On Writing Romance_ How to Craft a Novel That Sells - Leigh Michaels [63]
The air was cool and damp this morning, with a breeze coming in from the Pacific, but Clare didn't mind. The Santa Ana winds had dried out the valley these past few months, and the moisture was a refreshing change.
We know quite a bit about the restaurant, the time of year, and the geographical area from this brief selection, even though Macomber has used just a few
setting details. Because she's chosen details that evoke the senses—like the cool, damp breeze—we can feel as well as see the coffee shop where the characters are meeting.
More Than Just a Place
Setting is more than geographical location—it's the background against which the story takes place. Background includes the main characters' jobs and their lifestyles. However, the background must not be allowed to outweigh the story. If your heroine's job is so exotic or so far outside your readers' experience that you can't explain it in a couple of sentences, perhaps you should modify the job rather than risk making the romance secondary to the background. If your fictional society is so complex that you're spending more pages describing it than telling the readers what the characters are up to, perhaps it's time to rethink the setting. If the heroine's hobby is more interesting to you than her romance, then the hobby may be too prominent in the story.
Looking again at Thursdays at Eight, you can see how Macomber gives a quick, clear picture of her main character's job:
Liz stared at the phone on her desk, dreading its ring. Her Monday had begun badly, and already she could see that this first week of the new year was going to be a repeat of December, with many of the same problems she'd faced then. The hospital was no closer to a new contract with the nurses' union, and the state health inspectors were scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Without going into loads of detail, Macomber makes it clear that Liz is a hospital executive, not a health-care worker, and gives us enough detail to understand why Liz would be frustrated with her job just now. Since Liz's job isn't the story, that's all we need to know.
USING WHAT'S REAL
One way to increase the sense of reality in your stories is to refer to real movies, songs, dances, fashions, people, and products. But this kind of verisimilitude comes with a downside: Hit movies and dances will look very tired in a few years. (Remember the Macarena?) Quoting from current songs means getting permission from the musicians' organizations, something that is not easy to do. Hairstyles change from year to year, and designers wax and wane in popularity, so being too specific about your hero's haircut or your heroine's dress style may rapidly date your story.
Real people have a habit of changing. Celebrity couples break up. People grow old, get arrested for possession of drugs, or die before their time—and if you've referred to them in your book as young, vivacious role models, you've made your contemporary romance into a historical without even trying.
Real products also change over time and can date your story. Packaging and slogans seldom stay static for long. If you choose to refer to real products, use the trademarked names correctly (e.g., Coca-Cola or Coke, not coke). And if you want to refer to a product in a negative sense, it's safer to make up a name than to refer to a real product and risk irritating the corporation's attorneys.
SCENES AND CHAPTERS
Writing a book doesn't look like such an overwhelming project if you think of the task in terms of constructing the individual scenes that make up the story—each one just a few pages in length.
Scenes
A scene is a single unit of real time, including action by the characters. Something happens, and the readers see it happen. Each scene has a definite beginning and ending, and it consists of a sequence of consecutive events. It may include reflection or flashback, but if there is a lapse in