hi i am currently doing a WIP and i have the story line etc i have also been researching towns to set the main plot of the story but the MC travels to London quite a bit as she is having treatment in a private clinic. she also travels to other countries for her career as a singer. so its set in this current time and mainly in England what i want to ask is can i create a town based in south of England? i ask this as the current towns do not have what i want my town to have so for example could i create a town in Portsmouth or on the outskirts on Portsmouth? would i need to mention its location? eg (town name) is located 1.2miles from Portsmouth etc etc x
Of course you can. It's your story, you can do anything you like. Provide enough information for the reader to identify the location, but try not to do it in an exposition-y kind of way. There's no need to write out something like "Banbury-on-Sea is 2.1 miles from Portsmouth". Instead. perhaps a character is going to meet someone in Portsmouth and tells them he'll drive and be there in 10 minutes. What is it that you need your town to have that real ones don't?
its a town that surrounds a big lake with a small island in the middle so it's more how the town is set up in my story rather what's in it lol
I read somewhere that using time and distance in stories is a no no. The reader has their own sense of time and distance in their imagination based on minimal information we give them. Generally readers much prefer to judge such things for themselves. I am not saying that this advice is right, but I did find myself wondering what the town might be called if it is only 1.2 miles from Portsmouth? Surely most people would just refer to it as Portsmouth. It may be that being so absolutely specific may lead to the reader wondering about plausibility and that is taking them away from the story. My suggestion would be: The town of bla bla bla near Portsmouth, would work just fine.
Hi I would avoid being ultra specific in distance from a real place when creating a new fictional place. Your readers will suss this straight away and you may lose credibility. Why don’t you mention that the character could travel for10/15/20/30 minutes to Portsmouth/ Southampton to do an activity, then they are aware of the approximate location and would accept that it is fictional. Seems more credible then
You can certainly invent your own town. I'd recommend basing it on a real one, much like Gotham City or Los Santos were, but change it to suit your needs. As others have said, I'd keep it vague on distances. But 1.2 miles from a city doesn't sound right for a town. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_place_theory would suggest that a town would have to be further away, though I'm far from an expert on geography theory.
As others have said, do what you like, it is your own work of fiction - your own piece of Sovereign territory in your head. I was brought up near Portsmouth, and speaking as a reader, rather than a writer, I could find it slightly off putting to be dropped into a pretend town in an area I know quite well. But people from the area your story is set in will probably make up a fairly small proportion of your readership, so I'd not lose any sleep over it (that is of course, assuming you are writing to publish). Of course, The South Coast has its own character, so I'd want some sense of character in the setting. Have you been there? Draw on your experiences. If not, get your arse down there, spend a day there and soak up the setting - oh, and bring a notepad and don't go to Fareham - it's a depressing tip which pretends to be middle class.
You can show location in multiple ways - ! The simple/ obvious of In Portsmouth I went to a cafe. The coffee was weak but expen, or so many of the shops in Portsmouth, especially on high str seamed to have a sale. - discussed in conversation when meeting someone, "see you in ten." Trisha said. "You know I'll be longer than that, it's nearer for you. Make it thirty." I told her. - in conversation specifically about location, "where's home when your not travelling?" He asked. "Portsmouth, England." "Do they still have the hovercraft?" "Not sure I actually live in Dockville, it's about ten miles west of Portsmouth. (I've had similar conversations when I've been on vacation where people want specific information about where I live) - when describing your fictional town look at what is in other towns nearby, cathedral, market place, indoor shops, old buildings or shopsriver, docks, lifeboat station (RNLI), beach and type - sandy, rocky, shingle. These features could also influence the town name. Google maps or Wikipedia are useful tools. For one of the places I made up I did a mini Wikipedia page for it (only the short summary bit) but it might help you. Remember that if using a real place then do your homework and get the facts correct. Include real buildings, events and transport connections. If I can Google to check it then so can you and you SHOULD. I find incorrect facts detract from a story. As you seam to be some artistic license with your location by making your town up then that gives a bit more flexibility to combine real facts and places with fiction.
I read an interesting story by a local self-published author who wrote a story set in Maryland int he US, but aside from Baltimore and Washington DC, created fictional counties and cities. The worse, they were recognizable as such, for example, Prince George's County. I found it off-putting as a local, though he went way beyond what you are proposing. I would recommend find a local town around Portsmouth with a lake in it, and be done. If it is small enough, very few people will notice that the real lake doesn't have an island in the middle. I don't have a problem putting references to time and distance, I do it all of the time as part of the picture of the setting, but it has to be introduced in context, and 1.2 miles is too precise. "A few miles," or as @Steven Lomax suggested, "a few minutes' drive".
