Hello. I'll get right down to it: My dilemna which is troubling me for about 3 months is: I wrote a story, which is set in an Italian city : All building are baroque/victorian buildings, and tons of action happening in the Piazza's. And in the cafès. The money is in Euro's. Now.. I'm writing about the city because I live in it. I wish to make the city American..to get more readers interested. Mine book is a pulpy fiction book. A fast read. It's not a literally author-like PROSE elaborating on the beatuy of the city. I tried to make the characters universal. When I read War and Peace, those Russian could easily ALL be Italian or American. When I read Murakami , I forget the characters are Japanese, and again, I think them Italian or American. (Cause I'm American but I live in Italy). Now: My point is: I want a SETTING that is familiar to Americans. A setting that won't set back the AVERAGE American reader. Which american city can I clone. OR do you have any Ideas how to make an Italian City, so that the average American is interested. When I was living the STATES and I was younger, I wasn't that interested in books, with NORMAL stories (love stories, or regular thirllers) set in , say, Bielruss... So.. Do you have any suggestions on what I can do? Thank ahead of time.
I would wonder if it is really needed. My guess would be that if you show the place in the right way, american audiences will be interested regardless.
Like @Mayarra, I wonder why you think American's wouldn't be interested? I love reading about other cities, countries, and cultures. It's the characters that make a story feel like it could be anyone, anywhere. I don't think you need to worry about the physical setting turning anyone off.
You say your setting is all 'baroque/victorian buildings, and tons of action happening in the Piazza's. And in the cafès.' If that's the case how can you make the city American? You've just described an Italian city that you want to be an American city. It's like saying I have a banana, but I want to make it more like an orange, how would I do that? If the story is set in Italy, then just use your own city and give your readers a little respect. If it's good enough they'll hop on board.
Thanks for your answers. Thing is: The 'city' goes in contrast with the people(it's main characters - the main characters are all American. Furthmore there are disputes between the Suburban Americans and the City Americans. (Some day, I'll write an Italian-centric book.. But this one isn't it.) In essence I want to show with satire the difference between the Burbs and the city. But all my ideas and gags come from the city I live in. In piazza's and caffès. I even dabbled with the idea of inventing a new city in the US, where I can talk about my city.
Are there not Suburbs vs City in Italy? And if they're all American, can't they be expats? That brought their culture of burbs vs city with them? I understand what you're saying, it's just that I don't think it's as big of a deal as you think it is. You're an American living in Italy, so it's not like it's really far-fetched, is it?
no. My "intended audience" are people from the suburbs - I don't want them to lose concentration on the characters and story, and get lost in a 'bucolic' scenery.. Say, If I made the city to be new york, no one would get lost in it. But the city is 'dangerous'. See the way I see it, every city - all city people- are the same.. with a margin of 20% difference that comes form the specific city. No matter if it's New York or Jerusalem. Mine want to be a satirical critique at the suburbs, BUT if the story talks about an Italian city, I might come off as a "European snob", and the suburbanites that would catch on that I'm 'making fun of them', would think it's a EUROPE vs AMERICA thingy. Which it is not. But at the same time, I wanna write about Euros and street names here, (it would be much, much easier)
With all due respect, it sounds like you want to have your cake and eat it too. Maybe just don't say Italy. Ever. Use the street names and whatever descriptions you want, and then let people figure it out for themselves. Let them assume it's Little Italy. Let them assume it's the real Italy. Let them assume you made it up. As far as it being subs vs city instead of Europe vs America - well that's entirely fixed by how you represent it. They'll see what you make them see. Will there still be people who go the other way? Sure. Those people will do it no matter what city it takes place in though. You can't win them all.
Thanks Trish. Funny what you said, it's because that's my entire problem. I wish I lived in an American City, so the description would be real-er I envied people who wrote about Detroit and are from detroit, how easy for them. That's why, I want to incorporate my city, for the easiness of writing.. funny, wirting here, I realized the problem: CITY vs Suburbs.. afraid of being understood as: Europe vs America
So set it on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri. Use real street names from your real city. Use Alphas for currency. Assume parallel development means that they're as bipedal as us, as technological as us... Just set it on no continent that we know exists. Now, here I get uncomfortable with your plan. If you're worried about part of your intended audience feeling that you're making fun of them, your satire may be sufficiently heavy-handed that they will. And if you try to be even-handed and satirise both sides, you risk antagonising both sides.
A lot of us read to experience things we've not experienced before. Feel free to leave it in Italy; wouldn't bother me a bit. More generally, the idea that there is a quintessentially "American" city, beyond the idea of a "main street" where the kids drive up and down after dark, is probably not well supported. Even in just my home state, we have several different "kinds" of city. I put that in quotes because I'm not sure how to categorize them. >.>
ok. Let me tell you about the real problem (I figured out the real problem, the more I wrote on this site, the more I put into words, the more my mind cleared) Ok. SCENERY, REAL ONE: In the southern part of the city there are Marocans, Nigerians, Senegal people, who are forced to live togheter. A lot of Muslims are cool and not criminals. But the few that their are, give a bad name to that whole neighborhood. I hear a lot "We're a good family, but the people living on top of us are freaking criminals, who'd steal from us in a second". Then their is a mixed neighborhood, which is 5 minute walks to the center. It's black heroin dealers, (arab lower caste) hash dealers, and the sicilans and the bars in the "BALON" (the mixed neighborhood) controlling everything. Now..the black are smooth and non violent (not their women...that's a whole different thing). and the street arabs are the violent knife tooting one. Now. Knowing what I just told, HOW do I put this into an American city.. where the only minorities are BLACKS, and the black in America are violent...wherease in here, their the safest people you'd meet... Their selling heroin, their happy.. the most violent person you'd meet are an Italian white gang.. or some Angry arabs. So.... What I've just said IS too European.. and my story... paradoxily isn't about HEROIN or GANGS.... but that's what I live, so, it's intricate in the story. I want to sell the story to the whole world. So, how do I go about it, without ZONING out the AMERICANS. I forget what movie, but Their was an Hollywood movie that in the European charts was number 1, in the American chart it was number 27. At the 27th place it still earned triple what it did in Europe-
All right, so the problem isn't the setting, it's how you sell it. You know, the whole steak vs. sizzle thing. That's all you have to do. I had an idea that your character might be American, which would help, but I might be confusing you with your character. What you're describing, though, is definitely more interesting to a foreigner (like me) than it is to a local. It's just a matter of finding the right way to describe it. What you are describing (the particular mix of criminal elements, that is, in particular because the mix is so heavily based on national and religious loyalties) is largely absent from the American experience, so transplanting that to an American city is probably not a good idea to begin with. If you haven't taken a look at it, please let me encourage you to read The Godfather, by Mario Puzo. It's one of the most famous movies ever made, and the novel is all about allowing ordinary Americans to step into the world of medieval and renaissance Sicily and the shadow it cast on the 19th and 20th centuries. Edit: You don't even really need to read the whole thing--just the first chapter or two--to get a sense of how Puzo makes this completely alien culture come to life. The trick, I think, is that you first need to make it alien. Like, who wants to read about Pizza Hut? First, disabuse us of the notion that we know anything, and then teach us.
I'm completely failing to see what it is you're trying to achieve. Why do you want to use the sights, culture and attributes of one country, and give it the guise of another? People are going to see right through this, and wonder why your story is set in America when it's blatantly obvious to them that it isn't America. What you're trying to do makes no sense. You're making things twice as difficult for yourself, and no one is going to understand why you've done what you've done. Just do your research and set it in America.
My advice would just be to write the story and see how the critics here react, that way you get reactins to your story from people that read your story. Preparing is good, but you want to please readers, which is not what you should worry about now.
"wonder why your story is set in America when it's blatantly obvious to them that it isn't America." -OURJUD See that's my fear. And Yet, my story , since it's not an ITALIAN affair, would not interest---unless if it's in America
archer88i : you understand the situation more than anybody. Now, it's funny you say "Have you read the godfather".. Cause that's a book I've been meaning to make the local dons to read.. And one did - A Sicilian(out of all people). Anyway, As an American I love Godfather book. But when he read it (probably the only book he read, thanks to me). He brought me down to earth "The book is good, I couldn't wait till the last chapters, and then Mario Puzo sticks in "Lucy Mancini's Pussy for 100 pages, and then he does 2 pages on the revenge, what tha' fuck man". So, it's funny, cause STILL now , if someone at the cafè sais something useless, he looks at me and sais "Just like Lucy Mancini", and we laugh. Thing is my book isn't about the mob, it's supposed to be a teen-growing up thing, but the background you can't ignore, cause it does have it's effects. But yes, you understood, what I'm trying to do, PROPS to you.
This is, it started as a coming off age book.... Then, one character , 2 characters, a caffè here, some wine there. For example, it the states it's illegal to drink wine in public..And right there there is a problem.. Honestly, I don't want to sell out my writing, but i want to SELLOUT on the burb -on the story. I want Americans (north) to identify with my characters, but how can I 'sell' the book, with an unknown Italian City. Funny, the other day, I was watching a movie "Straigh outta compton", and the one thing that struck me, was a scene when some disco people were listening to NWA sing "straight out of compton" and they are like "We can't market this, if they had been from Brooklyn , maybe. but how ever heard of Compton"
Everyone has an image of italy, a stereotypical image of italy which might not be entirely correct. Correct or not, it is an image people have. If you want people to identify with your characters/story, you could go closer to that image instead of closer to america. Have the characters order a pizza, have them drink wine wherever, because that is an image a lot of people who have never been there have.
First thing. I've read this (and every other post on this thread) and I still have no idea why you want to set it in America when your experience is Italian ("Write what you know") unless you believe that the US market is SOOOO much bigger than the Italian, and SOOOO insular that they wouldn't read about anything but home. Reminds me of Johnny Hallyday - when I was in France in the '60s I was told that he only sang in English - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Hallyday...Hallyday remains largely unknown outside of the Francophone world, thus earning the nickname "the biggest rock star you've never heard of" in English-speaking countries. 1/ Forgive my scepticism, but without the details, I find that unlikely. There are around 510 million Europeans vs around 326 million Americans. For a film in America to gross 3 times what it grossed in Europe means that an American was 20 times more likely to pay to see that film than his European counterpart (EC); or he paid 20 times as much as his EC. If you were comparing the top-grossing film. If you're comparing a top film in Europe to a middling film in US, that number of 20 goes up - way up. Also, you seem to be confusing Europe with the constituent countries. One of the reasons why Brexit negotiations are going so slowly is that there are 27 member countries who all want a say in what happens...and most of them speak a different language...paradoxically, English is the only common language for most of them, but the Brussels bureaucracy have a hatred of this, and all other things in English, so they insist on speaking French. A guy named Tony Hawks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hawks won a bet to write a second hit single by piggy-backing on the fact that Norman Wisdom was, despite his age, still a big star in Albania. Europe is big, with much bigger divisions between the constituent states than those that exist between the states of the US. A film that was big in France may well bomb in the UK, and vice-versa.
" I still have no idea why you want to set it in America w" - for Marketing reasons, the only reason. If Italy had 326 million people, There would be no questions in my mind
