Currently, one of the stories I'm writing takes place in a fictional city called Doveport, Maine, a rural city set against the south-eastern coast of Maine. I began writing it before I was actually aware writing about fictional cities in real locations was acceptable? Would it appeal to the reader's suspension of disbelief, or would a geography nut find it a reason to fault my writing?
Answers will depend on how much the reader really knows about the actual area, and how much the reader actually cares about your fictionalizing of locales. Example: In Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, events take place in an undisclosed area that one quickly figures out is the South East coast of the U.S. Somewhere South Georgia to Central Florida...-ish. I know this region very well. He describes most of the story taking place in a location that is very much the right kind of landscape for this coastal area, but with a big splash of New England thrown in for flavor. He also takes us up the coast a short distance at one point in the story and we're suddenly in an area that's nothing like what I know that coast to look like and much more reminiscent of the Pacific North West. Again - and I repeat - I know the area very, very, very well. In the end, this geographical and topological mismatching didn't really matter at all to me. I was so engrossed in the story of the people in these books that the inconsistencies with what I know to be true about the South East Coast were only mild eyebrow-raisers.
The vast majority of my stories take place in fictional suburbs of Philadelphia. I live in a non-fictional suburb of Philadelphia, so it's real easy for me to match the fictional setting to the real ones around me. In my mind, it allows me a sense of worldbuilding, even in a slice-of-life story that takes place in the real world. That said, if I were setting my story in upstate New York, I'd do a ton of research on it--whether I'm setting the story in Ithaca or New Fictiontown. There's definitely nothing wrong with creating fictional towns surrounded by real places. I see it done in stories all the time. But you still have to make it feel real and integrated into its surroundings. Obviously no one knows what East Willowbrook, Pennsylvania is like since it doesn't exist. But there are plenty of people familiar enough with Drexel Hill, Springfield, Havertown, Media, Brookhaven, West Chester, Radnor, Strathaven, etc etc etc that if I say East Willowbrook is among them, they'll know if I'm getting it wrong.
I came here to say the same thing. Stephen King built an entire career on fictional settings. It gives you so much more control, and limits the risk of alienating potential readers.
I think fictional settings are great, but I find it useful to pick a "model" community to use as reference. Like, the town in the book I'm currently writing is based on Ellenville, NY. So if I want to know if it would be realistic for my fictional town to be big enough to have, say, its own police force, but small enough to not have a car rental place, I can check on good 'ol Ellenville and see. I can use a really similar location, too, so I can refer to being two hours from the city, or the nearest Walmart being one town over, or making the drive up to Montreal for the long weekend or otherwise keep things fairly consistent. I guess if someone was really playing detective they might be able to figure out what my model town was, but... that'd be fine. I can still blur lines when I want to and populate my imaginary town with its own businesses and personalities.
This feels a lot like what Neil Gaiman did with "Lakeside" Wisconson in American Gods. There's a real Lakeside, but it's not located where he says. But it is pretty darned close, geographically. I would assume this lets him know the general topography and weather, of which much mention is made in the book, using a real town as reference, but fictionalizing it for his storytelling needs.
That was the first thing I thought of. King's towns of Castle Rock and Derry are fictional but modeled after real towns in Maine. Derry, for example, uses plenty of landmarks from King's hometown of Bangor. Interestingly enough, he sprinkles all of his works with real towns in Maine and New Hampshire. Doctor Sleep actually takes place in the town where I live now, though he calls it something different and mentions the real name of my town in the book as if it were a separate place. There's some debate as to its actual location, but I'm convinced. I was even showing the librarian passages that indicated landmarks right out the library windows. This method works great for the New England north country where every town is similar and the mountains and forests are pretty much ubiquitous once you wander away from the coast. A city is a bit trickier because you have a lot more people living there to scrutinize your choices. You wouldn't want to make up a neighborhood in NYC for example, or even a fake street in some cases because you'd have a lot of dismissive New Yorkers up in arms (not to mention all the publishers and agencies on Park Avenue and Broadway).
Lovecraft did it. King did it. I'd say there's no problem with using fictional cities/towns set in what's supposed to be the real world. However, it's probably easier on suspension of disbelief small towns or the like rather than metropolises. And you might want to make sure there are no real places near your fictional ones with similar names, just to prevent confusion.
Yeah, this is done all the time to allow authors to build small towns how they want them, although you should still know a bit about the general area you're writing about if you're going to locate it. For instance, you should probably be able to tell me roughly where in New York Doveport is. For instance, it would make a world of cultural difference whether it's a little North of Westchester (part of peripheral NYC) or way off in Western New York State - just on the surface that makes little differences that can be very visible, like whether all the townfolk root for the New York Giants or the Buffalo Bills in football.
Who else are they going to root for? Nobody in the neighborhood except for maybe the Vikings. Packers are primordial too. Lots of fans everywhere from the Bart Starr/Vince Lombardi days. Go Patriots!!!!
I know all about primordial Packer fans - I live in the Milwaukee area! It is quite difficult being someone who has no interest in football (or any other sport really) here.
Good grief, American football teams have weird names. British football (soccer to you) teams just use the name of their place of origin - Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle, etc. What I actually came here to say is that I actually find it better to set things in fictional places. I've yet to decide where one book is set, but the other is set in a fictional village in a real county, which I know well. I could point to where the village is on a map. It's good because you can just make stuff up without having to check things all the time. ("Can you see the church from the village green?", and similar.) My answer to all questions that begin with "Is it OK to...": it's your book, go for it!
I've found when writers are confused about this, it helps when you say the area and not the state. Also, if you say the town or city and describe that it's a few miles from so and so. I have created fictional places near more, known place, as well as left out the state. I have also used real places with fictional neighborhoods. I hope this helps.
1/ And, in the case of duplication, some qualifier, e.g. Bristol Rovers, Bristol City; Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday 2/ But many have nicknames: West Bromwich Albion = The Baggies or The Throstles Crystal Palace = The Eagles Newcastle United = The Magpies Hereford United = The Bulls Tottenham Hotspur = The Spurs (Bit obvious, that one!) Wolverhampton Wanderers = The Wolves (Again, a bit obvious) Walsall Town = The Saddlers Leicester City = The Foxes Manchester United = The Red Devils (although I think that one is PR, rather than a name that was coined by the fans) Bolton Wanderers = The Trotters Cardiff City = The Bluebirds (Despite the attempts of their Malaysian owner to rebrand them as The Dragons)
