I am starting work on a novel. I am wanting to write a spin off on a theme that has been done many times before I believe. A boy starts college, and the college is home to a secret fraternity that does (evil?) mystical things. Right now, I am using my hometown as the inspiration for my setting. I have called the University Kentucky Lake University, and the university is located on an island in the lake and students are ferried back and forth from there on a ferry. I feel this is a fun approach that could give me a lot of opportunities for creative writing. Is it Okay for me to create a fictional town that Kentucky Lake is located at instead of using the actual town name? IF my book were to be successful, I don't think the townspeople would be appreciative of me using their town. I figure the lake is okay because it's a Lake. and the Island and the school are total works of fiction. Even though there are islands in the lake. Any advice on how to approach this? Should I just change the names to totally fictional places? Thanks for any help. I am total beginner. I was just going to try to write chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 all in order until I read one of the articles on this site. FrigidWriter
Personally, I would use made-up, fictional names because it allows you to make up all sorts of things. It is not as confining.
Another element I forgot to include that is critical to my story is Kentucky Lake is a manmade lake and there is actually a submerged city underneath it where everyone had to move out of when they made the lake. I was wanting to use this old submerged city as an additional setting. I guess I could just rename it all and use the same story as happened in reality though. FrigidWriter
I am going to go ahead and take your advice. I will still use the real setting of Kentucky. But I will make the town and all its locations fictional. I have come up with Bluegrass Lake University on an island in Bluegrass Lake and the small town of Ridgewood, Kentucky. I'll just use my hometown as inspiration.
I use this technique as referencing real-life locations gives the story a sense of realism, but at the same time, if you don't know the place that well it can lead up to alienating those who know it better than you.
I think it's fine. It happens a lot. Lovecraft, for instance, mixed his Arkham, Miskatonic University, Innsmouth, etc with real locations around New England and it works. More recently there was the TV crime series Mare of Easttown, set in Delaware County, Pennsylvania but in a fictional town. It felt pretty authentically DelCo to me as someone who has lived/ worked in that area a while.
Yep, you have the right idea. Just look to Stephen King's fictional towns: Derry, Castle Rock and Jerusalem's Lot. Good luck!
