Writing contemporary romance, I don’t spend a lot of time creating a world like you would with fantasy or science fiction, but I do try to bring the environment to life. The three books in the Rules Series take place in and around Boulder, Colorado, and there’s a mix of real and made-up places throughout the stories.
The ski resort Eldora, where the ski and snowboard, and the high school, are real places, but I took liberties with both—Eldora doesn’t really have night skiing and I didn’t follow the hallway structure of the school—and while I made up a few businesses near the Pearl Street Mall, I kept the statues that line the pedestrian walkway.
This is a sports series, and the main characters spend a lot of time outdoors, whether on the ski slopes or mountain biking trails, and I wanted to make those spaces come alive for the reader. It’d be easy to have them glide over the snow without mentioning the flakes drifting from the treetops, or not have them stop to admire the view from the top of the mountain, but what fun would that be? I like to immerse my readers in my scenes, and just because I didn’t invent the world they’re in doesn’t mean I can’t make it feel like they’re really there.
Little details, like the shadows the sun makes when peeking through the trees or the sound the snow makes when a waxed snowboard cuts across it, pull the reader into the story. (I’ve had readers tell me this!)
One of my favorite indoor scenes to describe is in book two, The Trail Rules. The main character meets a friend at a chocolatier, and enveloping her with the scents of cocoa and cinnamon and every other delectable ingredient that goes into truffles was delightful. (Then the character admits she doesn’t like chocolate and nearly gives her friend a heart attack.) The store is filled with quirky tchotchkes that give it a homey feel, and I would have loved to hang out there with them.
In The Edge Rules, Brianna serves community service picking up trash, so twice a week she’s on the side of yet another highway, picking up even more trash. All the places become a blur to her, so I don’t spend as much time differentiating them because she sees them as all the same. Her house, on the other hand, as well as Xavier’s, are more carefully crafted. Each are a reflection of the character and they give the reader another glimpse into who these people are.
My hope is that even though the world of the Rules series could be any town in America, readers will feel drawn to it and not want to leave.
This post originally appeared on My Chaotic Ramblings.
