You must have a romance narrative that takes place somewhere. Your hero and heroine are crucial, but they don’t exist in a void. The setting gives their story context. Readers need to know where things are happening, just as a matter of curiosity. But more importantly, the setting can influence your plot and characters. In this article, we discuss how to decide on your story setting, a better approach to creating locales, and how to apply setting descriptions in your narration.

Let Characters and Plot Guide You

You may have decided who your hero and heroine are or what the basics of your plot entail before deciding on a setting. The details you already have about your characters and plot can offer a good starting point for choosing where you want your story to take place. 

Facts about a character include where they live, which can also be where most of the action of your story takes place. A cowboy hero lives on a ranch, an actress heroine lives on Broadway, and a movie star lives in Hollywood. Also, the details about the plot of your story offer helpful setting guides. A plot that has to do with politics can occur in Washington DC, while one about royals can take place in Europe.

Now that you have a general idea of where the action occurs based on your characters or plot, you can narrow it down to specifics. What county in what state is this ranch located? In what part of New York does the heroine live? Where precisely in Europe do we find these royals? You can even go a little deeper to decide if the politics occur in the White House or the Capitol building. You can also narrow it down to the type of house in Hollywood or what movie studio forms part of the setting.

Use Fictional Places

When choosing a specific town or street, a real place may provide you with little creative advantage. A better option can be crafting a fictional locale, which offers more creative opportunities. With a fictional town, you have complete control in the hand of your imagination. You can describe the town to be what your story needs it to be, and that aspect can be a great plus in the writing process. You can place houses where they need to be and set your town alongside a shore, upon a hill, or wherever you want.

Sometimes an entire fictitious country can even be a better option. Here, you can avoid alienating readers due to political or ideological differences. Certain countries are hot zones for polarized political and ideological views. And if your story involves characters or plots that fit such locations, it would be best to create a fictional country with all the attributes you need. This way, your story doesn’t appeal only to people with certain political sympathies. 

Also, a fictional country saves you the hassle of research, especially with complex royal lineages. A story with dukes and duchesses, earls, kings, queens, princes, and princesses may require you to create your own kingdom and monarchy. It is a much easier setting approach. It allows you to exercise complete control over your characters and the specifics of their rule and lets you create whatever lineage best serves your story.

Don't Lose Focus

The setting is important because people and actions don’t exist in a void. But romances are about people, not places. Your setting should provide a context for your narrative; it can help enhance the romance, but nothing more. It shouldn’t distract readers from the hero and the heroine or their emotional conflict. Never spend so much time on your setting that it robs your main character of the time they need in your narrative. 

Don't give your setting an immense space that interrupts the flow of your narration. Instead, mingle the description with the rest of your text. This way, it feels like a natural part of the novel, not a digression. You may be passionate about the setting you’ve chosen, but readers want to see your passion for your characters. You can wax poetical about the beauty of your heroine, but not the beauty of the seaside. 

Describe the setting only when it's relevant to your characters and the plot. Anything else is extraneous and should be removed. Also, when possible, let the readers see the setting from the character’s point of view. Make it a part of their dialogue and reaction. This way, readers can see the relevance and be more interested in the description.