Real World with Fictional Locations

Discussion in 'Setting Development' started by Pink-Angel-1992, Jul 18, 2012.

  1. fwc577

    fwc577 New Member

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    Location:
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    Just make it vague. Splash in a little culture from the general area you want it.

    The story I'm working on I wanted it set in a fictional town in Wisconsin. I settled on the name Lakewood Bluffs (That gives a nice description of the surrounding area lol). Give it a few features. I live in Wisconsin so I know how weather can get here (We can have snow one day and wear shorts the next. It's nuts). Then give the town a few distinguishing features.

    In the case of my town I wanted the lake to be sort of a prominent location. I also wanted caves spread through the woods. I wanted the bluffs to overlook one side of the Lake. At the center of the lake I wanted a distinguishing feature, basically a cave entrance submersed about an inch below the surface of the water. I took all these ideas from various geographic stuff around Wisconsin.

    We have many caves throughout parts of Wisconsin. We have a few areas with Bluffs through Wisconsin (very few that overlook a body of water though). The lake is called "Spirit Lake" and in Wisconsin we have a place called "Devil's Lake" that has an Indian name that translates to "Spirit Lake" so I'm using that Indian name translation. As for the submerged cave entrance in the middle of the lake that feature is nicknamed the "Spirit Well" and I say that's where the Indian's believed spirits live. The idea for it came from a lake near where I used to live in Upper Wisconsin that we had a lake that out in the middle of it was a giant rock that you could stand on that gave you about a 1-foot platform and it looked as though you were standing on water. I thought, wouldn't it be cool if there were several of those and they formed a circle and at the bottom was an inlet that links to the rest of the caves in the area?

    Just pick and choose features you like around the area you want to set your fictional town in and go for it!
     
  2. dudemitch

    dudemitch New Member

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    My current writing takes place in the real world (although not with any supernatural/paranormal element.) The town where the majority of the action takes place is a fictional town in central Illinois that is based heavily on several real towns in that region. The characters do mention several real towns and cities from time to time, mostly bigger ones like Chicago, Joliet, and Kankakee that help give the reader familiar with Illinois an idea of where the story is taking place and also make it seem like a real place.
     

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