Importance of Setting
You've probably heard the old adage that in real estate, location is everything. It applies to romance novels also. From small towns to big cities, from barren, alien landscapes to lush tropical forests — the options for a setting for your book are endless. But it's how you use the setting that is important in a romance novel.
Remember, it's not paragraph after paragraph of dry information about your setting that the reader expects in a romance novel. It's the integration of that setting into the novel. Is your novel set in the tropics? If so, describe the warmth of the sand on the beach beneath the heroine's bare feet. Explain how the scent of the flowers growing in the garden outside her room reminds her of an event from her childhood — a good memory, perhaps, or a sad memory.
Incorporate the setting into your novel and give the details an emotional impact, rather than simply provide a travelogue description.
Readers want to experience the romance novel as though its events were happening to them. Romance authors rely heavily on the use of the five senses — sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell — to make the story come alive.
