I'm Trying to Get a Book Published! discussion

I've picked cities I've lived in and favorite cities to visit but how do you guys pick cities

It depends on what I'm writing. If the location doesn't matter too much, then I pick a place I already know fairly well so that I don't get too bogged down in the research and can just write the story more easily. However, if it is a story that needs a location--like one I'm working on that takes place partly in Ireland--then I have to do a lot of research. You have to determine how much of the plot is "location" driven as well as character driven. What place might fit your story better than another place. For instance, if the story is a bit dark or sad, a city like Seattle, where there's a lot of clouds and rain, might work better than, say, a city in Florida--unless you need a good hurricane in the mix. lol But, I tend to stick to what I know best as much as I can.

However, if you are making up the story from whole cloth, so to speak, and it's a sci fi or fantasy, you can create your own. But, you need to put a lot of work into it to make it believable to yourself, your characters, and your readers.

Hope that helps.

uh, i usually just make up a new land for a book, unless its a continuation of another one i wrote....

When I write a book of mine that is in a city, I tend to keep that city as nameless for as long as possible because I'm too lazy to research on it.

Kriss wrote: "When I write a book of mine that is in a city, I tend to keep that city as nameless for as long as possible because I'm too lazy to research on it."

You can get away with that until a character has to drive across town or county--then it gets dicey and you have to start picking roads and highways to drive on. lol

Yeah lol... But for the most part, my characters never have to leave the city and when they do its to some place I made up myself lol

Maybe I need to get my characters to stay home more often! lol I don't have that problem with my short stories but the novel things are a pain!

Novels are just a pain, lol... They come with all kinds of trouble. Its kinda irnoic cause my short story The Painted Meadow, which is basically one of the only short stories I've ever writen and the only one posted on goodreads is my only book set in a distinct area, with town names and everything while my novel-cities continue on nameless.

LOL That's really backwards from the way I write. The only locations for my short stories seem to be the moon, another planet, or from context obviously not earth in our time. My longer works, however, seem to have me dragging from Reno to Ireland to Seattle and back. Now I know Reno and Seattle. I REALLY need to make a trip to Ireland--ummm...uh....for research purposes? lol I've loved that place for years and it finally ended up in two of my WIPs. I could make it a business trip, right? Get a real feel for the places I'm writing about? I've already read enough that I should be honorable Irish, if there's such a thing.lol

Lol

I never really specify where my books take place. O_o I guess because I don't know a lot of places very well, except for where I live ... and where I live is pretty boring. Lol. Is that a bad thing?

Actually, if you were to try and work where you live into a story, I'd bet it would become a lot less boring. Example: I had moved to another state/city that I thought pretty dull. Had a friend tell me she was coming for a visit. Ugh! Nothing to show her here! Until I decided to drive around town and try and "see" the place through her eyes--what would she look for, look at, think, feel about this place? It was a real eye-opener, too! I saw it through new eyes and found all sorts of great and interesting things. You could do some exercises in writing about where you live through a character's eyes. Could make it a whole new place for you.

Hmm, maybe. I guess everyone's a little bored with where they live, right? ;)
I should try to write about where I live sometime. I've never really tried it, so I wouldn't know how it would turn out ...

It would be a fun and creative exercise, trying to see it with fresh eyes.

I don't really specify a place. And often, my stories aren't in cities. Or the place is irrelevant. Well, not always. I have a story that takes place in the middle of the woods. Where? No idea. Doesn't really matter if those woods are in washington or in nothern michigan. So long as they are isolated.

I've also made up a city before... can't remember the name of it right now, but it means despair in Croatian.

Roni wrote: "I don't really specify a place. And often, my stories aren't in cities. Or the place is irrelevant. Well, not always. I have a story that takes place in the middle of the woods. Where? No idea. Doe..."

The only thing about making it in a forest or even beside the ocean, is that you have to know enough about the specific location so you can tell the difference between, say, a forest in the Pacific Northwest as opposed to a forest in the middle of the country. Different kinds of trees, animals, birds, plants, etc. Now, if you don't ever mention any of those things, no problem. If you do, people who are aware of the differences would spot mix ups. I just found out, for example, that a certain kind of blue jay is only found in the western part of the U.S.! I had just thought a jay was a jay until then because that was the only kind I was familiar with in my neck of the forest. lol Those little details are sometimes important to nail down--even if no specific place is mentioned.

lol sounds like fun....*not*