Last weekend, the amazing JC Hays (http://jchay.com/) spoke at our MoRWA chapter meeting about world building. JC writes sci fi romance and knows how to build a world from scratch. But his talk focused on what to do when you are world building outside the paranormal and fantasy genres. He got me thinking about my own setting process. How do I choose where I set my stories? Or do the characters choose for me? What about the fictional small town world of Shawnee, Idaho, where my Bull Rider’s series is set? Today, we’re going deep into setting –
The Bull Rider’s Brother is set in a small town carved out of a river valley on the one north to south highway in Idaho. A town like Shawnee exists, but the places I chose to highlight were a mix of different towns I’d visited as well as fictional spots. Places that probably exist more in my mind, than on a specific spot on Google maps.
As a young girl, my family used to go camping on a tiny lake. The pine trees surrounded the little lake, fed each year by the run off from the snow melting off the mountains. The fish and game department stocked the lake annually, and, my mom and step-dad loved the fishing. The lake was just long enough that you could swim the entire length without stopping. So once I’d swim the lake, I’d climb up on a large rock to suntan, and day dream.
This day dream process is how I describe my settings. In The Bull Rider’s Brother, what does James see when he walks into Lizzie’s cabin for the first time in six years? A robot movie plays on the television in the corner of the living room, toy cars line what used to be a bar for their cabin guests. What doesn’t he see? The glass refrigerator where Lizzie’s dad held the cold beers and sodas is empty and dark. The liquor bottles that used to line the mirrored back of the bar, missing. Hudson’s Hot Springs wasn’t open for business, during the peak of tourist season. Now, James knows something’s wrong.
JC mentioned the use of monuments in his world building. Like the clock tower in Back to the Future. That clock tower in the middle of town ties the three movies together, past, present, and future. In The Bull Rider’s Brother, the rodeo parade stands are that monument, even though they aren’t up all year long. The book opens and closes with the major characters on the stands. The big reveal happens there as well as the inciting incident in the past – these hard, metal risers contain a lot of memories for my characters. 
When I wrote The Bull Rider’s Manager, the setting monument is the waiting area at an airport gate. Different airports, different views, but as anyone who travels can tell you, these areas all feel the same. Big changes happen to Barb and Hunter in these settings. And with big changes, memories start to flow.
So Ladies in Red readers, what’s your favorite setting in either a book you read or one you wrote? And why?
Lynn Cahoon
http://www.lynncahoon.wordpress.com
August 23, 2012
Categories: Written in Red . Tags: Contemporary Romance, Lynn Cahoon, The Bull Rider's Brother, writing romance . Author: lynncahoon . Comments: 12 Comments
Last weekend, I headed south to attend the North Louisiana Romance Writer’s chapter conference, NOLA’s Written in the Stars. My topic? Time management or finding the time to write.
