Country Life

[shakna]

I grew up both with, and livin', life a wee bit country. Stuff like this wasn't entirely on the exaggerated side of things.

Messy lives, hard work, and men who were both flamin' bastards and sensitive as fuck, at the same time.

How would you spin someone from a small town? I'd opt to try to make someone like Cooch. Sensitive, quiet, but holy hellfire he works his ass off in some brutal conditions.

 

[yowser]

My small town upbringing likely had some major differences from yours (forested, conservative, <10k population, New England, repressed, independent and tight-lipped) but some of the first issues in any small town are always: does the person want to escape to the city or somewhere else or do they like things right as they are? are they hemmed in by knowing everyone intimately, all the unwritten rules and quirks, or take solace in that? what role do they play (or appear to play): buffoon, village idiot, soother-of-feelings, drunk, parson, peace-maker? The characters' attitude towards the place is important information.

Two suggestions: as a reader I always like to know 'where' the scene is set, location makes a big difference. (Even if its a made-up town like the one in Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, it matters a lot that it is Oregon backwoods, not somewhere generic).

Whatever you can do, succinctly, to portray your characters, giving them unique aspects, emotional or physical tics, and sketch out their goals and dreams, pleasures and irritations, will do a lot for the story.

 

[sirhugs]

My small town upbringing likely had some major differences from yours (forested, conservative, <10k population, New England, repressed, independent and tight-lipped) but some of the first issues in any small town are always: does the person want to escape to the city or somewhere else or do they like things right as they are? are they hemmed in by knowing everyone intimately, all the unwritten rules and quirks, or take solace in that? what role do they play (or appear to play): buffoon, village idiot, soother-of-feelings, drunk, parson, peace-maker? The characters' attitude towards the place is important information.

Two suggestions: as a reader I always like to know 'where' the scene is set, location makes a big difference. (Even if its a made-up town like the one in Kesey's Sometimes a Great Notion, it matters a lot that it is Oregon backwoods, not somewhere generic).

Whatever you can do, succinctly, to portray your characters, giving them unique aspects, emotional or physical tics, and sketch out their goals and dreams, pleasures and irritations, will do a lot for the story.

I agree character development is very important, and that can make location relevant, yet most of my stories I write with no location specified, or only enough geography to deal with weather factors. Enough geographic mobility occurs that that location does not always determine character. Though "fish out of water" stories are always popular.

 

[LiverpoolMaster]

There's a limit to where "(American) small town" mentality - or that of any other locality - can get you as a story feature.

Firstly, it restricts you to an American readership because it scarcely plays in other parts of the English-speaking world. Secondly, whilst it's good for realism, once you've played that card it begins to get tiresome if you keep harping on with it. Sex is sex all over the world and the animalistic drive to procreate transcends cultures, "mentalities" and localities.

Put bluntly, there's a watershed where parochial concerns begin to get in the way of what could be a decent story - so I tend to agree with sirhugs's comment about keeping that to a minimum.