If You Use Real Places in Your Fiction . . .
My first two novels took place in real places. I spent many summers as a kid at a hiking camp in the Adirondack mountains of New York State, then went back as an adult to what became the family property. Lakeside, mountains all around, I wrote my first fiction sitting on the same dock I lay on as a young girl, watching a waterskiier. That waterskiier became Zoe, one of my favorite characters.
And it was hard—no, impossible—for me to imagine the story taking place anywhere else.
This caused some nervousness. What would the locals think, if they happened to read the book? Adirondack Life magazine ran a short blurb when that first novel was published, another when its sequel came out. So the chance of someone, who knew those mountains as I did, reading the stories increased.
I anticipated this. So I made field trips when I was writing.
Option #1: Getting it accurate
Do you have to make setting details accurate if you’re drawing from real-life settings? I wondered this as a brand-new novelist. So many stories I loved were set in real places. How much was fictionalized?
In my first novel, a pivotal scene took place at a lake south of where I went to camp, which held an annual waterskiing contest. I wanted my character, Zoe, to win that contest. So one of my field trips was in the rain to that lake, just so I could accurately describe the flow of trees to the shore, the pavilion nearby, the road leading in from the highway.
I also drove the roads around the primary setting for the story, noting how long it took to reach this town or that town, what route a character might take to the hospital in an emergency (that scene was later deleted but I had the information correct). I wanted the details accurate.
Some writers provided disclaimers for what isn’t actually true, and I found the story I was writing needed more flexibility, so I added a few sentences of apology to readers in my end-of-book acknowledgements. Just in case one of them went, “Wait! It’s not like that!”
I didn’t think there would be that many outraged responses if I messed up a detail or two, but people are loyal to their home territories, and I wanted to respect that. I wanted their allegiance. I didn’t want my mistakes about the real-life setting to shoot them out of the story.
But what other ways can writers keep reader allegiance, if using real places in their fiction?
Option #2: Keep the flavor accurate, make up the specifics
I’m not the only one wondering this. A reader from Minnesota sent me a great question:
“I’m rereading Ordinary Graceand some other William Kent Krueger. His books are usually in Minnesota with clear sense of region but town names and even county names are made up. Is this just to avoid technical issues with fiction in real places, or what else goes into that decision? I think you usually stick with real places.
“What does this decision make for setting and container?”
I can’t begin to compare my writing with William Kent Krueger’s, and I don’t know his reasoning for fictionalizing place names yet keeping the flavor. I can only say, It works if you’re keenly aware of what I call “container.”
All stories reside in a kind of container that informs them. Setting, or physical surroundings, is a big one. Writers who use container well become known for the tone their physical setting imparts. Yet it’s more than the physical details. Container also includes the culture of a place, the way people talk, the foods they prefer, the politeness and feuds, the way outsiders are treated. I recently read Go as a River by Shelley Read, which takes place in 1940s Colorado and shows the clear prejudice of a town towards a Native American man who travels through. Just that flavor alone gave me everything I needed to feel I was in the container of that time and place.
If you’re skilled on writing container (see this post for more skill-building tips), you can do as Read or Krueger and impart the flavor via container, without worrying overmuch about whether your place names and details are accurate.
It’s an easier route than field trips (maybe not as fun!) but requires that skill, absolutely.
Try this week’s exercise to “research” your own preferences—and skills—with these two options.
Your weekly writing exercise
Are you reading any fiction right now? Do a little research into how the writer approached place. Where does the story happen? Are there disclaimers in the acknowledgements or on the copyright page to let you know the writer’s decision about setting accuracy? How does the decision feel to you, as the reader—are you able to sink into the story and not be bothered by the place details’ accuracy?
Now choose a scene from your own writing. What decision did you make, as a writer, about place details? Do you prefer accurate details to fictionalized ones? Have you done a field trip if you do? What else might you research about the time or place to get it accurate?
If you prefer flavor over accuracy, check your container—scan this past post if you want a refresher—and assess your skills. Does your scene impart a clear enough sense of place to let the reader in, even if the details of the setting are fictionalized?
Photo by Damiano Baschiera on Unsplash