Although a romance is between two people, it requires a community. This is one reason small towns are popular romance settings. For stories set in big cities, there is often a smaller neighborhood or workplace contributing to the community feel of the story, because love doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
A small town (or neighborhood) helps forced proximity for our hero and heroine.
Chance meetings at the diner, church, community center, school, or grocery store are fun opportunities for interaction, whether they’re both picking up coffee to-go, mailing letters to Santa, or building parade floats.
These meetings provide conflict for enemies-to-friends/lovers tropes or banter for friends-to-more tropes. This is why so many small-town romances involve a community festival or project of some sort. It gives the protagonists a shared goal they’re working toward together.
A small-town setting comes with built-in story advantages for the author to exploit, including the fact that there are few private matters that stay truly private.
Everyone in town knows your business, so secrets are harder to keep. There are feuds and alliances between families and neighbors, so the Romeo and Juliet trope is easy to build on. Characters know each other’s families as well as family history and any expectations of who to date (or not to date)—like the best friend’s brother or sister.
The whole community will be rooting for your hero and heroine. Townspeople become organic secondary characters who fulfill vital roles as meddlers and matchmakers. Gossip can be a tool to spread misunderstandings and spur hurt feelings. Secondary characters can also be supporters and truth-tellers who help your heroine see that she needs to forgive the hero because he’s her one true love.
What if one of them has been seeing the wrong person? Think of Jack and Charmaine in Virgin River. Everyone knows Jack belongs with Mel, but Charmaine keeps inserting herself into their relationship.
There are opportunities for business conflicts.
You’ve Got Mail is set in New York City, but it feels like a neighborhood battle with Joe of Fox Books vs. Kathleen Kelly of Shop Around the Corner.
With a fully immersive small-town setting, your reader will feel invested in seeing your characters get to their happily ever after. Especially if there have been some wrong turns or near misses. Even after the conflict is settled, if both parties are sticking around, they are going to continue to run into each other. So, there’s still tension on the page between them. Always a good thing.
With the declaration of love in a small-town romance, the emotional payoff is big for the reader because it’s often in public, being witnessed by the people who helped get them together. That community validation provides an extra emotional layer.
Readers love small-town settings because they feel safe and familiar, and they help us feel like we belong.
Don’t we all want to live in Mitford or Avonlea? Or at least spend an extended vacation there. Sure, they are idealized, but that’s what makes them so attractive.
Setting is more than the backdrop to your story. It becomes another character. Remember to describe the setting with details. Give shop and restaurant names. Highlight a few descriptive details. What kinds of trees are in the town square? Does the café have gingham curtains or twinkle lights in the windows? Does the library have a display of fantasy or romance books? These details will help the town feel less generic and more like a real place in the reader’s mind.
Remember it’s harder to disappear in a small town.
Romance thrives when people are seen and known. And let’s face it, like the Cheers bar, in a small town, everyone knows not just your name, but who loves you—and your characters.
Carrie Padgett lives in Central California—close to Yosemite’s beauty, but far from Hollywood glitz. She believes in faith, family, fun, and happily-ever-afters. She writes contemporary romance and women’s fiction fueled by equal parts heart and salty snacks. Carrie and her husband make their home in the country with one very high-maintenance cat and six grandchildren just a drive away.
You can find her online at:
- Twitter: CarriePadgett
- Instagram: carpadwriter
- Facebook: WriterCarriePadgett
- Amazon Author Page: Carrie Padgett
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