Using real life locations in a story ex: local restaurants

[Five_Inch_Heels]

Nothing is real.

 

[AchtungNight]

I’ve used real life businesses on occasion. Example from Ruleskirter- the club where Doug and Lisa meet in Austin, Paradox, was a real place in 1997. It closed down a few years later. Roppolo’s Pizza and the garage near Frost Bank Tower where Lisa keeps her bike are also real places and still around. I recommend both.

Silvan’s Karaoke Bar is unfortunately fictional. Antone’s Nightclub (used in Compensation and Bad Connections) is real but has a slightly different interior layout.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I hardly think that just saying your characters met at McDonald's for coffee is going to raise many hackles in the corporate world. Saying that the coffee was even worse than usual, maybe.

With apologies to the clown. Around here, McD's coffee is actually pretty good.

 

[Voboy]

You're overthinking this. Describe the place, change the name.

This. I do this all the time. If the places are TRULY local, the fake names can be only thinly veiled. By this time, I've got a long menu of places I've put into my stories, and most have a mental picture for me that, in many cases, it based on somewhere I've been.

The fake names are fun to come up with, for me. It's like SF-style worldbuilding, but in a contemporary story.

 

[JohnBJohn]

Thank you all for the comments, I truly appreciate it! I'll probably continue to name drop actual places that my characters visit. I'm still a new writer, so your suggestions will be taken to heart.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

I always use the names of real places in my stories and don't understand anyone's reluctance to do likewise. Readers always seem to enjoy the familiarity this presents to them.

Unless you are writing something derogatory or embarrassing about the business, or having your characters performing sex acts there, what's the issue?

In a story published here last year, I focused heavily on places local to me and included the real life owners/employees interacting with my fictional characters in several scenes. Everyone involved in real life got a hoot out of being portrayed in the story.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

Using names like that falls under fair use.

The big three no no's are you can't defame, you can't imply an endorsement, and you can't do anything that might cause confusion.

In my chapter of our chain story two of the characters had dinner at Keen's Steakhouse in NYC. It's a real place, the oldest steakhouse in NYC, and one character shared a little of the actual history of the place.
It was presented in a VERY positive light, (food was excellent, staff was on point etc).
Totally fine under fair use. If the food had been terrible, one of the characters had gotten food poisoning etc. then we might have a problem.

 

[Voboy]

I always use the names of real places in my stories and don't understand anyone's reluctance to do likewise.

No real reason, except that (for me) it's fun to use my imagination and create my own world.

I use "real names" for cars and, usually, for songs. When I do invent a fake band or a fake song, I don't belabor it; I just list my fake title right beside real ones. Several readers might not even notice.

Most stores, restaurants, and coffeeshops are "mine." I like having ownership of them, and being able to make them whatever I want. My Facebook analog, for example, can have any functionality I need it to without any reader questioning it.

 

[MelissaBaby]

I've named real places many times. The names of businesses are public information. There is no legal jeopardy created by writing that your character's shopped or ate or whatever at a particular real business. What you don't want to do is include anything that could be claimed to defame the business.

 

[MelissaBaby]

MelissaBaby wrote a story called "White Castle Christmas." No problem.

If anything, I improved their reputation.

 

[HordHolm]

Unless you are writing something derogatory or embarrassing about the business, or having your characters performing sex acts there, what's the issue?

Even that's not necessarily going to be an issue - if I have a couple getting it on in a Holiday Inn, there's a totally reasonable expectation that that's one of the main reason people go to hotels.

 

[MrPixel]

If anything, I improved their reputation.

Many years ago, I had an office partner who would drag us to White Castle. We'd do drive-thru, after which we would drive across the street to Wendy's where I'd do the same.

 

[OddLove]

For 'ma and pa' shops, I make up new names. For chain restaurants and big brand stores like Trader Joes, Olive Garden, Starbucks, etc, I just use the names. But not specific locations.

Example,

A character in one of my stories works at Starbucks, and the only detail was that it was one of the Starbucks near the Pike Market area in Seattle, so it didn't out a specific store at all.

But also, it can be fun creating a fictional store. Like a local sex shop your characters like going too, or their favorite local food place.

 

[Voboy]

A character in one of my stories works at Starbucks, and the only detail was that it was one of the Starbucks near the Pike Market area in Seattle, so it didn't out a specific store at all.

One of my coffee chains in my universe is called "Ahab's," and their tagline is that they're Starbucks' boss.

I don't think I've ever used that tagline in any of my stories, though, because of what @MelissaBaby often points out: the writer knows a lot more than the reader does, and a lot more than what they put down in the story.

 

[Gamblnluck]

I like to set my stories in places that I've been to or lived in. I've enjoyed authors who weave their various stories around a central location, reusing locations and having older characters pop in as cameos. I'm not there yet....

So my question, is it ok to use real life businesses in yours stories? I would not have anything negative to say about the establishment and nothing shady would happen there. However, is it kosher to mention an IRL place on a site devoted to erotica?

Thanks!

I personally would never use the real of business at a specific locality. I think it is unethical even if it might not be illegal. Landmarks in a city is different. I also try to avoid naming chains even if I describe it as a breakfast serving pancakes.

 

[Gamblnluck]

I've named real places many times. The names of businesses are public information. There is no legal jeopardy created by writing that your character's shopped or ate or whatever at a particular real business. What you don't want to do is include anything that could be claimed to defame the business.

I've had one of my characters say they'd like to hit Pat Obrien's in the Quarter (New Orleans) and get a hurricane, but would never stage the place as a scene in one of my stories.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I like to set my stories in places that I've been to or lived in. I've enjoyed authors who weave their various stories around a central location, reusing locations and having older characters pop in as cameos. I'm not there yet....

So my question, is it ok to use real life businesses in yours stories? I would not have anything negative to say about the establishment and nothing shady would happen there. However, is it kosher to mention an IRL place on a site devoted to erotica?

Thanks!

Since many of my stories are set thirty to fifty years old, I use many real names but sometimes I don't. Many of these locations are gone now. City College of New York is obviously a real place, and I identify buildings, some of which have since been demolished. If the scene is in a movie theater, I'll have them watching (or not watching!) a movie appropriate for the time period.

The now demolished RKO Fordham. Notice the Chevy Corvair parked at the curb. Anyway, there is no one left to worry about shady activities because the place has been gone for decades. I can say something negative about it: it was really shabby at the end.

https://photos.cinematreasures.org/production/photos/148473/1449622381/large.jpg?1449622381

 

[Gamblnluck]

MelissaBaby wrote a story called "White Castle Christmas." No problem.

Maybe not, but you can bet "Kumar and Harold go to White Castle" had the company's permission first.

And if you had the staff jizzing onto the hamburger being sold to a customer they hated, you might see if a reaction if they could ever find you.

 

[SimonDoom]

Maybe not, but you can bet "Kumar and Harold go to White Castle" had the company's permission first.

I looked it up, and you're right. They did get permission, and there's an interesting story about it.
White Castle sales significantly increased after the movie came out.

 

[JohnBJohn]

Even that's not necessarily going to be an issue - if I have a couple getting it on in a Holiday Inn, there's a totally reasonable expectation that that's one of the main reason people go to hotels.

I've seen a lot of hotels used that way, in Loving Wives for some reason!

 

[gunhilltrain]

I see potential legal problems.

If the name is a trade mark you get a legal problem. And companies my not like it to be mentioned in a porn novel.

A small business is different from a chain. If CVS or Best Buy doesn't like it - well, if you can even find it, send out your best legal team and file an injunction or something. In the case of Hustler v. Falwell, it was an individual - Rev. Falwell - who got pissed off, perhaps for a good reason!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_Magazine_v._Falwell

I would indeed not mention a prominent person like that. He did retaliate, but that was in the age of print before the Internet. Probably Laurel would flag it anyway.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I've used identifiable real locations for years. Rarely (or maybe never) in a negative context.

I'm sure the harried waitress at the Denny's in Kingman, AZ only wishes she caught my MMC masturbating the FMC under the table to orgasm.

What happens in Kingman stays in Kingman.

 

[Gamblnluck]

I've seen a lot of hotels used that way, in Loving Wives for some reason!

Yeah a hotel chain is going to be easier to get away with using. But if you specified the Hilton on 3rd and Main in Cinncinnati as being the prime location for cheating with all the whores in the lobby, they might not be so forgiving.
I just realized I used the Marriott in one of my stories where a man took his conquests, a cheating wife and her sister. I even had the night manager (his cousin) comping him a room for sexual favors with the women. At the end of the story as part of the BTB, I had the manager fired in a very public manner company wide as warning to their managers.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

A small business is different from a chain. If CVS or Best Buy doesn't like it - well, if you can even find it, send out your best legal team and file an injunction or something. In the case of Hustler v. Falwell, it was an individual - Rev. Falwell - who got pissed off, perhaps for a good reason!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hustler_Magazine_v._Falwell

I would indeed not mention a prominent person like that. He did retaliate, but that was in the age of print before the Internet. Probably Laurel would flag it anyway.

Even mentioning a famous person isn't verboten. The issue is in how you portray them.
If that wasn't the case all the celebrity stories would have to come down.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

What happens in Kingman stays in Kingman.

Yeah, besides, Winslow AZ is where all the crazy stuff happens.