: Re: How to make a setting relevant? One piece of feedback that I got on a story I wrote is that my settings feel irrelevant, or that the entire book could have been a phone call. I am not

@LarsenBagley300

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settings feel irrelevant
The characters, for example, are in an office, or a restaurant, or a different office at various times throughout the story ― but any of these places are interchangeable

If the places are interchangeable, they are definitely irrelevant.
Ask yourself why the characters are in that place. How does being there affect the story? If a character decides to confront their partner, why do it in a restaurant and not at home? How do the people around react and how does that reaction affect the reactions of the characters?
Perhaps Joe is under pressure at work - the scene at the office must then show that same pressure - and he doesn't feel like going out at all. But Jane insisted. It's all that happens in his life: being bossed around by his boss, by his managers, by his colleagues even, and now his wife! And when she says she's booked a hotel in Hawaii for their vacation, he blows. He hadn't meant to and when he's finished telling her he will not put up with her bitchy demands and making decisions behind his back, he notices how everyone in the room is looking at them. Then Jane mumbles that he had mentioned he wanted to go to Hawaii... she had only meant to surprise him... Now he feels aghast, out of control and self-humilliated.
In this example the office is essential to show the terrible pressure he suffers at work, and the scene at the restaurant is essential to make him feel public humilliation.

the entire book could have been a phone call

This might mean you should try writing a theatre play or a film script. I'm not joking. Some people have great ideas and great dialogues but just don't get on with narration.
But if you want to write narrative texts, then I suggest that you focus on the characters' feelings, thoughts and perceptions.
Try an exercise: rewrite a scene from the POV of a character and make sure to write down every gesture they make. If they pick up something from the table, mention it, whether it's to say it's a black fountain pen or a short nibbled pencil. Make sure the object has a one to three-word description that matters (ie., gives depth - now we know the character has a nervous tick of biting pencils). Write down the characters every thought and feeling about his actions, words, and what the others are doing and saying.
Obviously, the exercise is asking you to go overboard. But once you've rewritten the scene, you can go back and delete what doesn't really matter. In the meantime, you had the chance to feel how the world the character is acting in affects their mind.

[How] to make the settings matter more?

In short: they must affect the characters' thoughts and actions.

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