Anchor chains rattle with nothing to catch. Trouble: whatever falls off lands on someone.
  • A greenhouse dome on a comet during its long swing away from the sun. Heaters tick. Trouble: the lamps are rationed, and tempers are not.
  • A harbor for ships that sail on fog. Bells sound muffled and close. Trouble: one clear week strands the fleet.
  • A hillside where every terrace keeps a different season. Blossom and woodsmoke ride the same wind. Trouble: the pickers must climb through winter to reach the ripe fruit.
  • A hotel with a room for every day of the year, and one extra. Keys jingle on the rack. Trouble: guests in the extra room check out on a day that is not there.
  • A kingdom where it is always the last day of fall. Smell of leaf smoke. Trouble: nothing can be planted, so everything is counted.
  • A lake that keeps the reflection of everyone who has looked into it. The still water murmurs. Trouble: someone has come to ask for theirs back.
  • A library where the books rewrite themselves at night. Pages whisper after dark. Trouble: nobody can check what was true yesterday.
  • A map room where moving a pin moves the town. Pins click in their trays. Trouble: an apprentice has been tidying.
  • A market that appears at midnight on a dry lake bed. Lanterns sizzle. Trouble: whatever is bought here is gone at dawn.
  • A mountain with one door at the top and a line of people all the way down. Boots shuffle on gravel. Trouble: the line has not moved in a year, and people have built houses in it.
  • A museum of things that have not been invented yet. Something ticks behind the glass. Trouble: an inventor walks in and sees her own idea.
  • A planet where a day lasts one hour. Shutters bang open and shut. Trouble: nobody finishes anything in daylight.
  • A school inside a hollow tree the size of a tower. Sap ticks in the walls. Trouble: the tree is growing, and the classrooms move overnight.
  • A space station with a garden at its center. Fans, and the smell of tomato leaves. Trouble: the garden makes the air, and something is eating it.
  • A summer palace built of sand, which the sea takes back every fall. Shovels scrape at low tide. Trouble: the architect is old and has told nobody the plan.
  • A toll booth at the rim of a flat world. Water roars over the edge. Trouble: travelers pay to go on, and none come back for their change.
  • A town at the bottom of a well. The bucket rope creaks. Trouble: the only news is what falls in.
  • A town built as a staircase up a cliff, one house to a step. Footsteps cross every ceiling. Trouble: the family at the top decides who gets the sun.
  • A town under a glass dome on the sea floor. Pumps thrum day and night. Trouble: there is a hairline crack, and a meeting about who should say so.
  • A train that never stops, with a whole town in its cars. The clatter never ends. Trouble: to change cars is to leave your family.
  • A village on stilts above a sea of cloud. Wind chimes hang under the floors. Trouble: nobody knows what is below, and a child has dropped something.

How it works

These story setting ideas are 150 places, each pinned to a time: a bus station at four in the morning, a ski resort in July. The line underneath gives one thing heard or smelled there and the trouble it brings.

Read the full guide

Six kinds of place

A list under the button holds six kinds. Small and closed is one room or one vehicle. Towns and streets, Wild places and weather, and Workplaces after hours are where people live, get lost and work. Other times names a kind of period and no dated event. Places that do not exist are invented outright.

What a setting is for

In fiction a setting is the time and the place of a story, and the word can take in the society around them. It gives the story its backdrop and its mood. That is why every entry has a time and a trouble: a place with nothing wrong in it gives a character nothing to do.

  • Change the hour and keep the place. A bus station at four in the afternoon is another story.
  • Give the smell to the character who would hate it most.
  • No real town is named, so set it on a street you know.

Questions and answers

What does setting mean in a story?

The time and the place in which the story happens. The word can also take in the society around the characters. Culture, historical period, geography and the hour of the day are all elements of a setting.

What makes a good story setting?

On this list, a place that causes trouble by itself. A tent on the first night of rain makes its own plot: whatever touches the wall gets wet, tempers included. Every entry names its trouble in one sentence.

Can I use a setting for a mystery or a fantasy?

Yes. Small and closed suits a mystery, since nobody can leave, and Places that do not exist are fantasy from the first line. The settings name no genre, so any of them can be turned.

Are any of the places real?

No real town, building or business is named. Other times uses kinds of period, such as the years of gas lamps or the days of switchboards, and gives no dated event.

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