Use Real Town Names?

You can definately use town and city names, but in my opinion I don't like using them. It makes you kinda have to follow the rules and layout of the city/town to make it more believable and it just kills me.

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I'm doing it with my WIP, and find it liberating. I don't have to create the whole town. When I need my characters to go to a place, it's right there for them. And if I need a place that's not in the town, I can create one that could be there, and know which neighborhood I should put it in.

Fictional books typically portray a subjective view over whatever it is they're describing. I'd say, yes you can use a real place and you can also lie about it. How much you piss people off is a function of how popular you are. The more popular you are the more people will bend over backwards to be offended. It's just the way the world works. If I were you I'd focus on making the story good, and worry about who you'll offend once it's finished. I'd say chances are pretty good, that by that time, you won't care.

Word Jedi said:

and they unleash a gateway to hell by mistake.

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I hate when I do that.

I struggle with this question myself. If I set my novel in a real town, there are going to be readers out there who will catch any inconsistencies I have and that worries me. I hate when I lose suspension of disbelief when an author gets something wrong that I know about and so I don't want to do that to my readers.

I hate when I lose suspension of disbelief when an author gets something wrong that I know about and so I don't want to do that to my readers.

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It's got to be a place you know really well. Getting the facts wrong will ruin the story for anyone who knows the place. (For instance, in my WIP one of my characters eats breakfast in a diner that, I remembered later, closed several years ago. I'll have to fix that in the next draft.)

The beauty of getting it right hit me a while ago when reading a John D. McDonald novel. (I was on a JDM kick and reading every book of his I could get my hands on. It's an obsession I'd recommend to anyone – that man could write.) In once scene Travis McGee and his sidekick go to Utica. They stay at a Howard Johnson's outside of town, decide they want to eat in the city, open up a phone book and say "looks like Italian," pick a restaurant, go there and comment on the weird paint job of the housing project across the street.

Then they continue their adventure by visiting another town a half hour away from Utica. That town doesn't really exist, but could.

His story takes place in the sixties. Today that Howard Johnson's is boarded up, but it's there, exactly where he said it was. I've had dinner at the restaurant he mentioned, and the housing project across the street still suffers from the weird paint job. And yes, Utica has a strong Italian influence.

Not only was I impressed by the accuracy of his descriptions, but when he wrote about places I've never been, the memory of his descriptions of Utica made those descriptions ring true.

DrZoidberg said:

Fictional books typically portray a subjective view over whatever it is they're describing. I'd say, yes you can use a real place and you can also lie about it. How much you piss people off is a function of how popular you are. The more popular you are the more people will bend over backwards to be offended. It's just the way the world works. If I were you I'd focus on making the story good, and worry about who you'll offend once it's finished. I'd say chances are pretty good, that by that time, you won't care.

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Why lie about it when you can get it right with only a little research? I don't care if the writer is popular or not, shoddy research always makes me wonder whether the wirter has anything right, and I lose faith in everything he has to say.

Jamesaritchie said:

Why lie about it when you can get it right with only a little research? I don't care if the writer is popular or not, shoddy research always makes me wonder whether the wirter has anything right, and I lose faith in everything he has to say.

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Indeed. But I think there's a limit to research. What about when you can't?

How about official or popular accounts of something, or when the historical accounts are incomplete? Every popular founding story of every country, nation, town, city, company is barely true. It's all, in the name of pride and propaganda a grossly simplified and polished story. The truth is forever gone in history. We can either stick to the official account... or simply invent a more believable one! If it will annoy the locals, I think is of a minor concern. This is pretty much standard procedure when writing historical fiction. There's only so much research that is possible.

And then there's the stuff that don't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Stuff like where a park bench is. Or if that type of bird is still around that town that time of year. Menu items in a café. If it helps the story, why not?

I've so far I've put my stories in fictional cities and countries. But even so, I do meticulous research so it follows "reality" and real locations, down to the tiniest detail. But that's not because I have to (because my setting is officially fictional), it's because the end result tends to be better.

My point is, that I think the rule is... whatever works works. Don't feel constricted by one format or rule, if another works better.

I've read books that are set in real places, but create a new town name. As a reader, it was fun for me to try and guess the areas the author was describing. She used the name of a fort that was once located in the area.

Having said that though, I created a fictional town for the book I'm writing now to avoid any issues down the line.

Les Roberts has a series set in Cleveland, and if anyone objects that there isn't a drugstore on such and such a corner, he says, "It's my book, and in my book, there is." Period.

I made up a fictional town surrounded by real ones, because I thought it was effective in The Stand--Arnette, Texas and Shoyo, AR are fictional but surrounded by Boulder, Vegas, and Ogunquit.

Word Jedi said:

Is there a rule of thumb on this?
Is it okay to use the real names of cities and towns?
I have found the perfect setting here in Northern New Jersey for my novel, or at least part of my novel, and was wondering if I can use the real town name(s).

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In early versions of my "Magnificent Octopus," I did use an alternative name, kind of an alter-ego of the town. A long time was spent agonised over the same thing, and Lost World's comment about real events and people was a major headache. In the end, I decided to tough it out and go ahead. A company I named even approved an early draft because it didn't portray them in a negative way. Any people I've used for inspiration aren't named, so there's no direct link to them. And local history was pillaged mercilessly, much to the interest of a published historical writer.
No doubt if it gets any further than my hard drive, I'll take advice from whoever's steering the boat.

Les Roberts has a series set in Cleveland, and if anyone objects that there isn't a drugstore on such and such a corner, he says, "It's my book, and in my book, there is." Period.

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As long as there could be a drugstore on that corner, that's fine.

My WIP is set in Saratoga NY, and most scenes happen in real places. But there are two places that don't exist – an upscale bar where one MC works as a barmaid, and a dive bar the other MC visits several times. The upscale place isn't all that important, but the characters name is a common one, and I don't want anyone to say "Hey, My name is Julie, and I once worked at {real place}, so that's me!" The dive bar is fictitious because it's full of nasty people doing nasty things.

But. . . both places are set in locations where they could exist, where you'll find similar real places. If I were to switch locations they'd both be horribly out of place.

In doing research for a recent story, I found the perfect little town for my story. I was so excited, I dashed off an email to the mayor and chief of police, asking them if they would mind being in my story. They never wrote back. So I moved their city to another state, gave everyone a different name and used it anyway.

If I end up doing anything on my newest opus (born of frustration, as James once said), I'll be combining the sounds of a few towns around these areas.

The initial ideas in this were inspired by living with frustrating in-laws in Outer Mongolia, Alberta, where everything is named something from the Cree language.

In an effort to mollify possibly offended relatives and acquaintances from the town we're living near now, I could theoretically come up with an amalgam of syllables from names like Kapasiwin, Wetaskiwin, Wabamun, Nisku, Ponoka, etc and keep the peace.