SETTING THESAURUS

GHOST TOWN (OLD WEST)



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HELPFUL TIP:

Settings should always be chosen with care. Consider the emotion you want your viewpoint character to feel and how setting choices, weather elements, and symbolism might build a specific mood in the scene, create tension and conflict, or even raise the stakes.
SIGHTS:
A main dirt street, or one that's overgrown with weeds and grass
A rotting board sidewalk
Buildings lining the main street containing decaying evidence of what the structures used to be (banks, saloons, mercantiles and general stores, hotels and boarding houses, bathhouses, a land office,  a jail and sheriff's office, a train depot, liveries (stables), a church/school house, blacksmith, outhouses, a doctor's office)
Buildings in various states of decay (dilapidated wooden shanties, adobe structures, square buildings with mismatched additions that were added at a later time, false fronts that make the building look larger than it is, glass windows that are covered in grime or broken and boarded up)
Narrow alleys between the structures
Hitching posts
Debris decomposing in the streets or in alleys (broken wagons, rusty wheels, mining equipment, elixir bottles, shattered pottery or dishes, scrap metal, machinery parts, a crushed tin cup, a dented washbasin, wooden crates, an old cast-iron skillet, falling-apart barrels)
A graveyard on the edge of town
The remains of a wooden water tower
Tumbleweeds
Cacti and stunted trees
Rocky, sandy soil
A clear blue sky overhead
Wild animals and scavengers roaming the area
Birds resting on the roofs

SOUNDS:
The wind moaning between buildings
The rustle of tumbling tumbleweeds
Birds cawing
Small animals scrabbling in the underbrush
Insects chirping and singing
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SMELLS:
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TASTES:
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TEXTURES AND SENSATIONS:
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POSSIBLE SOURCES OF CONFLICT:
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PEOPLE COMMONLY FOUND IN THIS SETTING:
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SETTING NOTES AND TIPS:
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SETTING DESCRIPTION EXAMPLE:
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TECHNIQUES AND DEVICES USED:
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DESCRIPTIVE EFFECTS:
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