Monday, January 14, 2013

Small Towns, Big Stories by Tina Vaughn


Setting is so important. The perfect setting can frame and showcase your characters' strengths and weaknesses. Your setting can add deep layers and meaning to the developing romance, heighten the sense of mystery and danger or accentuate heartwarming and heart-wrenching family dynamics. For me, nothing helps me achieve my writing goals like a small-town setting.

I'm fascinated by small-town dynamics…probably because I spent more than fifteen years as a community newspaper reporter and editor.

I love the dichotomy of citizens' public and private personas and how those differences fuel the gossip and "scandal" in communities, influence both personal and public decisions and, most important, impact personal relationships. These conflicts make for great tension in your writing, especially when they involve a hot hero and strong, sassy heroine.

There are three main reasons I enjoy writing, and reading, romances with small-town settings.
    • The small-town setting lends itself to certain tropes and themes I enjoy. Forced proximity, conflict of interest, leaving home, returning home, reunion romances, bad boy/good girl, etc. The list is endless.
    • The sense of community. Friends, family, personal history, gossip…I love all the characteristics (good and bad) of small towns and communities.
    • Creative freedom. I create fictional towns, which means I'm not bogged down with a lot of research. I have complete control over my own little corner of the world. (The control freak in me loves this.)

Do you live in a small town?

Enjoy reading or writing romances with small-town settings? Why?

 
And, since this is my first post of the year, I'll take the opportunity to wish you all a fabulous 2013.
Here's to a successful year!

23 comments:

  1. Great post, Tina! I am a city girl, and I have lived in a major city for more than 15 years, but I love small town dynamics and the way they lend themselves to great interactions and for all the reasons you described above, this is why I set my romances in small towns:-) I love the sense of community, the rumor-mill, the entering and exiting of new characters and the impact each person's presence has on the others, which would go unnoticed in a larger setting. Thanks for sharing!

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    1. Thank you, Olivia. :)
      The sense of community is a big part of why I love small-town romances.

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  2. Happy New Year, Tina! Yup, I love small town settings and I think they are becoming my favourite to write. I've always wanted to live in a small town, but since we don't, I'll just escape their through fiction...;-)

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    1. Escapism is a great reason to read and write romances in a small-town setting. I do live in a small town, so I also enjoy contemporary romances set in large cities or metropolitan areas. I especially love reading romances set in places I've never visited. I feel like I'm really "getting away" when I read them. :)

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  3. Loved your post! I'm a country girl who has never lived in the city. I love watching the interactions/dynamics of small community life. I really enjoy writing/reading about small towns and country settings. But urban settings can be fun to visit and add a bit of spice to life.

    And happy new year to you too. Hope 2013 is wonderful for everyone!!!

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    1. Thanks so much, Jennifer. I live in the country, too. Cattle, goats and chickens all around -- and the occasional pig rooting through my trash can. ;)

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  4. Happy New Year, Tina! I love the colorful characters and sense of history that emerge in small town stories. I also love that in romantic suspense or a mystery/thriller, a small town setting means the hero and heroine probably know the bad guy...eep!

    Great post. :-)

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    2. Thanks so much, Natalie. Ooh! Good point about the bad guy. Double eep! That is creepy. I love it! :)

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  5. So true! I love reading small-town romances too. Makes me feel like I'm reading a Cheers book--where everybody knows your name. :-)
    I actually live in a pretty small town and there are some characters for sure too! LOL

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    1. Now I want to write a romance set around a neighborhood bar. Hmm. ;)And you're right--small towns have plenty of colorful characters for inspiration. Thanks so much for reading and commenting.

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  6. What a wonderful post - can't wait to read more of your posts!

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    1. Thank you so much, Virginia. :) We're so happy you stopped by to see us.

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  7. Great post Tina. I LOVE a small town romance myself. There's something about a close knit community that brings out the nostalgia in me. It takes me back to my (luckily very happy) childhood when my whole world was the small community set around my school and neighbourhood. A simple life, but one full of love and inclusiveness. Living in a city now, I really miss that.

    Hope you're having a great start to 2013.

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    1. Thanks so much, Christy! I'm glad reading the post brought back some great memories for you.

      Congratulations on your new release! :)

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  8. Happy New Year, Tina! :)

    I grew up in a small town and my romances are small-town centered. I love the sense of community (not so much when I was a teen, tho, and everyone knew my business!) in all its forms. I live in a larger town now, a suburb, I guess of a small city, and I miss that feeling.

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    1. Thank you, Ami! :)I know what you mean about those teen years.

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  9. I enjoy small town romances. They always seems to have a lot of fun, eccentric characters.

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    1. Thanks so much for hanging out with us today. :) I do love the eccentric characters in small-town romances, especially when they reappear in various books in a series.

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  10. Hi Tina! I love reading romances with small town settings, too! When a story takes place in a small town, I often feel like the town is a character too, with quirks and so much opportunity for humor and fun.

    Happy New Year!

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  11. Hey Robin! So glad you came to visit. So true! I love the idea of the setting as a character. :)
    Happy New Year to you, too!

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  12. The closest I've had to a 'small town' experience is village life. I love the scope you discussed here - great post, Tina!

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