I need tips on setting the action somewhere I've never been

Lazy bum way:
1. Invent big city
2. Choose where it is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_...ensus_Bureau-designated_regions_and_divisions
3. Choose similar real city and find TV shows and books taking place there. This also helps with descriptions of streets, buildings, people, atmosphere.
4. Use elements from real city to make invented city real, but also add special character to invented city.
5. While working be constantly seeped in the spoken word from this region (serial, film) in order to convey the speaking patterns with conviction.
6. Making the setting vivid can happen through two ways: a) lots and lots of external details; b) lots of strong internal reactions to not a lot of external details.
The second approach is more probably more effective in your case. Good example--any novel by Tom Wolfe. He allegedly writes about specific places in the US in every novel, but when you analyze the prose it's always about people's reactions to them. More commercial version of same--Ed McBain. No external details whatsoever, but with incredible conviction--Mario Puzo. Generic city descriptions which work more or less everywhere--James Patterson Alex Cross or Murder Club, depending on region you want.

Additional ways to make your life easier research-wise:
7. The city is in the near future.
8. The city is in an alternative now.

Ed McBain's 87 Precinct novels come to mind. They are set in a city reminiscent of New York and it's borough Manhattan. IIRC he always refers to it as the City. You could do the same, or you might could pick the brains of someone who lives in whatever city you choose.

shayla.mist said:

Long story short, I live in a small town in Europe. I want to set my series in the US, somewhere in a big urban setting with lots of crime and a considerable police force. Any tips on where to start researching and how to make the settings vivid?

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First of all, why? You could set it in a big city in Europe. They have crime, too. It might be easier for you to imagine, and you could even visit.

If you insist, though, Google street view is a nice tool. You can also start with free online travel guides like Wikivoyage and Wikitravel. Ultimately you might like to buy a travel guidebook or find one at the library. Read it cover-to-cover. Not only do they contain maps and information about getting around the city, but they also have tips on how to do everyday things like what to do in a medical emergency or how to get a mobile phone.

shayla.mist said:

Long story short, I live in a small town in Europe. I want to set my series in the US, somewhere in a big urban setting with lots of crime and a considerable police force. Any tips on where to start researching and how to make the settings vivid?

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Do a lot of research. If you can't visit, at least do a lot of reading about it. Study photos. Watch documentaries. Read other stories set there written by authors who know the terrain.

Pretty much what the others have said... with an added reminder that US cities, like European cities, are not monolithic, interchangeable entities. If you're using a real city as a setting, do as much research as you can to understand not only the city, but the perspectives of your characters in that city. (A wealthy Manhattanite, for instance, will likely have a vastly different experience in NYC than a lower-income worker in a crumbling brownstone.) If you're making up a city - which will give you more latitude when coming up with a city layout and culture and history - decide where it is geographically (more or less) and do research on that. The Midwest is not the same, geographically or culturally or economically, as New England or the Deep South or other regions.

Good luck!

A couple of small ideas:

-Listen to online news/talk radio from the city you've chosen. While I was writing a character from Belfast, a place I've never been, I had BBC's Radio Ulster on in the background all the time. This made getting into the character's voice so much easier. (I think. I never got as far as having a beta reader tell me if I succeeded, lol.)

-In October and November, go to the Nanowrimo Reference Desk and ask for information about your chosen city. You will get truckloads of responses. I mean, it's the same concept as AW's story research board, but with way more people.

Just to add, Seattle is not terribly large and is not known for its crime, but my god do the people who live here love to talk about it. If you ask what it's like in Seattle, people will not shut up. Might make for easy research.

Why not set the story where you live, or the nearest big city to where you live? There are about a million stories set in America and it would be really nice to read a story set somewhere else. Don't feel that you have to write about America for your story to be interesting. A story set somewhere else by someone who actually lives there (or near there).

I'm British and my story that's set in the near future is set in London. I'm from London but I've lived in a few other places so they're all possibilities for setting stories in. You don't need to have lived there, just be familiar with it. It's not impossible to write a story set in a place that you've never been to, you just need to do a crap ton of research. My point really is that you shouldn't underestimate the potential interest in stories set in places that you do know.

ETA: there's nothing wrong with setting a story somewhere that you've never been to if that's what you really, truly want to do - just do all the research. You can set it where you like, I just said the above in case you thought that your home town/nearby places you know won't interest anyone... they will.

You know of any good books, movies, TV shows that take place in the kind of setting you're trying to build? That's a good place to start. You also might look up some art online to get a good visual, type in urban city or something of the like. You can probably find a few documentaries on gang life that sort of thing that would take place in the kind of setting you're looking for as well.

Setting something in a place you've not really been is really tough. I've seen errors like having the people in a city dressed in big winter boots, anoraks, hats, etc., etc., as if they were in the arctic, with talk about people rushing to get inside, etc., in 29 degreesF (like -1C). That was written by someone in a different city, who grew up in a warm climate, who just assumed that was very, very cold.

Also stuff like someone in NYC sending the teenager out on an errand and having the teenager take one of the family cars to go to the market, people taking the wrong trains, moving between neighbourhoods in impossible ways, etc.

Some people don't feel that kind of error is a big deal, as only people really familiar with a particular place will notice it's wrong. I'm someone driven to distraction and totally taken out of the story by errors like that.

As for how to avoid them, be vague, and get stuff checked over and over by natives? Or set it in a made-up city and avoid the issues of having someone take the 8 train to Times Square (not a thing).

I use google maps and watch videos of the city. If there is a book that used the city I'll read it to get an idea about how they write the scene. I also don't go that detailed in city settings. I give it just enough to let them know what it looks like and I leave parts of it up to the readers imagination.

I would look into the US prohibition period.

And I'd familiarize myself with Chicago and the 1920's.