What if setting isn’t just where a story happens—but a presence that influences everything? In this practical workshop, Brynn Barineau, author of Jaguar Is Another Game and the forthcoming Jungle of Ashes, shows writers how to make setting feel active, memorable, and emotionally charged on the page.

Drawing from her own evolution as a novelist, Brynn explores how she moved beyond minimal description to treat place almost like a character—one with its own memories, personality, and purpose. Through concrete examples and guided exercises, she helps writers deepen immersion and create settings that readers don’t just see, but feel.

You’ll learn how to:

• Make setting feel alive rather than static or decorative

• Move beyond visual description into sound, smell, touch, and atmosphere

• Use setting to shape mood, tension, and character experience

• Imagine place as if it has desires, memories, and agency

• Write historical settings so readers feel the time period, not just observe it

• Apply workshop prompts and exercises to strengthen your own scenes

Brynn also reflects on writing Rio de Janeiro and the Amazon as vivid, almost animate presences within her fiction—offering valuable insight for authors working with rich, immersive historical landscapes.

Perfect for writers of historical fiction, literary fiction, and genre fiction alike, this session offers practical tools for deepening worldbuilding and making your settings unforgettable.