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Listed below are items referred to in my book Describing Settings (2026).
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23 Human Values
In Describing Settings, I refer to the list of 23 human values that I included as Appendix 4 in Character Creation; you can find that list below:
Lighting & Colour
In the book I mention how teal and orange is a combination often used in modern movies. Here is the video by Matti Haapoja on YouTube ‘Why Teal & Orange is Scientifically More Cinematic
The Countryside
If you want to read more examples of descriptions of the natural world, check out Greatest Wonders of the World as Seen and Described by Famous Writers, edited by Esther Singleton, published in New York by The Christian Herald, 1906. You can download a free epub version or read the text online:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73052
Rivers & Streams
This video on the Paddle Education channel on YouTube shows ’15 River Features.’ It is aimed at kayakers, but provides some nice visuals to act as inspiration if you are describing ‘white water.’
J.S. Watts’s article on chalk streams in English literature (16th Feb 2019) can be found on the Waterlight Project website.
Further Reading on Rivers & Streams
Down the River (1937) by H.E. Bates is a collection of essays about the two rivers that inspired his fiction, the Nene and the Ouse.
Rivers of Power: How a Natural Force Raised Kingdoms, Destroyed Civilizations, and Shapes Our World (2020) by Laurence C. Smith takes a larger-scale look at the way in which rivers have impacted human history and at the influence they still have today.
The Po: An Elegy for Italy’s Longest River (2022) by Tobias Jones, who followed the course of the river and explored man’s impact on its landscape while recounting the history of the people who have lived alongside it.
The Rhine: Following Europe’s Greatest River from Amsterdam to the Alps (2018) by Ben Coates, who made a journey by bicycle along the river to its source.
Water Gypsies: A History of Life on Britain’s Rivers and Canals (2021) by Julian Dutton, who was born and grew up on a houseboat, gives an account of those who lived and worked on Britain’s canals.
Walking the Wharfe: An Ode to a Yorkshire River (2023) by Johno Ellison in which the author retraces a journey made by the Victorian author Edmund Bogg and sees how the riverside landscape and the communities in it have changed over the last 120 years.
Nature and Conservation: Song of the River by Gill Lewis focus on wildlife and environmental impact. Elegy For a River by Tom Moorhouse addresses conservation.
Life on the Mississippi (1883) by Mark Twain is the author’s memoir, telling of the time he spent as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before and after the American Civil War. As you’d expect, there are humorous observations and anecdotes.
Lara Maiklem’s Mudlark: In Search of London’s Past Along the River Thames (2019) is an account of life along the modern-day River Thames, showing the kinds of artefacts that can be discovered in the mud at the water’s edge, revealing thing about the history of the waterway.
Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America (1997) by John M. Barry explores the physical and cultural impact of one of the USA’s largest natural disasters.
As you might expect, there are many books about the Amazon River published across the decades.
The River of Doubt: Into the Unknown Amazon (2005) by Candice Millard tells of former American president Woodrow Wilson’s 1912 journey into the Amazon rainforest. It includes descriptions of the environment and its inhabitants.
Walking the Amazon: 860 Days. The Impossible Task. The Incredible Journey (2011) by Ed Stafford is the author’s account of his attempt to walk the entire length of the Amazon River in 2008. The more down-to-earth style offers a contrast to ‘exploration’ accounts of the Victorian era. In a similar vein, Blood River: A Journey to Africa’s Broken Heart (2007) by Tim Butcher describes the journalist’s attempt to recreate Henry Morton Stanley’s 1874-77 expedition along the Congo.
Walking the Nile (2015) by Levison Wood tells of a journey of over 4,000 miles across seven countries and terrain that includes rainforest, savannah, swamp, and desert. It also explores the history of the river and the people who have lived close to it. There was also a UK Channel 4 television series.
Claudio Magris’s Danube (1986, translated 1989) explores the length of the river and gives an account of the people and cultures associated with it. The river is significant in that it is virtually a border between East and West, the Christian world and the Islamic.
The River at the Center of the World: A Journey Up the Yangtze, and Back in Chinese Time (1996) by Simon Winchester provides a glimpse of the landscapes, people and history along the river.
A much more low-key and personal journey is provided in Olivia Laing’s To the River: A Journey Beneath the Surface (2011), where the author travels along England’s River Ouse, the water in which Virginia Woolf drowned.
If you’re looking for descriptions of river-related action, The Emerald Mile: The Epic Story of the Fastest Ride in History Through the Heart of the Grand Canyon (2013) by Kevin Fedarko should provide it. It is an account of the 1983 made when the Colorado River flooded
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water (1993) by Marc Reisner explores the importance of freshwater in the settlement of the American West, particularly in the case of Los Angeles.
The Rivers of America series, begun in 1937, was a series of books written by literary figures rather than historians. There are over 60 books – see the Wikipedia entry ‘Rivers of America Series’ for details.
Waterlog: A Swimmer’s Journey Through Britain (1999) by Roger Deakin is an account of the author’s 1996 journey exploring Britain by swimming in various bodies of water. It was inspired by John Cheever’s ‘The Swimmer.’
Ranches & Farms
In Describing Settings, I mention the brands used to mark ownership of cattle. There’s a nice video on the National Cowboy Museum website here: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/explore/the-meaning-of-a-family-brand/
Not strictly about setting as such, but I did mention the sound of spurs, so it’s kind of related. Here’s a video on the Startup Cowboy channel on YouTube:
Cities in Greek Mythology
There is useful information about cities mentioned in Greek myths on GreekMythology.com: https://www.greekmythology.com/Myths/Places/places.html
Cities in the Bible
Here are a couple of websites that I found that provide more information about ‘cities’ mentioned in the Bible
‘Cities in the Bible’ on the Biblical Archaeology Society website:
And a more general article ‘Modern Place Names and the Bible’ on BiblePlaces.com: https://www.bibleplaces.com/blog/2014/10/modern-place-names-and-bible/
Architecture & Interiors
If you’re looking for more examples of descriptions of buildings, check out Historic Buildings Described by Great Writers, edited by Esther Singleton, published in New York by Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903. You can download a free epub version or read the text online:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/74786
Here is a link to Wikipedia’s ‘List of Fictional Towns in Literature’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fictional_towns_in_literature
The Bowery Boys Podcast has an article from May 2013, ‘The Great Gatsby’s New York City, in Ten Different Scenes, from the Queensboro Bridge to the Plaza Hotel,’ which explores New York as it is presented in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel:
https://www.boweryboyshistory.com/2013/05/the-great-gatsbys-new-york-city-in-ten.html
Author Jed Herne has a video ‘8 Secrets to Writing Unforgettable Fantasy Cities’ on his YouTube Channel:
Also, check out Jed Herne’s ‘Worldbuilding: How to Write Fantasy Setting Descriptions’
The Angry Noodle has a couple of useful articles on their site:
10 Questions To Ask When Writing a Fictional City
https://theangrynoodle.com/questions-about-your-fictional-city/
10 (More) Questions to Ask When Writing a Fictional City
https://theangrynoodle.com/building-your-fictional-city-questions-to-ask-part-2/
There is an illustrated article ‘British Fireplaces Through the Ages’ on the Scraptoft Gardens website, dated January 2021:
https://marblehearth933150492.wordpress.com/2021/01/16/british-fireplaces-through-the-ages/
Weather
As I write this at the beginning of August 2026, much of Europe has been enduring heatwave conditions of the last month or so. There is an article on the Penguin.co.uk website, ‘From Sweaty to Sultry: Why Fiction Loves a Heatwave,’ originally posed in June 2022, which gives details of stories that make use of this type of weather: https://www.penguin.co.uk/discover/articles/fiction-heatwaves-summer-books
Jane Friedman’s website has a guest post by C.S. Laskin ‘Using Weather to Convey Mood in Fiction,’ that includes some good examples: https://janefriedman.com/using-weather-to-convey-mood-in-fiction/
The New Yorker Magazine had a November 2015 article,’The Ten Best Weather Events in Fiction,’ by Kathryn Schulz, which is worth checking out:
https://web.archive.org/web/20151121181734/https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-ten-best-weather-events-in-fiction
There is a second piece by the same writer, ‘Writer’s in the Storm,’ here:
19th Century Travel Writing
Here is a random list of travel books that I found on the Project Gutenberg website while I was researching Describing Settings.
Bibliography
Here is the bibliography from Describing Settings (2026) with clickable website links to online sources:
PAUL TOMLINSON 