Fictional Real-World Locations
Posted: Thu Apr 19, 2018 10:07 am
I'm writing what is shaping up to be a fairly lengthy epic of a story that I hope to be able to make into a VN. I have a lot of the story elements, such as the characters, main plotline, and setting. I want to talk a little bit about the last one there, and hopefully get a few questions answered regarding it.
First of all, It's set in the real world, in modern-day or near-future Washington State. The first issue is that I've never actually lived there, I'm actually from the Midwest. But hopefully with some research and appropriate vaguery this won't be a problem. The larger issue with this is that it's limiting in how specific I can be in terms of setting. Some more context: It takes place at a university not far from the western coastline, with park trails leading out to the coast on the western side. My investigations have led me to conclude that there really isn't a place in the state of Washington that is really like this, which is fine, since I can just make it a fictional location. But the first concern here is that people familiar with the area, even vaguely, would be able to tell that I clearly don't know what I'm talking about in terms of geography. I can't easily imagine the same about something set where I live, since the geography in the American Midwest is not difficult to get right. How much does geographical accuracy matter in a story with a fictional real-world setting? Even if there aren't any references to specific locations (other than the state), is it an issue when there's an obvious disconnect with reality, or can suspension of disbelief smooth things over as long as it doesn't really matter exactly where it takes place?
A second, less involved question: Place names? I haven't named any of the locations, referring to them generically (university, park, city). Should I consider inventing names for these? I'd like to connect the story even further to reality by using real-world locations the way the Science Adventure games do, but I'm fairly certain that's not really an option. Does having a fake name for the fake city and school serve a similar purpose to using a real location, i.e. giving a sense of realism and connection to the story, or is it mostly just fluff, since it's not really important to the story? My instinct says that having named locations would help cement the setting more firmly and make it feel more "real" to the reader, but coming up with names after the fact wouldn't really do much to accomplish that, since they wouldn't have that identity when writing it. If I write the whole story, then come up with names like "Wilson Cape", "Strand-Kent University", or "the city of Poole", it's just a facelift, and it wouldn't make them seem any more real than if I called everything "Buttfart". Maybe this is just me overthinking things, but I'm a bit curious as to what other people think of this.
Anything other discussion relating to inventing a fictional location for a real-world setting is also welcome.
First of all, It's set in the real world, in modern-day or near-future Washington State. The first issue is that I've never actually lived there, I'm actually from the Midwest. But hopefully with some research and appropriate vaguery this won't be a problem. The larger issue with this is that it's limiting in how specific I can be in terms of setting. Some more context: It takes place at a university not far from the western coastline, with park trails leading out to the coast on the western side. My investigations have led me to conclude that there really isn't a place in the state of Washington that is really like this, which is fine, since I can just make it a fictional location. But the first concern here is that people familiar with the area, even vaguely, would be able to tell that I clearly don't know what I'm talking about in terms of geography. I can't easily imagine the same about something set where I live, since the geography in the American Midwest is not difficult to get right. How much does geographical accuracy matter in a story with a fictional real-world setting? Even if there aren't any references to specific locations (other than the state), is it an issue when there's an obvious disconnect with reality, or can suspension of disbelief smooth things over as long as it doesn't really matter exactly where it takes place?
A second, less involved question: Place names? I haven't named any of the locations, referring to them generically (university, park, city). Should I consider inventing names for these? I'd like to connect the story even further to reality by using real-world locations the way the Science Adventure games do, but I'm fairly certain that's not really an option. Does having a fake name for the fake city and school serve a similar purpose to using a real location, i.e. giving a sense of realism and connection to the story, or is it mostly just fluff, since it's not really important to the story? My instinct says that having named locations would help cement the setting more firmly and make it feel more "real" to the reader, but coming up with names after the fact wouldn't really do much to accomplish that, since they wouldn't have that identity when writing it. If I write the whole story, then come up with names like "Wilson Cape", "Strand-Kent University", or "the city of Poole", it's just a facelift, and it wouldn't make them seem any more real than if I called everything "Buttfart". Maybe this is just me overthinking things, but I'm a bit curious as to what other people think of this.
Anything other discussion relating to inventing a fictional location for a real-world setting is also welcome.