On Writing Romance_ How to Craft a Novel That Sells - Leigh Michaels [62]
SETTING AND BACKGROUND DETAILS
Choosing the right details—and using enough, but not too many, of them—is particularly important when it comes to conveying the setting and background of your story. Setting is the location of the story; background is the jobs, hobbies, social structure, etc., that add texture to the story.
The romances I read when I was a kid were set in places like the south of France, a hacienda in Mexico, a cruise ship, or a sheikh's tent in the desert. It seemed that an exotic location was a necessary part of the romance genre—quite a hurdle for an Iowa girl, raised on a farm, who'd never seen an ocean.
But my desire to write romance outweighed my common sense, so I plunged in anyway and hoped that by the time my work was good enough to sell, I'd be able to go someplace glamorous, or the publishers would have changed the rules.
As a matter of fact, both of those things happened. But the more important change was the alteration in the definition of exotic location. Now, romances don't need to be set in glitzy, glamorous sites. Anything that is new to the readers can be considered exotic.
However, some settings are more popular than others. Ranches in the American West, both historical and contemporary, are perennial favorites, as is the Australian outback. Greece and Italy are popular settings with some categories
(especially Harlequin Presents), while others favor small to mid-size American cities (especially Harlequin American Romance).
Cruise ships and resorts are not big sellers, though nobody seems to know why. Media backgrounds—stories set at newspapers or magazine offices, or featuring war correspondents, news anchors, or television hosts—are not well received. Movie sets, sports stadiums, and symphony orchestras are also less successful as backgrounds, perhaps because it's difficult to evoke a celebrity character so realistically that the readers can suspend disbelief.
Certain geographical areas—especially Africa, the Balkans, and Southeast Asia—are not popular with readers. There seem to be two reasons for this: Cultural unfamiliarity makes it more difficult for the readers to identify, and perceived political instability threatens the readers' conviction that the couple can achieve a truly happy, peaceful ending. The stereotype may be unfair, but the prejudice is a fact.
Like everything in romance, there are exceptions. Single-title romances are more flexible than category romances and can take up unusual settings and backgrounds; there are many more celebrities, sports stars, and reporters in single-title than in category romance. Still, stories that buck the trends must be very strong in order to overcome the initial resistance to the background. So if you think you want to write a story about an actor falling in love with a reporter while filming a movie on a cruise ship headed to South Africa, you might want to think again.
Why Does Setting Matter?
Setting is important because it adds depth and texture to your love story. Perhaps it's not a romantic place at all, but one that is made romantic only by circumstances. It might be foreign to the readers, so they can feel like they're traveling with the heroine, or it might be familiar, giving the readers a sense of comfort and informality. In any case, setting functions as a backdrop, not as a major portion of the story. You're writing a romance, not a travelogue.
Details about the setting are best presented as they relate to the character, as in this example from Debbie Macomber's single title Thursdays at Eight:
It was barely November, and already Christmas decorations were up. Clare pulled into the strip mall where Mocha Moments was