Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Real and Imaginary Settings

Setting development is nearly as important to me as character development. I love adding the nuances of a place—the smells and sights, the overall feel. Even if my reader has never been to the specific place or one like it, I want to evoke a familiar feeling or memory they can draw on. It doesn’t matter to me if they see it exactly the way I do, but I want their own interpretation to be vivid.

My stories are set in the ‘real’ world and I make use of actual places, but also the stereotypical—based on real places. Sometimes I use a combination. I usually draw from places I have personally been. For instance, I set Portrait of a Girl RUNNING in an actual place on Long Island—I used my hometown because I could write about it believably. Problem is, my hometown happens to be Amityville. Will anyone be able to use that village in a work of fiction after the debacle Amityville Horror? Alas, I renamed it, Millville. Probably just as well. Yet in the sequel, Portrait of a Protégé, I use real places in New Hampshire’s Sunapee Lakes Region. However, in Story for a Shipwright, I use a composite of stereotypical coastal villages that easily conjure a sense of place in the mind of anyone even remotely acquainted with Maine—I call the fictitious place Wesleyville, named for the protagonist's family.

I think probably the important thing in choosing a name for a fictitious town in an otherwise real setting is to be sure no actual town by that name exists. What other considerations do you give to naming a place?

I wonder how many of you set your stories in places where you grew up—and even for those who write fantasy, do the places you fabricate originate in some place you’ve been in real life? When you’re reading, how much detail is necessary for you to visualize the setting?

17 comments:

  1. yes, they are the only things (places) that I know, it seems..but i like to travel (read),,,

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  2. I have been using combinations of places I know, with fabricated details included. Detail in setting is important, though sometimes I find myself overdoing it. I try to leave a good general picture...but want the reader to come up with their own images by adding their own details.

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  3. Glenn, From what I've read of your settings, you do indeed know the places well--you not only show it in details, but in the entire tone of your stories!

    Liza, I also tend to overdo detail, especially in the beginning of a story, when I'm trying to get myself grounded. I often go back and pull some of the details out of heavily descriptive areas and reseed it later on. Really, as you mention, a 'good general picture' is sufficient!

    Don't you think it would be interesting to 'see' the actual image we conjure in the mind of our reader, compared to what we 'see' when we're writing it?

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  4. I think it's a real strength of your writing, JB. Though I've never set foot in the northeast, I got a good strong sense of it in reading SOS.

    The amount of description that's appropriate depends on the audience you're writing for ... with SOS being of a literary style, you expect more in the way of description and setting.

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  5. Thanks, PJ! I'm glad you found my setting descriptions effective. Even though you haven't been to the Northeast, likely you've seen movies or photographs of the place, and I hoped to draw on those images, without getting too detail-laden.

    Even though I love description, when I read, especially if I'm familiar with a region, that's the first thing I tend to skim...I hope that's not a double standard, lol!

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  6. In my contemporary books, I use Rhode Island as my setting, always, with the real towns, streets, landmarks. I once read a book with RI as setting and the author used some real landmarks but fictitious towns and it drove me nuts.

    For my historicals, I always use real landmarks, and of course, real events in history, and I do have an actual map of London circa 1817, but I take artistic license in creating houses and castles and where they actually are.

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  7. Hehehe, Anne, I’ve noticed that when I read your drafts, MS Word always highlights your ‘places’ and wants to add them to my address book! That gives your contemporary plots a jolt of reality. I think that perhaps with Historical fiction, you can get away with taking liberties—who’s to say a place didn’t exist, but no longer does?

    When I interject a made-up house in an otherwise real place, I’m vague enough about its location that it shouldn’t be bothersome to a reader.

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  8. My first book took place in space, and sadly I've never lived on a spaceship. The second book takes place on a planet and I used a place from my childhood for the setting and climate.

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  9. I read a lot of 19th century English literature in my youth, along with such American writers as Poe and Lovecraft. Some of that colors my work, of course, since you paint from the pallet of your mind.

    One trouble I had with the overly descriptive older works was that they did not leave the imagination free to create the environment of the story as it was told. The mental lurch when a description overwrote what my mind was creating was disturbing to me.

    Consequently, I strive to use suggestion more than description to guide the reader's mind in painting their own version of the story I am narrating. The theater of the mind is powerful, and does not need to be pushed.

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  10. Alex, I always wonder about where sci-fi writers get their settings. I suppose the outer space stuff has to come from what astronomical photos you’ve seen—or movies. In a way, your options for combining terrains and climates for a planet are limitless! I would also imagine that it requires a whole lot more description to build your worlds and orient your readers.


    Michael, I love your painting metaphors! I absolutely relate to the “mental lurch when a description overwrote what my mind was creating was disturbing to me.” That’s the exact problem I have with heavy description. I agree that suggestion is often more powerful. The trick is knowing when we’ve pulled it off, and I guess that’s why we have beta-readers!

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  11. My stories take place in Northen Minnesota. I live in Canada.

    I bet you do a great job with details, considering you're a painter.

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  12. Stina, I imagine northern Minnesota is similar to some parts of Canada...and yes, being a painter I do like details. I also like to use words like cerulean and gamboge! I suppose that might be a little gratuitous :)

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  13. i find my imagination is often limited by my experiences, and i do sort of what you do: use real places with fudged names. i have been to sunapee lake in nh, and the places in maine, these are magical places you know.

    i'm currently working on a non-fiction narrative and i'm nailing down my scenes, which are challenging to say the least!:)

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  14. I find it easy to base it on places I know because I can easily write about it and hence bring it alive for the reader... but in saying that the internet is a wealth of knowledge for setting our worlds in different places.... Great post. First time visitor and now a follower:)

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  15. Ed, Thanks for stopping by! Yes, in many ways, New England is a magical place and easily put to words—the trick is resisting the urge to describe every nuance!

    Best wishes to you on your WIP—from reading your blog, I think you will very successfully nail down your scenes, and in a very unique way—perhaps with lots of room for interpretation! :)


    Tania, Hi, glad to have you on my sidebar! :) When I wrote my first novel, I had no computer, let alone internet. Research on places—even places I was familiar with—was arduous. Now, Google Maps is one of my favorite tools! So much information at our fingertips—leaves more time for the writing! :)

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  16. Every single scene in my current novel takes place somewhere I have never been. I only hope my brain has siphoned enough details from television, movies, Wikipedia, and Google Street View to make things believable... or, failing that, that I can adjust the writing style enough so readers don't care about believability. Either way, like you the goal is for the experience to be vivid.

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  17. Nate, Your big imagination combined with tools (internet or otherwise)--well, I don't know if I should be impressed or frightened, lol. I can't wait to read a bit of your novel to see what you come up with.

    Google Maps Street view is awesome! I just recently took a stroll up Beacon Hill and onto Louisburg Square--almost as good as being there except I couldn't make out what sort of trees are actually in the square (which is not so much square as it is rectangular and oblong!).

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