Setting......still unsure!

[neddyf]

Hi all. I really hope you can help me.

I've started my novel and have based the setting on the city I live in. However, close to the start there is a murder and I am concerned about where this occurs.

I have set the murder in a well known shop ( I live in the UK ), but I guess I cannot really do that ?

If I can't do that, do I invent a shop in the shopping centre, or does that make the story less true, as I was hoping to tell the story in the current time.

Any help ?

Cheers

Ned

[maestrowork]

Of course you can. It's fiction.

Things happen at well known places all the time (Empire State Building, Macy's, the Titanic, Golden State Bridge, the Serendipity Coffeeshop...)

[Writing Again]

Things happen in Macy's in fiction all the time, but I recall no murders in there. People do those things that people normally do in there, shop, meet, fall in love, argue over a dress -- But I've never heard of a fictional murder there.

The Empire State building and the Golden Gate Bridge are public places and I've never heard of the government suing for libel.

I would either change the local of the murder: Does it absolutely have to happen inside a shop? Could it happen somewhere else? Or I would invent a shop. Of course it is possible to ask for permission, who knows, they might give it.

[HConn]

Invent a shop if it makes you nervous. It's not something to expend a lot of energy on.

[katdad]

I'm writing a series of private detective novels set in modern Houston. So I'm familiar with your dilemma.

Let me recommend that you take elements from some real shops and some real shopping centers, and then mix them up and create a new one, and in a ficticious location.

That way, you will retain verisimilitude but prevent legal problems.

[nightrider27]

I have faced he same dilema in my writing. What I do is change a letter or two which changes the pronouncement but, keeps it close to home so to speak. For example, for the town of Pomeroy I used Omeroy. Swapping letters works well for inventing names also as in using Dawna for Donna.
As said by someone else, it's fiction.

[nightrider27]

Just a quick note to say hi. I'm new to the site and must say it looks interesting and informative. I'll make sure I proof read in the future.

[maestrowork]

Murders happen at the Louvre and many real places in the Da Vinci Code. Murders happen on the Orient Express... the list goes on and on...

Don't sweat it; just write it.

[katdad]

Murders happen at the Louvre etc...
This is of course true, but having the crime at a real location may limit the scope of the story somewhat.

For example, he can't defame the store or location. So if the crime is an "inside job" or something is done to make the store owners look silly, then a ficticious venue is probably best.

That being said, it's not difficult to create a realistic venue that's ficticious, if you employ selected elements of real venuse and mix them around to cover up. I do this all the time in my Houston-based novels.

[Stace001]

Make a shop up. It'll give you more flexibility with the story, you don't have to worry about a pissed off store owner suing you and as most have previously said, its fiction.

[pianoman5]

I think it's a good idea to use landmark buildings as part of your settings, because they add greatly to the sense of place, especially when they are well known. Although I suspect the Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Tower Bridge, Empire State Building etc have been so overused they've become clichéd. (What! Dan Brown used a cliché? I can scarcely believe it.)

But as others have remarked, it's dangerous to use a specific, known shop, because corporate lawyers like to buy themselves new prestige cars out of the proceeds of such cases. Far better to make up a fictionalised location in a known locale. For 100 years people have hunted in vain for Sherlock Holmes' s flat at 221b Baker Street, but it set him nicely in the West End of London.

[neddyf]

Thanks for all your replies, everyone.

I have opted for a real location and a made up shop.

Cheers

Ned

[ElizabethJames]

Good choices! What's the shop's name?