So, I tend to set my stories in actual places I've been even if I don't specifically name the place or location or switch it to someplace else, but in. my mind it's still set in someplace I know. Actually, I find that I always do this. I can't imagine not knowing the place where my story takes place. It's sort of easier to have a template of an actual place in. mind even if my story takes place in outer space. I've never been to outer space, but I am well traveled so that probably helps some. Just wondering how you all approach settings. Do you base your locations on somewhere you know well? Even if you're making a location up, do you draw on details from somewhere you've been? I'm guessing the setting comes across more authentic if you've got some personal knowledge to draw on when creating the setting for your stories. What do you guys think?
I prefer writing about places I've actually known, and have done it a lot. It does lend a lot of authenticity, but like with writing about people I've known, you run the risk of trying to include too much information. I see you have the same problem I do lately, those pesky periods showing up in odd places in your text. I use an iMac, I wonder if you do as well? It's only been happening for me since I got this computer a few months ago. And I now know I'm not accidentally tapping the spacebar, it just happens sometimes, some kind of glitch I believe. Sorry for brief OT.
Can you say a little more about the risk of including too much information? I usually don't exactly name the place I'm writing about, but it's in the back of my mind. However, I set my novel in the city I'm from and I name the actual city. I guess with using an actual city by name, I'm not sure now much detail to include or not include. The "first draft" (more like a pre first draft) is done. I use actual locations such as building and parks in the story. I also have accurate distances between things and stuff like that. I was thinking I might need to include more details about the setting, but maybe not. How do you know when you've gone too far?
Sure. In my current story much of it is set in the woods, and they're just like the woods around where I live and grew up. At first I was writing rather generically about the woods, but as I went I started to get a lot more specific about certain things, like for instance a big slab of moss-covered concrete on the bank of a stream that we called The Landing. I also started going into more and more detail about what wading in a stream is like, what the rocks on the bottom look like through the water, how when a crawdad takes off underwater it makes a little puff of mud that obscures everything for a while until it settles again. That was really bringing something nice to the story, so I went deeper into it, but after a certain point it's too much detail and isn't necessary, and in fact slows things down. You want to strike a good balance between some good vivid characterisation of setting and not bogging the story down in unnecessary detail. But it's not a bad idea to start writing too much detail, it helps you find the good vivid stuff, and then you can cut out what isn't needed.
Something I want to add. Part of the reason I was able to add so much more detail is because I have a bunch of videos I shot where I took a camera out in the woods and just wandered around to various spots filming. I looked at those and was able to see things I wouldn't have rememberd just sitting here years later thinking about the woods. A lot of things. I highly recommend using visual aids like this if you can find them, or pictures you took, or look up videos or images of the places you're writing about. It can really boost your memories. That's when you can run into the problem of too much detail, but it's also when you can start to add really powerful and vivid imagery or tactile information that you can't remember clearly anymore. The memory is a very limited tool in many ways, and it fades faster than a Polaroid.
I spend a lot of time in the woods, though, none of my writing has been set in the wilderness. I go on mini hikes everyday. There are some great trails behind where I'm staying. I don't take pictures or videos. I unusually don't even take my phone with me. I often smoke a little pot and/or chain smoke cigarettes while just feeling like there is nothing or everything around me at the same time. I love the outdoors. Haven't used it as a setting, but I'm big on being out there.
I set my stuff primarily in an alternative version of my home town. It's only mundane and familiar to a few thousand people, after all, and even those who live here won't be as familiar with this version of it.
I dont think ive ever set a story in a place i've been. Even my favorite places.... I dont incorporate it into my writing. I guess one place i somewhat used (in look rather than name) was a neighborhood i was familiar with back in sicily. It was American military housing out in the middle of nowhere. Because it was a new housing community, there was only dirt and sand. No greenery. It was very VERY flat. So flat that driving to it was like driving toward the clouds (my brother and i would lay on our backs on the back seat and stare up at the clouds through the sunroof because we'd never seen clouds like those before. I used that setting in one of my post apocalyptic stories where but in the story, the neighborhood was in ruins and empty of all life. I didnt use the name, but in the story, thats the place i envisioned when writing it. My other ones... Setting come secondary and usually comes with the character. For example, one of my characters i picture as sounding like my grandmother, who is from rural North Carolina. So i looked up counties and areas in North Carolina and places where her dialect is common and narrowed down my setting (but left it vague enough to where i could take liberties)
I like using places where I've been, but sometimes a story calls for a location I am unlikely to ever visit. That's the time when I have to do some serious research. When part of a story was set in Vietnam, I tracked down my favorite Vietnam combat vet. He not pulled out the slides he took there back in the 60s, but spent a good amount of time talking about the place as well, describing what he saw and where he went. After I wrote the story, I sent it to him to check for any obvious idiocies I had included. Helped a ton. I also needed to know what the Danang runways were paved with. George didn't know that, so I found a retired Marine online who kept a website on all things Vietnam. Sent him an email with the question, he promptly emailed back with the answer. Resources are everywhere.
Too much or displaced details and description can happen whether you know the place or you're completely making it up, though. It's kind of nice to have some perfect details already there for the setting, isn't it? Going overboard with description isn't something I struggle with.
Your post apocalyptic story sounds cool. I, too, sometimes like to leave things a little vague to take liberties and that's easy enough to do if you don't specifically name the place. For me, I think if I don't have a place in mind, I forget about it and then everything just happening in a white room. Thinking about someplace I've been helps me make my characters better interact with the setting.
That's really great that you had that guy t0 learn from and then check to make sure you got it right. It probably would have been really hard to pull off in the same way without him.
Nigh unto impossible, unless I found someone else with a willingness to talk about his service. Over the years, I've listened to many, many Vietnam vets talk, and really paid attention when they did because I realized what a gift I was receiving. My dad didn't talk much about the end of WWII and the occupation of Japan, and I wish I'd written down what he did say. I thought I'd never forget, foolish me.
I make it all up in my head. I cannot think of a single piece of fiction I have written where I used an actual real life place. I enjoy creating and have quite a vivid imagination so the ‘realism’ is not a huge issue for me either … just translating it into words! Obviously we all feed off of our experiences and one of the main reasons I am keen to travel and see the world is to feed my inner mythos with different landscapes and places. When I had the chance to go quite deep into the Amazon I spent a good amount of time - during strenuous hike - soaking it all up as I needed an experience of ‘jungle’ to fill out mythical land. To do list: - Tropical Swamp. - Climb Snowy Mountain Peak. - Redwood Forest. If anyone is looking for a single trip that will give them some extreme experiences in terms of landscapes you cannot go wrong with Bolivia! Only lacks beaches.
My travels and my writing are closely linked. I plan my travels based on my writings, and I design my settings based on places that I would like to visit. Most of my settings so far have been on other worlds--one world in particular with my last three books. I like to look at real landscapes on Earth and use pieces of them to create landscapes on my worlds. When I travel, I take a lot of pictures of land formations for that reason. I recently traveled to Wales. Six months before the pandemic, I went to Alaska (lost most of those pictures, unfortunately, when my computer died later that year). Earlier this year, I returned to Vancouver to research a scene I was planning for my next project. I have to go back because I forgot to take possible natural disasters into account in my futurizing of the city. I also plan to go back to Alaska for the same project, either next year or the year after. In my current WIP, the last three chapters are set on a planet identical to Earth. In one scene, I have a character fly over an area that corresponds with Cairngorms National Park in Scotland. I haven't been there personally, so I did the best I could with Google Earth and YouTube videos. In the capital city, I took inspiration from London, specifically Trafalgar Square and St. James Park, and the BC Legislature Building in Victoria for the palace itself.
