Write what you know, er, I mean, where you live?

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Linda Adams

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I like making use of the setting throughout the story, so I do use places I've been.

My last book was set in the area I'm at now. I remember getting crits about how the setting came to life---and a lot of what I did was mention the names of trees and plants instead of saying "a tree" or "a bush."

My current one is a urban fantasy set in another country, but it's essentially Los Angeles. I had a good laugh when someone fussed at me because she couldn't believe the school I described existed. I went to it, and it's still there. I even researched Googie, which is a type of archtecture that was prevelant in Los Angeles and put that in the book.

My next one will be set in Morro Bay, California, a place where I often visited. Though I know it pretty well, I'm still researching it for the birds, trees, seashells, etc. I even found out that it used to have the world's largest chess set, which was there when I visited, but I don't remember ever seeing it.

And my next one is set in the house in the avatar, which is being featured in a book to be released in 2010. The house also appears in the current WIP.
 

Pepper

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Google Maps and Street View.
'nuff said. ^_^

no. doesn't catch enough, imho. they don't catch the atmosphere of place.

Where's the smells and the sounds? The depth? The feel?

Emphasis added. Google Maps doesn't show you that Tacoma, Washington smells like a mixture of garbage and sour milk: the "aroma of Tacoma."

I've been sufficiently silenced. ;) You guys all make a very good point. :D

My suburb, every now and again, is swept with a horrible smell from the meatworks just outside of town. On a quiet day, you can hear the train rumbling by in the distance every 10 minutes or so.
 

Priene

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West England in particular.

A good example of how careful you have to be. If you used the phrase West England in a novel, it would look strange as it's not used at all in the UK. With Britain being tall and skinny, it's not a particularly useful term. The Cornwall/Devon/Somerset area is usually called the West Country.

You wouldn't say East England either. Confusingly, you might say the East of England, which would be roughly speaking anywhere from Ipswich to Newcastle. It's not much use for administration purposes but good for describing a cold front moving down the North Sea.
 

The Lonely One

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I like making use of the setting throughout the story, so I do use places I've been.

My last book was set in the area I'm at now. I remember getting crits about how the setting came to life---and a lot of what I did was mention the names of trees and plants instead of saying "a tree" or "a bush."

My current one is a urban fantasy set in another country, but it's essentially Los Angeles. I had a good laugh when someone fussed at me because she couldn't believe the school I described existed. I went to it, and it's still there. I even researched Googie, which is a type of archtecture that was prevelant in Los Angeles and put that in the book.

My next one will be set in Morro Bay, California, a place where I often visited. Though I know it pretty well, I'm still researching it for the birds, trees, seashells, etc. I even found out that it used to have the world's largest chess set, which was there when I visited, but I don't remember ever seeing it.

And my next one is set in the house in the avatar, which is being featured in a book to be released in 2010. The house also appears in the current WIP.

Field guides are your friend, I hear. I've never actually bought one. Dufresnse recommends them. Lots of them. Helps with, you know, trees and birds and such.
 

DMarie84

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I never write a story where I live. I mean come on, it's Ohio. :e2yawn:

My first "novel" (the one I wrote when I was like, 11) took place in my hometown---150 years earlier. So, I guess I've written about a place I know, only at a time when I wasn't actually living there...
 

icerose

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It's just like any subject, anything you don't know, research, reseach, research. If you're creating your own world, you need to set up the world, make a set of rules and so forth that can be believable and that are followed.

Like if you have a character who's ability is to control water, you don't want him shooting water the next page. It's the same thing with fiction set in the world we know, just write it well and make it believable based on solid research.
 

Red-Green

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Even places you know, you need to research. I wrote a novel that mostly takes place in Oklahoma. I know Oklahoma, but even I made a mistake. At one point, I had a girl in Broken Bow dropping a Big Gulp and ice spilling out. Now, unless she'd driven all the way from Oklahoma City without the ice melting--which she didn't--there's no way she could be in Broken Bow with a Big Gulp. There isn't now, nor has there ever been a 7-11 in McCurtain County. Or anywhere in OK outside OKC. Oopsie.
 

BigWords

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Throwaway details can add an extra depth, and are nearly impossible to fake. If you don't live in the East Neuk, you wouldn't know that fire engines are colloquially called "Ballingry Busses" after a run-down town.

There is a pipe running over the street in Kirkcaldy on the seafront road to Dysart which, on photographs, doesn't look like much. What you might not know is that, from time to time, the sound coming from the pipe is so loud that it drowns out the noise of the traffic beneath it.
 

maestrowork

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I agree they add depth and verisimilitude and flavors, all that jazz. I do, however, question if it's all necessary. If your readers are not from that town or that area (and most won't be), do they really care since they don't know one way or the other? And even if they ARE from the area, would it be so bad (without the minor details and accuracies) that they will close the book and not pick it up again?

I think it all depends. I certainly appreciate it when the author really knows the settings and include incredible details. But story first. To me, if the story calls for other locations -- if the story takes the characters to Paris, to Rome, to Machu Pichu, then they should be in Paris, Rome, or Machu Pichu. I think there is a potential limitation if we're confined by the locations only we know about, unless we're all well traveled. Besides, a lot of these details could be researched, interviewed, and studied. Never been to Paris? There are guidebooks, travel logs, and local residents to help you get things right. Besides, we're writing stories, not travel logs. If your story does call for these locations, go ahead.

Story always comes first.
 

Mad Queen

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Throwaway details can add an extra depth, and are nearly impossible to fake. If you don't live in the East Neuk, you wouldn't know that fire engines are colloquially called "Ballingry Busses" after a run-down town.
Yes, I would know. You've just told me. ;) Nowadays we can easily talk to people from all over the world and ask questions. If my novel were set in East Neuk, wouldn't you have helped me by providing these throwaway details?
 

thethinker42

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The vast majority of my books - contemporary romances - take place in or around Seattle. I spent 22 years there, so I'm familiar with it. Sometimes I don't mention the city in the book, but it's Seattle in my head. Other times, I do mention it.

I also often use Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, since I'm familiar with both of those cities as well. My first romance jumped between Los Angeles and Tofino (on the west coast of Vancouver Island).

I may write something based in Okinawa eventually, but I doubt I'll write anything out of Norfolk, Virginia, where I spent 5 years. I never felt connected to that place and, quite frankly, couldn't wait to get out. I wouldn't subject my characters to it.

I guess it's just because I feel the strongest connection to Seattle, from the culture to the geography.
 

firedrake

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I always try to set my novels in places that I know, whether it's because I've lived there or traveled. I just feel more comfortable writing about places I've experienced, because it's more than photographs; it's about how it feels on a frosty December morning, how it smells after it rains, etc. etc.

I have a long trunked novel that just ground to a halt because part of it was set somewhere I haven't been. All the googling, photographs, books, etc. just couldn't put me in the right place.

As for where I'm living at the moment...yes, I have a good idea in mind, set a few years in the future...but it might be best that I'm living elsewhere when I write it. :D
 

Samantha's_Song

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If people are really serious into research on places, anywhere in the world, then this is the site you want... I've been a member of this site since 2001 and this is where I'd turn for local information by the people who live there.

http://www.virtualtourist.com/
 

Linda Adams

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I agree they add depth and verisimilitude and flavors, all that jazz. I do, however, question if it's all necessary. If your readers are not from that town or that area (and most won't be), do they really care since they don't know one way or the other? And even if they ARE from the area, would it be so bad (without the minor details and accuracies) that they will close the book and not pick it up again?

There's an author who I will never pick up again because she did two things, one of which not researching the area (the other thing was a throwaway ending). The book was set in Washington, DC. Now I live near Washington, DC. I wasn't expecting her to describe the Cherry Blossoms, the traffic, or the monuments. But since she set the story in DC and used an element that is unique to DC--the Supreme Court--I expected her do something more than mention the name of the city. It was a setting that was supposed to be unique to the area, and it could have been set anywhere.
 

maestrowork

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That's why I said:

Besides, a lot of these details could be researched, interviewed, and studied. Never been to Paris? There are guidebooks, travel logs, and local residents to help you get things right.

To me, that author was just lazy, and it doesn't matter if she's writing about DC or the town she lives in. She's just lazy. However, do you think she should change her story to have the supreme court in her own town? Again, story first -- the problem is that she was too lazy to do the right research, not because the story was set in Washington D.C.
 
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The Lonely One

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My thoughts regarding throwaway details:

I think it depends on your writing style. And I also think plot should come first, but that throwaway details can be naturally inserted while the plot continues. You mention setting as you always would, "A great tree hugged the winding sidewalk, casting a spotty shade that made her tears sparkle in the wind as we passed beneath."

It's slightly purple...just go with it for the example :)

Let's say we're in, oh, Michigan perhaps. How about:

"A great black maple hugged the winding sidewalk, casting a spotty shade that made her tears sparkle in the wind as we passed beneath."

The sentence could be reworked a number of ways. But to me, the detail adds to the realism while not detracting from the moment.

Except for the purpleness, of course. Leave me alone. I just woke up.
 
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