There’s something beautiful about the dirt beneath your feet, the pine trees towering above, and the shade of the mountain you’re climbing getting closer, as you reach the mesmerizing views at the peak of a challenging hike. As an author of clean romance and women’s fiction, these moments in nature have become more than beauty, they’re a vault of inspiration.
Whether I’m at the base of the mountains in the forests or I’m sitting on their peaks overlooking the valleys below, these views have sparked some of my best plotlines and heartwarming romances. So let’s grab your hiking shoes and join me on the mountain, as I share my love for the outdoors and where the inspiration for my stories are born.
The Magic of Nature in Dramatic Romance Books
Nature is the birthplace of drama, unpredictability, and the heart of the settings I’ve found for my stories. Just picture this: I reach the peak of a mountain, and the thunder starts to rumble, and the sun hides its face.
Despite all the turmoil, I look out at a calm valley and realize the power, the anger, and the heaviness that the thunder held above this beautiful, calming view. Instantly, I felt the gravity of nature and the power of the thunder.
I wanted to capture that same gut-wrenching feeling in my romance novels. Every turmoil and every heartache my characters faced, despite the calm valley that lay in front of them, they would feel the emotion that I felt from that thunder. Nature itself is a picture of the emotions and beauty we can create in our stories. Nothing will ever inspire emotion the way a storm on a mountain can.
Friends to Lovers: Small Town Romance Ideas
Something about a small town will always pull at the heartstrings in a fiction novel. It’s the friendly, everyone knows everyone, charming cottages and quaint businesses that create this romanticized life that we all feel connected to in our souls.
Have you ever visited a small mountain town and seen the local kids running around the trails and chasing adventures every chance they get? There’s nothing as wholesome as that- sitting watching kids innocently run around together, taking advantage of the natural beauty that they are lucky enough to grow up with in a small town.
For From Friends to Forever, Nick and Amelia’s bond is centered around their small town along the river, and their endless days exploring together. This was inspired by my time hiking around the beautiful small towns nestled in the Sierra mountain range. This friends to lovers romance was inspired by the young teens I saw running through town on their way to the lakes, giving that beautiful story an authenticity that I wouldn’t have been able to capture without those beautiful small towns in the mountains.
From Adventure to Love Triangle Romance Books
We can’t deny the reality that our hearts can be pulled in many different ways throughout our lives. Whether it’s in our careers, our relationships, or our friends and family – all of it can bring us to the difficult moment where we have to choose between multiple things we love. Nature brings along symbols and examples of that difficult choice when you let yourself fully be immersed in nature.
While hiking one weekend with some friends, we came to a fork in the trail and we could hear a storm approaching,. We could see the peak, but we didn’t know how long we had before the storm broke, and we didn’t know which route would be faster. That small fork in the road, with the threat of a storm, and the decision between two trails, sparked the love triangle romance for From Friends to Forever.
I could see the challenges that the characters would need to face, and once again, I felt inspired to add another layer to the dramatic romance that was quickly revealing itself to me.
Military Romance and Suspense in the Great Outdoors
There is a struggle in hiking that helps me feel a connection to the thrill and suspense that a military romance carries. I know that the intensity I feel on a hard hike doesn’t come close to the intensity the military challenges its service members with, but hiking still gives a connection in how I can push myself to the limit.
I find a deeper connection to my emotions and to nature, and fight against the struggles of weather, tough terrain, and my own human faults to push up the mountain. That’s the struggle that I wanted to build in a military romance novel. The suspense of the internal struggles to push forward, as well as the hardships of my difficult hikes, can help inspire the emotions of my military characters and develop their traits of discipline and courage.
Crafting Clean Romance Novels Inspired by Nature
Nature is full of a peace and tranquility that creates the perfect setting for a clean romance novel. The beauty of simplicity is often overlooked when life moves too quickly, but it’s important to acknowledge the beauty in getting out of the office, out of the city, and immersing yourself in nature.
In all of my romance novels, I hope to show my readers to slow down, and find simplicity in life. Nature is how I’ve found simplicity, but for many, it’s hard to slow down and immerse ourselves in tranquility.
In Balancing Love & Work, Rachel realizes she’s consumed by her work and craves a slower life, and the chance to find love. In the hastened culture we live in, I think more than ever we need to get back to nature. We have to find peace in the smallest details that surround us every day. When is the last time you’ve found a lookout to watch the sunset or sat and listened to the breeze hum through the trees? We need these moments to have a connection to peace or the whisper of a story that you didn’t even notice before. These simplicities are the foundation of love and inspire me to create stories of warmth and romance.
Embrace Nature: The Wellspring of Storytelling Inspiration
I think I’ve made it clear that hiking, and getting out into nature is more than just a hobby or a pastime. It’s the foundation of inspiration that breathes life into my clean romance plots. The thrill of trying a new hike, facing the elements, or the peace I find sitting in a small town coffee shop watching the locals, become the fuel for a new story.
I encourage you to get out into nature, not just because of what it can do for your own life, but also because it allows us to connect with parts of ourselves we don’t even know we have. Who knows? Your next hike might just spark the idea for a clean romance novel that touches hearts and transports your readers into another world.
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