Hello fellow beginner writer who stumbled on this after an internet search of "Should I use a real location or a fake location in my book?" Am I right? Is that too presumptuous of me to assume that's where we're at?
As I've covered in other (fantastic if I say so myself) posts on this blog, I'm sharing my experiences as a new author. After the entire 1st draft of my 1st book was finished, I wanted to send the first couple of chapters off to some readers to get some feedback. I think that will be my next post-beta readers! Not talking too much about that, one of the biggest takeaways that I got from my readers was to give a better description of the setting. I had wondered if that would be the case and it was confirmed. Now stick with me here-I know the title of this isn't "How to create a good setting", but deciding if your location is fake or real has played a big role in this for me.
I had 3 reasons for a weak setting:
1-I was in a hurry to get to exciting stuff past the first scene and didn't want to slow things down (but ultimately I learned I needed to do more for the readers to feel grounded.)
2-I suffered from writer's omniscience. Of course I know what everything looks like, and we can accidentally assume that a general statement evokes the same visual for others. But your research from maps, and envisioning your local downtown area, and your neighborhood, and the layout of your house, and how things might work....they don't have those.
3-I let fear/laziness muck things up. Anytime in my book that I have been non-committal, I just glaze over details. I know there are other settings and details that I have to crack down on too. The setting in this particular sci-fi book is extremely important.
I did countless hours of research before I even decided which state it would happen in (I knew I wanted it to be in the continental U.S.) and then more research to determine which cities would be involved. Since it's sci-fi and not fantasy, I couldn't just make up a state. But a city, you could still make that up. There's a lot of travel and specific timelines that had to be met so I really needed something to anchor my story. I suppose if you have a fantastically clear view in your head, you can just make up whatever you want, and to some extent I did that at first.
I was afraid to use real city names. Maybe because I didn't want to be obligated to being true to the geography. Maybe because I was afraid of any legal factors. But the feedback I got was that I was leading them through a crazy corn maze. I would use phrases like "After a few hours of walking" but the reader told me they didn't feel like it had really been that long. Or my description of what kind of buildings were in the same neighborhoods left them confused as to where they really were.
When it came down to it, my 45+ square mile city needed a more thorough comb-through that I just couldn't do with a fake city. Instead of a random park, there's a golf course. Instead of "banks, libraries, police stations." I plotted a realistic path, calculated the time it would take to travel it, and discovered what the intersections looked like on google aerial view. I looked at legitimate residential areas, and schools, businesses, and public buildings. I even found the train tracks and included them. It reads SO. MUCH. BETTER.
Then the question remains: if you use a city for inspiration, are you obligated, or at an advantage, to disclose what the real city behind the curtain is?
I don't think so. I don't think you need to say either way. You could describe your hometown and call it another city's name (though people in the other city may scrutinize the lack of authenticity). Or you can describe the city as-is and call it something completely different and no one is the wiser unless you're incredibly descript about location.
Of course I'm talking about a specific city. But it may be something completely different. A college campus, a grocery store, the local fair grounds. I would however put a word of caution out about more specific locations. That chain grocery store or mom and pop diner may not be fond of you actually naming their store if the plot involves someone being murdered there. If you're terribly specific with a location, it may be worth reaching out to them to ask, or play it safe and change the name.
It's probably worth noting that sometimes location is so irrelevant that you really shouldn't stress about it. I'm concurrently writing a fantasy novel. I'm only 2 chapters in but I know I'll probably only mention 2 big cities. One of which really doesn't matter in any way, shape, or form, and the other barely matters for cultural consistency. I'm not stressing on that book, I'm naming them what they are and leaving it at that.
I hope my train of thought was helpful in you making your decision, feel free to run any questions by me in the comments!
No comments:
Post a Comment