Writing locations

[BobbyBrandt]

I probably place a lot more detail on locations in my stories than most because I frequently make the location relevant to my characters and their actions and I want the readers to understand the "how and why" aspects of events.

I have traveled extensively, so it does make it easier to select locales that I am familiar with. I have had instances where my memory of an area isn't as up to date as it should be, and readers have called me on it (mentioning that a particular restaurant, store or service isn't available from my memory, when now a days it is, etc.).

Most well known or traveled-to places will have at least one website with a lot of relevant details about the area. After all, most want to attract more people so they need to promote what they have. If not the location itself, look for hotels, B&B's or similar near it and check out their website for details on the surrounding area and attractions.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Grab a few facts about the larger area you are thinking of (flora, fauna, weather perhaps) and make up a location with a fake name. Toss in the few facts and no one will ever know.

This.

 

[MajorRewrite]

I have another story where I'd like my characters to go hiking on a nature trail because it would be helpful with part of the development of a specific character but again, writing the DETAILS of that nature trail are going to be really tricky.

There are YouTube videos about thousands of hiking trails. Excellent way to see exactly what the trail is like.

 

[comegently]

My locations are ones I either know, or know somewhere like.
To write a story I have to feel turned on, imagining myself as one of the characters.
So vague locations are no good.

 

[SimonDoom]

Be brief. Don't try to describe the scene in exacting detail. Rather give hints and let me construct my own scene based off them; it will interest me more than a table of contents.

This fits with my "Zen garden" theory of fiction writing. A Zen garden does not try to replicate nature. It focuses on the artful placement of key elements to suggest nature. I think one can make that work in writing stories.

 

[Bazzle]

This fits with my "Zen garden" theory of fiction writing. A Zen garden does not try to replicate nature. It focuses on the artful placement of key elements to suggest nature. I think one can make that work in writing stories.

Does it also depend on whether you are describing the protagonists within a location, or what the protagonist is looking at within their environment?

 

[SimonDoom]

Does it also depend on whether you are describing the protagonists within a location, or what the protagonist is looking at within their environment?

Not necessarily, because think about how individuals interact with a setting. They don't notice everything. They notice something that stands out, and that helps describe the setting but also tell us something about their character, because that's what they noticed. This isn't a universal rule but in general I think you're better off focusing on one important detail than trying to describe many details.

 

[onehitwanda]

This fits with my "Zen garden" theory of fiction writing. A Zen garden does not try to replicate nature. It focuses on the artful placement of key elements to suggest nature. I think one can make that work in writing stories.

I'd never thought of it this way, but it is a lovely way to describe it.

 

[SexualisPhantasia]

I've really been enjoying writing this past year and a half or so, but I often find my limitations frustrating.

In this specific instance, I'm talking about writing locations.

I'm currently working on a story where the guy, after coming into some money, decides he wants to vacation somewhere tropical; Mexico, the Caribbean, Spain, Brazil. Somewhere with a beautiful nude beach.

My problem is of course I don't really KNOW any of these locations, certainly not intimately.

I suppose I don't need a TON of details; my plot will have him renting a private house with a private beach right next to the public nude beach.

I also suppose I can just Google info and piece together what I need.

I just don't want the story to sound like I'm talking out my ass, lol. Because of course, I will be.

I guess just keep it as simple as possible, try not to include cultural details if I don't know what I'm talking about.

But it would be nice to add a little color to the damn thing.

Do any of you struggle with this? I'm sure a lot of you are better educated or more traveled, making that easier.

Do you do tons of research? Just wing it? Or stick to only writing locations and cultures you're intimately familiar with?

A lot of my stories take place in Manhattan. I've never been there, but it just felt like the right setting for my stories. I researched real places online, even having my characters name specific addresses of places. And google reviews can be a big help, with all the pictures of businesses people put in their reviews. It makes it much easier to describe any given place ..
You might be able to apply this to a tropical location also.

 

[gunhilltrain]

I usually don’t give a name to specific locations, give only a general location like the region, or else I make one up. I do this because then I don’t have to worry about a reader being distracted if I get details wrong. Usually I do have a specific real place I’ve been to or know a lot about in mind, which helps with an authentic feel, but it also lets me change the place to suit my story.

I don't do it to please the readers, I do it please myself. Anyway, Dimac1031, I've never been to a nude beach so I might have a problem with imagining it. I just remembered, I do have a story with nude swimming, but it's at a lake. It's also part of a porn shoot, which I have never witnessed either, but I was able to imagine a very low budget one.

https://classic.literotica.com/s/woodstock-1975

I made up the names of two towns, one of which is Byzantium, NY which fits in with the New York State tradition of using names from antiquity (Troy, Syracuse, etc.).

 

[12oclocktales]

Like others responding to this thread I also use Google Street View to get boots on the ground for the rare unfamiliar location I need to refer to, so as not to, for example, put a large house in a location where only apartment buildings actually are. My overall choice for location has always been someplace I know very well, the sights, sounds, even smells; it's one less thing to have to think too much about.

 

[stickygirl]

Imagine what you'd tell a friend after you'd visited a place - what particular details caught your eye, what customs you found charming, how the setting impacted on your mood? Readers only need signposts not a full description.

I convinced some readers I'd been to Greenland but I had taken a real interest, searching Google, finding out what a polar bears weighs and the name of the saddle mountain opposite Nuuk.

 

[alohadave]

Something I thought of yesterday. The Last of Us is getting all kinds of attention because it's set in a real place (Boston), and they fudge the geography to suit the story. You may have seen the articles about the "mountains ten miles west of Boston".

For anyone familiar with the area, it pulls you right out of the story. Some people won't notice or care. Others, familiar with the area will need to decide if it matters to them.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Something I thought of yesterday. The Last of Us is getting all kinds of attention because it's set in a real place (Boston), and they fudge the geography to suit the story. You may have seen the articles about the "mountains ten miles west of Boston".

For anyone familiar with the area, it pulls you right out of the story. Some people won't notice or care. Others, familiar with the area will need to decide if it matters to them.

I've had readers comment that they grew up in or still live in various locations I've mentioned. One surprised me by mentioning that he was familiar with Garrett Mountain. It's really a big hill, entirely made into a park, that is on the southern border of Paterson, NJ. In fact, the story is called "Garret Mountain Blues." Somebody else liked that I used placed he knew, namely Rutgers University and the nearby town of Edison.

https://www.hmdb.org/Photos6/644/Photo644292.jpg?3222022100600AM

 

[KeithD]

I've had readers comment that they grew up in or still live in various locations I've mentioned. One surprised me by mentioning that he was familiar with Garrett Mountain. It's really a big hill, entirely made into a park, that is on the southern border of Paterson, NJ. In fact, the story is called "Garret Mountain Blues." Somebody else liked that I used placed he knew, namely Rutgers University and the nearby town of Edison.

https://www.hmdb.org/Photos6/644/Photo644292.jpg?3222022100600AM

Same here with real locations I've used.

 

[ElectricBlue]

This fits with my "Zen garden" theory of fiction writing. A Zen garden does not try to replicate nature. It focuses on the artful placement of key elements to suggest nature. I think one can make that work in writing stories.

I've got at least three stories that go to the Japanese Zen garden in my city, for exactly that microcosm macrocosm reason. I also have, in one story, a branch that casts a shadow to signify the changing seasons. And in the story I wrote with Stickygirl, we have a twig in the girl's hair. And leaves, I have lots of falling leaves.

 

[NotWise]

I had a lot of fun with the location in "Every Girl in Edgarville." It was placed in two rival, very small towns in the western US. One of the towns ("Grover") was based on the town where my mother's family homesteaded three generations before me, and the other ("Edgarville") was the next stop on the Chicago and North Western line.

The location (as well as the story and characters) resonated with some readers, and I got some nice comments. One reader corrected me. The bus line through town would not have been called "Continental." It would have been called "Trailways," even though the actual name was "Continental Trailways." The reader was right, but for some reason I wanted to obscure the name of the bus line.

Some of the greatest fun was inserting my mother's family into the background of the story. I also picked up details I hadn't thought of from Google Earth, from the school web sites, and from biographies of locals.

I re-read the story a couple days ago, because I felt like I failed to stick the landing and wanted to know (now that I can stand back a little) how badly I failed. Not bad. No-one else would think about the missing nuance, and the story--including the ending--is pretty good.

 

[Smuttyandfun]

I've really been enjoying writing this past year and a half or so, but I often find my limitations frustrating.

In this specific instance, I'm talking about writing locations.

I'm currently working on a story where the guy, after coming into some money, decides he wants to vacation somewhere tropical; Mexico, the Caribbean, Spain, Brazil. Somewhere with a beautiful nude beach.

My problem is of course I don't really KNOW any of these locations, certainly not intimately.

I suppose I don't need a TON of details; my plot will have him renting a private house with a private beach right next to the public nude beach.

I also suppose I can just Google info and piece together what I need.

I just don't want the story to sound like I'm talking out my ass, lol. Because of course, I will be.

I guess just keep it as simple as possible, try not to include cultural details if I don't know what I'm talking about.

But it would be nice to add a little color to the damn thing.

Do any of you struggle with this? I'm sure a lot of you are better educated or more traveled, making that easier.

Do you do tons of research? Just wing it? Or stick to only writing locations and cultures you're intimately familiar with?

My story 'The Dare' features a nude beach in the Bahamas. I was there a few times, so I could write about it from memory. I have written stories about places I've never been, and got caught a few times on little details, though I thought I'd done my research.

Lately, I tend to be vague about the location, unless it's germane to the story, like 'Just Roomies' or 'One Look' that were set in Hong Kong, where I lived for several years.
Now, I'll only say that the story is set in some unnamed city or a town, usually in the U.S. And the details I give mean it could be anywhere. This way I don't have sharp-eyed readers waiting to pounce and tell me I got something wrong. And so far, no one has complained.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I remember a school English teacher reminding us to think of all five senses when describing places - what can you see? (Buildings, vegetation, background mountains/sea, how people are dressed, vehicles) Hear? (Birds, wind in trees, traffic, languages) Feel? (Temperature, humidity, how you're dressed) Smell and taste? (What's in the air? Sand? Aircon? Woodsy breeze? Cooking smells?)

And then don't overdo it.

Usually I just write stories in London because location isn't important. I've got one in Vegas where I did a little research with Streetview etc, having never been there, but the location was only important for having a huge impersonal conference centre and bland hotels, and the contrast between being hotter than hell in August and icy aircon.

One in Istanbul is meant to be a travelogue as much as erotica - I excised the bulk of the sex for a beta reader and the story still worked as a travel piece (I have been there a few times).

I've never had complaints about locations except when I wrote a couple having sex in the woods. Complaints that I'd ignored poison ivy and 'chiggers' despite the wood being on the edge of London. We don't have poison ivy nor chiggers. I wrote a story with hiking in Scotland but didn't have time to research perfect locations, so left it vague, our group arriving at "one of those two-trains-a-day stations" and staying in a couple inns and a bothy in the hills. Some beautiful views, hills, mud, mist - could be anywhere.

 

[Djmac1031]

Complaints that I'd ignored poison ivy and 'chiggers' despite the wood being on the edge of London.

Hollywood movies ignore bugs ALL THE TIME in romantic movies and I've never heard anyone complain about it .

 

[nice90sguy]

Spain is not tropical, although it does have some great nude beaches.

 

[SyleusSnow]

I keep my setting vague but recognizable. My Valentine's tale is set in an "old sprawling port city" and that's about it. I drew imagery from a few different places. Another story was purposely set in New York, so I tossed in a few landmarks and characteristics of that place (like the smell in summer

In Crazy Camping Neighbor I got detailed about the roadside ice cream take-out where the characters had worked, but those places share many similarities across the US and Canada. It was gratifying when one reader (and fellow author here) said they were certain they knew exactly where it was.

Like with characters physical descriptions, unless it's important to the story I think it's best to let the readers fill in their own details for setting. Using vague but common features makes it more real.

 

[Carnevil9]

Just go rent a movie set in your desired location. That should give you enough information to keep the story believable. If it is actually filmed there, even better!

 

[Bramblethorn]

Just go rent a movie set in your desired location. That should give you enough information to keep the story believable. If it is actually filmed there, even better!

That reeeeally depends on the movie. The further away the setting is from the film's target audience, the more likely it is that the film makers have gone for "cool" over "accurate". Take a look at the Pirates of the Caribbean version of Port Royal vs. the real thing for an example of what I mean.

 

[KeithD]

I keep looking at the title of this thread and thinking of it in another way. I "collect" stays in hotel rooms where novelists have written (and I do some writing there too) so I looked at this as locations where writing is done. That "hobby" of mine started with Somerset Maugham's room at the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. Staying in the room he did was a perk of winning a writing contest in Bangkok. The hotel was sure he'd stayed there (sick with malaria--they thought he was going to die) and he wrote something there, but they couldn't tell me what. I was also in the room where Michener stayed at the Oriental, but it was his room, not mine, and I was there to meet him on some research for his book Centennial. I checked into the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, being sure I'd find an author's room there, but, though I'm sure novelists did write there, the hotel hadn't caught on to the commercial value of playing on that yet and didn't have such a room set aside. Now they have a Writer's Bar.

After the Maugham stay, I thought it would be kicky to write in rooms novelists have written in and I've managed to write in the northern Cyprus villa where Lawrence Durrell wrote some of the Alexandria Quartet (actually I rented the villa for a year. A few of the stories I have on Lit. used that as a setting), the room in the Cypriot mountain hotel, the Forest Park, where Daphne du Maurier worked on Rebecca, the room at the Winter Palace Hotel, in Luxor, Egypt, where they claimed Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile, a room at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote short stories while he was visiting Zelda at the loony bin where she finally burned herself to death, and at a Colorado celebrity dude ranch with Michener as he was writing Centennial.