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Q. Real Town or Fictitous Town?

Started by delboy, January 11, 2010, 10:22:24 AM

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Geoff_N

Unless my setting is on another world or far in the future I prefer to use a real place for several reasons. As a teacher of geography and environmental science for 3 decades I became annoyed in the 70s and 80s when it became fashionable to teach using model towns. Hence we taught about Anyport, Anytown, etc. The pupils ended up knowing about theories but nothing much about real places. Secondly, I love reading a novel and re-discover places I've been to. I can relate then to the smells and culture not easy to impart in fiction. Thirdly, it gives me a great excuse to travel on research trips :) All the places (This world) in my books, Escaping Reality, and Exit Pursued by a Bee, are real and I've had readers enjoy discovering their home or holiday places in the narrative.

Having said all that, it is also fun to create a place in our minds. On balance I will generally use real places - it goes to my core livelihood I suppose.

Geoff

delph_ambi

...and if you use real places, then people will be able to go on 'Geoff Nelder' literary tours. They can't do that if you use made up places.  :azn:

Geoff_N

Quote from: delph_ambi on January 23, 2010, 05:56:45 AM
...and if you use real places, then people will be able to go on 'Geoff Nelder' literary tours. They can't do that if you use made up places.  :azn:
Funny you should say that, Cathy. On my Escaping Reality support page is a map showing the route my protagonist took as a fugitive in winter across the Northumberland moors to the Lake District. I did the journey myself to pick up the vibes, smells, problems, etc and they Show in the narrative. here it is
http://www.geoffnelder.com/ERsupport.htm
A woman living in Canonbie, on the route, made me a Facebook friend because she felt my description including the convenience store in the shop was so realistic though she didn't think there was a drinks machine there. Next time she went there it way - ha. She said my depiction of the shopkeeper was on the nose. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd not actually been in the shop!

Geoff

delph_ambi

Well there you go! Truth is stranger than fiction...  :grin:

delboy

I'm still undecided on this one. I keep trying to come up with a good name for a city, and a location that could be real yet where there isn't a town already. At the moment I'm really struggling. It's not holding back the story - I'm just ploughing on and simply not mentioning the city name. Later, when I have some scenes set in a small village it's not a problem. I can drop a fictitous village into a hundred places round here. But a city... I find it rather odd that I'm struggling with this so much.

Derek
"If you want to write, write it. That's the first rule. And send it in, and send it in to someone who can publish it or get it published. Don't send it to me. Don't show it to your spouse, or your significant other, or your parents, or somebody. They're not going to publish it."

Robert B. Parker

delph_ambi

It's a pity you can't use the old Victorian method of using a capital letter followed by a long dash for anonymous city names.

Rev. Austin

I sometimes use a corrupted name of a village or town that exists in the area where my fictional village or town exists, if that helps?  Then you can put it where the real one is.  Although, if we're being picky, this then means the story exists in an alternate reality to this one, even if nothing happens to suggest it's NOT this reality.  Arrrghhhh my head
facebook.com/waynegoodchildishaunted
Stay in touch! I don't mean that in a pervy way.