“Something I love to see is filtering the setting through the character. Take into account the things your character would see, and pay attention to the things your character wouldn’t see. A librarian and a criminal investigator are going to notice different things and their brains are going to travel down different paths.”

Apex Magazine Managing Editor, Rebecca E Treasure, shares how to use setting to heighten your story in this excerpt from her live workshop, “Six Powerful Exercises For Polishing Your Prose.”

Rebecca grew up reading in the Rockies and has lived in many places, including Tokyo, Japan & Stuttgart, Germany. Rebecca’s short fiction has been published by or is forthcoming from Flame Tree, Zooscape Magazine, Galaxy’s Edge, Air & Nothingness Press, and others. She is the managing editor at Apex Magazine. Rebecca reads, edits, and writes when she’s not playing Stardew Valley or raising her children. She is fueled by cheese-covered starch and corgi fur. Find her on the internet: https://linktr.ee/rebeccaetreasure.