Not from States

[Mythrana]

Hi all,

I am a new writer and I am not from States. But I love reading stories by american authors. Maybe over my country we are rather expose to American lit, so we read more about books from America than anywhere else in the world.

What I would like to know is for example if I am to invent something, does it has to be realisitc like say for instance a place, Florida ( never been there in my life too) I want to include some known landmarks in Florida but am unable to find the names so could I invent them? Ok assuming Florida has a famous restaurant but because I have not been to Florida before could I just invent one? Or a medical centre or something like that? Will I offend the people in Florida to put an imaginary landmark in Florida itself?

Please give some advice. Thank you all in advance

Mythrana

 

[English Lady]

Mythrana welcome to the AH.

Ok i reckon the best waywould be not to make it up but do a bit of research.

Google for "famous Florida restaurant" and see what you get, you can put almost any phrase in a search engine and find something useful....


or Ask around here...folks are friendly and will help you out

If you're making stuff up it's probably best tocreate everything I'd say.....but others may say definitely


EL (not American either)

 

[Guest]

While I don't think a ficticious place like that would really offend anyone, it's not hard to find such things to be accurate. For instance, if you wanted a setting in a upscale restaurant in Miami, go to www.google.com and enter "Miami+Restaurants" in in the search box. WHat you'll get is a couple dozen pages of links to different Miami Restaurants and more pages of restaurant guides.

You can do the same for practically any city and land mark. For example, I just did a search for City Parks in St. Petersburg, This is one of the links I got back:

Local results for City Parks near St Petersburg, FL

But if you want to invent a place, it might draw a comment or two about the authenticity, but I wouldn't consider it a serious offense.

 

[cantdog]

Most authors will invent a fictional place to avoid offending people in the real place. If you say that women in Gardiner all sleep with other women's husbands, it might be better to change the name to something imaginary, as Tilbury Town women are always shopping-- for other people's husbands.

 

[dreampilot79]

Welcome to AH Mytherana...

As to invented places....

It is usually better to do the homework... BUT... english lit and (gasp) even literotica lit.. is rife with invented places.

Oh yeah.. other forms of art invent places as well.... Good example.. the Beach Boys song.... "Kokomo"... There are places with that name.. but NOT where they put it.... They just thought the name sounded good.... so go for it if you have to!

 

[snooper]

Most authors will invent a fictional place to avoid offending people in the real place. If you say that women in Gardiner all sleep with other women's husbands, it might be better to change the name to something imaginary, as Tilbury Town women are always shopping-- for other people's husbands.

Of course, that isn't foolproof. Some fool (like me) will always have a relativew who lives there. As it happens my sister lives a few miles from Tilbury!

 

[cantdog]

Googling a town gives you a lot of surface detail, but it is what the businesses there (and sometimes the Historical Society there) think important that you know.

The flavor of a place can't be fished up from the 'net like that. I think it would be a better decision to have your story happen in a place where you already have a real and deep comprehension of the way people interact.

It's a very old piece of advice, given by many many people. Write about what you know.

This doesn't mean you can't invent occurrances beyond the experience of anyone. Like, for example, falling through the basement floor into a cache of gold and fine jewelry, with coins from the era of the explorers, pearls of the Orient, eldritch carvings in lapis lazuli of African creatures.

The important thing about an occurance like that is not what it is like. Not all by itself. The part that makes it interesting is the reactions to it by the ordinary people whose lives it has changed.

Ordinary people, as you are aware, are different from one place to another. What is ordinary behavior in Morocco isn't the same from what is ordinary behavior in San Francisco or Rio de Janeiro. This is where you should stick to what you know. Make the old chest whose lid has fallen in be found by the foot of a person you understand. Place the treasure in the basement of a person you can describe. Don't have it be an American foot which crashes into it unless you know what the American would think first to do. Use your most intimate knowledges.

Florida may well have such chests buried beneath its soil, especially in the older cities, like St. Whatsit, there.

But if you are from Brazil, have a Brasiliera step into the find. You know what the Brasiliera will do, even in St. Whatsit, Florida.

cantdog

 

[rgraham666]

Myself, I tend to do one of two things.

Most often, the place is fictitious but inspired by some place real. If you're familiar with the place, you might recognise it, or not.

Or I make them up from whole cloth. These places are usually small or unimportant so no one will end up looking for it or be offended by it.

Only once have I used an actual place in a story. And it's a place I am familiar with, so no problems there.

If you're going to use a landmark, either know it of make sure you do your research.

And Mythrana, I for one would love to read stories from other places. Literature from there would allow me to learn about that place. And free you from the burden of creating what might be unrealistic places.

 

[cantdog]

Of course, that isn't foolproof. Some fool (like me) will always have a relativew who lives there. As it happens my sister lives a few miles from Tilbury!

Edwin Arlington Robinson wrote a scathing social critique of the hypocrisy and moral vacuity of the citizens of Gardiner, Maine. He called the place Tilbury Town throughout the work. People sued anyway.

But the judge ruled that Robinson had displayed a general garment, but that the burghers of Gardiner had claimed it was cut to their fit. He dismissed the suit, although, actually, the thinly disguised rotters in "Tilbury Town" were, indeed, the people who had brought the suit.

Disguising a place's name may well save you a lot of money in a lawsuit!

 

[cantdog]

I might have fun writing about a Maine girl who journeys to Turkey or somewhere. I would be very sure about the mind and heart of the Maine girl, but I could make do with googled details and an invented place name in Turkey. I would feel obligated to research Turkey, of course. Do they really use Turkish towels? Coffee? Delight??

Having prepared myself with a knowledge of Turkey, my Maine girl could then encounter the mustachioed Turkish Nakshbandi schoolmaster and swoon into his manly embrace.

 

[cantdog]

By the way, Mythrana: welcome to the AH! And if I may say it, what a lovely handle "Mythrana" is.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Hey

Aside from googling, one of the best research tools you have are the authors here. We have some floridians who would probably be more than glad to give you some first hand information that you could use to make a ficticious place seem real.

 

[scheherazade_79]

we read more about books from America than anywhere else in the world.

No Shakespeare? Hardy? Bronte? Dylan Thomas? Austen? Keats? Wordsworth?

My heart goes out to you, Mythrana - you're missing out on some of the world's greatest literature.

Welcome to the AH anyway

 

[Lucifer_Carroll]

Usually when I'm writing about a place I don't know I keep it purposefully vague. Actually, I usually keep my locations vague and its up to the reader and the clues for people to determine small town or suburbs or whatnot. Sometimes the fictional location or unnamed location is loosely based on somewhere I've been or know. A high school based play used the front building of my own high school. Overall I've only been specific about a real location once and only for a location I had traversed multiple times before writing the piece.

So my advice is obviously biased to the opinion that you shouldn't write a real location unless you really really know that location and its lesser known landmarks.

Now for a fictional landscape, there is nothing wrong with making it obviously X location like. An unnamed section of Florida will allow you more leeway to make up your own landmarks than basing it in say Miami or Orlando.

 

[msboy8]

Hi all,

I am a new writer and I am not from States. But I love reading stories by american authors. Maybe over my country we are rather expose to American lit, so we read more about books from America than anywhere else in the world.

What I would like to know is for example if I am to invent something, does it has to be realisitc like say for instance a place, Florida ( never been there in my life too) I want to include some known landmarks in Florida but am unable to find the names so could I invent them? Ok assuming Florida has a famous restaurant but because I have not been to Florida before could I just invent one? Or a medical centre or something like that? Will I offend the people in Florida to put an imaginary landmark in Florida itself?

Please give some advice. Thank you all in advance

Mythrana

Welcome to Lit, Mythrana. Glad to have you here.

The Internet is a wonderful place to find out anything, from current fashions to info about places. But, as had already been said, you can make a place up, even a whole new world.

 

[Weird Harold]

Ok assuming Florida has a famous restaurant but because I have not been to Florida before could I just invent one?

Of course you could invent one -- but I'd invent a small restaurant that very few people know about rather than a "famous" one.

If you need a famous resaurant, take googling for "Miami Restaurats" a step further -- see if you can find more information on the restaurant you choose. Many "famous" businesses (and many that just wish to become famous) have virtual tours, floor-plans, seating charts, photos, testimonials from customers, and menus online.

Of course, the amount of research you need to do is dependent on how important the restaurant or other "famous place" is to your story. If the loction is merely mentioned in a summary of an evening:

We had dinner at Delmonico's and went to Margueritaville for drinks and dancing, before we returned to the Hyatt Regency and our luxury suite for a night of wild and kinky sex.

That doesn't require much research beyond finding a place that has a Delmonico's, Margueritaville, and Hyatt Regency Hotel in the same town.

If you're going to go into detail about the dinner at Delmonico's then you probably at least need to find a menu so you have aclue about what dinner could be and what it might cost. Finding out what band might have been appearing at a Margueritaville or even if there is a live band at a particular location would be useful if the drinks and dancing at Margueritaville gets much detail.

A virtual tour or floor plan of a Hyatt Regency Hotel will tell you how many rooms your character might have to sneak past on a naked trip to the ice machine.

The level of detail -- and the accuracy of the information -- all depends on how important locale is to the story. If the action can take place in a nameless private lodge instead of a large famous hotel without changing the effect you want to create, then the nameless private lodge is probably the better choice for your locale.

 

[Op_Cit]

Wait a minute! I thought Florida was a fictitious place!? You know, another metaphor for the "big round up in the sky". I thought this talk about old people going to live there was just a nice way of not upsetting the grand kids. All that "sun and surf" and entire World of Disney, etc. were just to sugar coat the after life.

Is it true? Is there really a place where everybody drives and italian sports cars and men are not expected to shave every day?

All kidding aside, every place on earth is more fiction than truth.

 

[msboy8]

Wait a minute! I thought Florida was a fictitious place!? You know, another metaphor for the "big round up in the sky". I thought this talk about old people going to live there was just a nice way of not upsetting the grand kids. All that "sun and surf" and entire World of Disney, etc. were just to sugar coat the after life.

Is it true? Is there really a place where everybody drives and italian sports cars and men are not expected to shave every day?

All kidding aside, every place on earth is more fiction than truth.

Depending on what books you read, Florida may or may not be ficticious. It also depends on the water level in the ocean.

 

[TheEarl]

No Shakespeare? Hardy? Bronte? Dylan Thomas? Austen? Keats? Wordsworth?

My heart goes out to you, Mythrana - you're missing out on some of the world's greatest literature.

Welcome to the AH anyway

Or to offer a more contemporary list - How about Jasper Fforde, Douglas Adams, Tom Holt, Robert Rankin, Colin Bateman and Zane Radcliffe?

As to talking about things you don't know - I hate googling for research. More often than not it turns up stale, dead information.

A much better idea is to use the fantastic resource you have right in front of you. I may never have been to Florida, but I'll bet there are at least 10 people on the AH who have and who'd be willing to talk about it. Instead of dead information, you get a story and people's feelings about a place or an act or an item. That's the stuff ideas are built on.

The Earl

 

[BlackShanglan]

Might I put in a good word for writing your own home?

Personally, I'd be quite interested in a powerful evocation of your home country. I'm already familiar with Florida and frankly I never found it that interesting. (No offense intended.)

Tell us more about what you know best- your own home.

(Says the person working on a story about the Geats in 800 A.D.)

Shanglan

 

[Black Tulip]

Might I put in a good word for writing your own home?

Personally, I'd be quite interested in a powerful evocation of your home country. I'm already familiar with Florida and frankly I never found it that interesting. (No offense intended.)

Tell us more about what you know best- your own home.

(Says the person working on a story about the Geats in 800 A.D.)

Shanglan

LOL

But I know all about my country. No fun for me there.
When I do write about another place I do some research so I can make references to real things, but the actual place is usually fiction.

Welcome by the way, Mythrana.

 

[NoJo]

My experience when first arriving in America was how familiar it all was -- from the movies of course. This feeling is shared by most Brits when they get there. But Americans have the strangest ideas about Britain. They have about five stereotypes of the place, whereas we have access to almost the entirety of American culture here.

The one thing I loved about the states is how tacky and unstylish some of the place is. In a nice way. Clunky. Everything's almost too slick in Europe, the marketing people and designers have pretty much destroyed all the Kitsch.

 

[BlackShanglan]

But Americans have the strangest ideas about Britain. They have about five stereotypes of the place, whereas we have access to almost the entirety of American culture here.

Indeed. The general reaction of the relatives to my English SO is to become tea-obsessed. They offer an astounding array of mango-raspberry-apple-cinnamon-peppermint-lemon-herbal-God-knows-what, when in fact the SO fairly rarely drinks tea and, on such occasions as the tea is brought out, it's PG Tips.

That and pale skin. We went on a cruise with family members and I think we would have thrown ourselves or the offending speaker overboard if one more person made a comment about pale skin and sunblock.

The natives here are amusing but friendly. They mean well. They simply have no idea what to do with English folk. Fortunately the SO has taught them to admire you intensely

Shanglan

 

[minsue]

That and pale skin. We went on a cruise with family members and I think we would have thrown ourselves or the offending speaker overboard if one more person made a comment about pale skin and sunblock.

That stereotype works for elsewhere, too. In Puerto Vallarta, hubby and I were constantly asked if we were Canadian. The only thing that amused me more was the looks on the faces of those who asked when we replied, "No, we're from Phoenix."

My favorite response to that info - "But....you're so white!"

 

[moonlight elf]

Welcome to the AH!!!!!!!

Make yourself at home.

moonlight.