location, location, location

[Mike Martyn]

I'm currently writing a horror genre novel based very loosely on my childhood in ruural Manitob in the early 60's.

The US market is huge compared to the Canadian.

Will I have a better chance of getting it published in the US market if I set it in North Dakoa or Montana? Same sort of people, same sort of agriculture. The only diffeence is that it's so much warmer there in the winter!

[katdad]

Interesting thought. It might indeed regionalize your story if it's set exclusively in Manitoba. Could happen.

Perhaps you could give the characters a second location, like Chicago, to modify the regional flavor? Have some of the story expand there?

[arrowqueen]

If it's a decent story, I don't think it'd matter too much - after all, 'Dracula' was set mostly in Transylvania and how many of us have been there? I read Stephen King and I've never set foot in America.

Good luck with it, whatever you decide.

Cheers,
aq

[maestrowork]

My novel is set mostly in Asia, but I have two American locations -- Southern California and Connecticut. Somehow I'm not sure if having an American location is necessary for you to get into the American market...

[CACTUSWENDY]

:Shrug: ........Isee no problem unless the speech pattern might be different from the American way of saying things.....I would not mind reading about horror in another country...but that is just me....I think with world travel as it is now that here or there would not make any difference.

Good luck with your book.....:Sun: I LOVE YOU GUYS.....Wendy....

[arrowqueen]

Or how about compromising - setting it in Canada but making one of your main protagonists an American?

[CindyBidar]

Just a quick reader perspective: I would be no less likely to read a book set in Manitoba then a book set in Montana. I think as far as most Americans are concerned, Canada is just an extention of the United States.

My two cents, anyway.

And for my Canadian friends, please don't throw things at me. I didn't mean it as an insult! :tongue

[TashaGoddard]

I don't think it should matter too much where it's set. As long as you know enough about the place (whether it's real or imaginary) to make it come to life in your book, I don't think setting it in a specific town/state/country is likely to make a big difference in publishability (or purchasability) [are those actually words, or did I just make them up - sorry, it's late and I'm tired]. And, of course, the story is the most important part. I'm British and have never been to the United States (or Canada), but I have no problem reading books set in the United States (or Canada) - or anywhere for that matter. In fact, something set somewhere new and not known to me can often draw me in more than, for example, a story set in London.

[maestrowork]

I agree that it probably has more to do with the speech patterns, phrases used, writing styles, etc. than the location. Many American novels are set in foreign lands, and they don't necessarily involve Americans, but they're written in American style.

[Mike Martyn]

Thanks for all your replies. As far as regional speech patterns, we say "eh?' a lot. Similar to New Englanders saying "Ayuh!"

I like the idea of setting part of the story in the US. Since this is about the Cuban Missile Crisis going badly, blowing up 90% of the US Altlantic fleet and setting of WWIII should fill the bill. My characters can all sit around the radio listening to a speech by Pres Kennedy.

Oh the god like power of it all!

[CACTUSWENDY]

:eek: .......SO MIKE....IT'S NOT A TRUE STORY?.....HUH?.......WHEW......

I LOVE YOU GUYS......:Clap:

(am a little concerned about a couple of you though....)

[cwfgal]

Setting can sometimes be as important a character as any of the people in a story and if that's the case, it can matter a lot where a story takes place. But in general, I think a tale well told will win readers no matter where the story takes place and a "new" setting may prove to be an attraction for some readers (it often is for me.)

Beth

[three seven]

I'm a little concerned at the prospect of allowing marketability to determine the wheres and hows of the story; I just think it's wholly cynical and lacking in integrity. Call me naive if you like.
I couldn't set a novel in a location I wasn't familiar with and inspired by; as Beth said, location should effectively be one of your principal characters, and you can't write those effectively unless you know them inside out.

[Denis Castellan]

I couldn't set a novel in a location I wasn't familiar with and inspired by

Unless you were to write "Cast Away" (you know, the movie with Tom Hanks)... :)

Oh, and for my personal information : does "I'm a little concerned (about/at ?)" really mean "I don't care too much about" or is it an ironic way to say "I really don't care about" ?

[Mistook]

I would second what 3/7 says, and ad that maybe part of your 'responsibility' as a writer is to show us what [i]only you[\i] can show us. Rural Manitoba is part of the universe. If you don't tell us about it, who will?

Personally I love stories that take place in non-glamorous locations that are off the cultural radar, because all these places are unique, but without witnesses to capture that in literature, they blend into this universal 'blah'.

And yes, I'm just a tad biased, because I'm writing about Aurora Illinois. What's that? You've never heard of it? Exactly. :)

[three seven]

Of course we've heard of it, we've all seen Wayne's World.

Uh... Right, guys?

http://www.geocities.com/thingumybobwotsit/shy.gif

[katdad]

Thanks for all your replies. As far as regional speech patterns, we say "eh?' a lot. Similar to New Englanders saying "Ayuh!"


I'm sure you know not to use excess dialect. It really nags at the reader's mindset.

And I only speculated that 100% Manitoba settings would deter sales. If the characters and settings are written to convey a modest amount of universality, it will be fine.

Adding an American character is a good suggestion.

And for regionalizing, is anyone here a fan of Lynn Johnston's "For Better or Worse" comic strip? Most of the time the Toronto setting is so close to the USA, it's essentially identical. But recently, the daughter has taken a teaching job way up in the Indian areas, very provincial, and the differences there are quite noticeable.

And frankly, less interesting to me (just my opinion). If it's too far removed from familiarity, there is a disconnect. Therefore it's your job to provide the necessary bridge material to let the readers know what's going on. Same as for any exotic locale.

[three seven]

Toronto has an inherent universality anyway - wherever you are in Toronto, you could kinda be somewhere else. That's part of the reason so many films are shot there.

[johnnycannuk]

As a proud Canadian I say, for very selfish reasons, stick with the Manitoba setting. If the setting is intergral to the story, stick by your guns. Margret Lawrence and Gabrielle Roy never had a problem selling books set in Manitoba.

Personally, I think one of the draws of a book can be that it is set in a place that is a bit unusual, yet somewhat familiar at the same time. Manitoba certainly fits the bill for that. It helps readers be both comfortable and suspend their disbelief. For instance, I grew up on a farm in Southern Ontario and books with farm settings are familiar. But if something is not right I know it and my suspension of disbelief is shattered. After that the story looses meaning. I've been to San Francisco a few times,, so when I read Dharma Bums it is familair and engaging, but I've never been able to find the 'The Place' in North Beach, so there is still an element of unknown. I've never been to Nunavut, and know litle about Inuit culture, but I love Farley Mowat novels.

Setting is an element of the story. If the story doesn't rely on setting, change it. Again, If the setting is important stick by your guns.

In the end, the story is what counts (that's why Hamlet can be performed in Denmark, outerspace and the Elsinore Brewery and still work)

Mike

[maestrowork]

Many fantasies don't even happen in THIS world. Bridget Jones and About A Boy happen in the UK. Memoir of a Geisha is set in Japan (so is Snow Falling on Cedar, I think).

If you tell a great story, you should have nothing to worry about.

[Mike Martyn]

With respect, 3/7 and Mistook, I agree certainly the location is important. The location has winters that hit forty below for weeks on end, the river ice gets to be 8 ft thick. Kids at least in the 60's would buy there winter moccasins with their school supplies. I'm basing it on the town of Selkirk. If just shifted Selkirk and hundred miles south on the Red River, it would still be Selkirk but with a different name.The kids in Grand Forks, North Dakota, USA back in the 60's wore moccasins in winter just like we did. How else could you snowshoe?

If changing the location makes it more commercially viable without changing the vision, is this such a sin? It's a tale that I can't stop writing,if it's saleable, all the better. My attitude may be influenced by the fact that I've been in the business world for the last 40 odd years.http://absolutewrite.com/forums/images/icons/icon7.gif

[Fractured_Chaos]

I agree with what everyone else here, said. Don't change a good location in your story just to satisfy some market.

I lost the link (I think I'd gotten it from MacAllister in the horror section, but...) Something that was pointed out on another writer's website, is that while the US might be a big market, Canada loves their genre writers more. So if you're writing something other than mainstream fiction, you might actually stand a better chance of selling the book to a Canadian publisher. Most of them sell books in the US anyway. So you would have all bases covered. ;)

[Elizabeth]

A comment that just might make a point (or not, who knows?): I had NO idea that FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE was set in Canada.

I've read books set in Canada, and/or written by Canadian authors, and by and large, the regional dialect doesn't really sneak in there. A text peppered with "Eh?"s to show the Canada-ness of it all wouldn't really serve the work, I'm thinking.

(Not that you would do that, natch; just sayin')

[katdad]

With respect, 3/7 and Mistook, I agree certainly the location is important. The location has winters that hit forty below for weeks on end, the river ice gets to be 8 ft thick. Kids at least in the 60's would buy there winter moccasins with their school supplies.

Okay, you've made your point perfectly here, and you're totally right. I now understand.

If you write your story with a quality historic back-fill, you'll be creating a meaningful and interesting "alien" environment that will be a treat to read.

Don't try to modify the setting. Don't "fix" it so it will be more familiar. That would spoil the entire setting. Instead, work toward making your setting interesting and intriguing -- don't create a travelogue or preach, but instead blend the regionalism into the story so that it flows nicely.

We all write from a regional perspective. Stevie King's characters tend to all live in semi-rural Maine. Playwright Neil Simon thinks that everyone is divorced and lives in a trendy flat overlooking Central Park.

Here's my own "regionalism" -- My series of private detective novels are based in modern Houston and its environs.

Someone in a forum suggested that my characters say "y'all" so that the readers will feel "at home" in Texas. I hate to break the news, but we don't ride our horses to work much anymore. And I don't think I've EVER heard someone say "y'all" in real life. I'm more likely to hear Spanglish or Farsi or Vietnamese.

In my books, I try to generate for the reader a "feel" for this modern city -- there is a great baseball team playing in a terrific retro-style downtown ballpark, traffic jams, monster skyline, a churning mix of ethnicities, a world class opera and symphony, lots of lively crime and drugs, and so on.

But I don't preach, either.

I think your most recent post was most eloquent, and that you made your point nicely.

Go for it, and good luck! Tell a great story and flavor it with the regional atmosphere. You should be just fine.

[JanaLanier]

One of my all-time favorite authors, Margaret Atwood, places all her novels on Canadian soil (she's Canadian). It certainly hasn't hurt her U.S. sales!

Of course, she's such an incredible writer that I'd read her even if she set her novels in my backyard and got all the details wrong. I think that's the take-home message -- if it's a great book, who cares if it's in the US or Canada?:)

[Alphabeter]

As long as the story has some sort of universal relatability, location will not matter.
High Fidelity is a good example. It was set in London and beloved. Cries went up when it was made into a movie and they changed the location to Chicago at the beheast of the producer/star.

Andrea :Sun:

[Mike Martyn]

Thanks for all your input. I'll probably keep the location in Manitoba. My wife who is from New York has always considered my childhood of barefoot summers and rabbit snaring in winter completely alien to her childhood in Brooklyn. So it might work.

[WerenCole]

In terms of dialects, I am from Maine and we do say "Ayuh", and I live in Virginia and the so called word "y'all" is very much alive and well. . . I tell people not to use that so called word around me. . . I think dialects are a good way to give minor characters a little flair and personality for their short time within the work, but I would say keep most of the dialogue in a less cumbersome dialect. You know, something that flows. . .

In terms of location, and I think my good Uncle Jim would probably agree, location doesn't exactly matter as long as reader's find the story engaging and aren't bogged down with inane details that are probably not necessary. It seems a lot of the stories I read these days aren't technically set in the upper forty eight, but that does not make then any less readable or desirable for my palate. Quality story telling comes first, everything else seems to fall into the background.

Weren

[cwfgal]

In terms of dialects, I am from Maine and we do say "Ayuh", and I live in Virginia and the so called word "y'all" is very much alive and well. . . I tell people not to use that so called word around me. . .

I lived in Richmond, VA for 16 years and fought the y'all thing for the first 8 or so. Then one day it slipped out of my own mouth. I can count on one hand the number of times I said it but there were countless times I heard it.

Beth