Hello! I’m just starting out writing a short contemporary sweet romance and I was wondering if I can reference my hometown which I know very well but give it a different name. Descriptions of businesses, houses, and other local places would be pretty much exactly how they are in the town that I live in. Would that be OK or should I create a totally fictional town?
You can change the name if you want, but you don't have to. My novel is set in a city and its nearby towns that I am familiar with. I name the towns.
I'm of mixed mind on this one. If you know the town well you won't make the kinds of mistakes a newcomer might make, or somebody who just saw photos on Google and thought it was a pretty place. I reckon you can not only get away with keeping the real name of the town, but it will lend authenticity to your story. However, you'll need to make it extremely clear—probably in a short author's note—that all your characters are fictional. Make DANG sure the characters not only all have fictional names, but are NOT identifiable by their personalities, relationships, or addresses either.
My two novels happen in a nearby village. I've changed the name slightly, but people from around here would recognize it for sure. I just read a novel by an author from my town. She sets her story elsewhere (I'm not sure if it's fictional or not), but I recognized many features from this town here. It was kind of nice, but when I read stories set in places I've never been, it doesn't matter if it's a real place or not, as long as it feels real.