Real Town or Made Up Location?

I'm trying to decide between using real streets, buildings, etc. (I'm setting my mystery in the No. CA, East Bay town I live in) or slightly altering the name and locations so as not to have to (1) offend locals and (2) be super careful about how many doors and windows the morgue has, for instance.

I know the Sue Grafton mysteries all have a slightly altered Santa Barbara as a location.

Another reason for a pretend town is that I want to explore some political problems that are real here to tie them into a murder (developers and a proposed casino) and also some early prostitution - seems it might be better to change the name of the city?

SusanD

I've used google earth street views to get a feel of everything from a few miles up to international locals. It's much easier.

Dan

I like reading things set in real locations, but as such I don't mind when some things are changed a bit--I don't think your readers are going to go count the windows in the morgue. I guess for the political problems--change the name and nature a little bit and you should be fine.

Sounds interesting!

Happy writing!

I've used real locations with as much detail is specifically naming streets in routes by using Google Maps many times, but that doesn't stop me from completely BS-ing a location when I need something somewhere. I don't think you should worry about it too much, just go with what works for you. As for offending people, who cares? They'll get over it.

Mine is a mix - my first book in this series Joe and Tim are from a town called Umber Bridge in Pennshire. (Basically the Castle Howard area of Yorkshire shoved closer to Scarborough). This one I am getting adventurous and setting it in Copenhagen.

In the grand tradition of Stephen King and Sue Grafton, I'm taking real-life locations and filing the serial numbers off, changing the names, and tweaking them for suitability. That way you have the framework to work with, but you don't have to keep exactly to reality.

Changing the name of the town probably won't greatly affect the story so long as its believable. You could just surf google maps to find the name of a town in another state that you like, then say its a town in you're state (assuming there isn't one already). That way its the same town you live in, just by a different name. If you want to use other real locations you could always just use anagrams of them, there's an excellent online anagram finder.

I'd suggest using real names/locales, at least for your rough draft. You can always edit out names in revisions.

I'm doing a mashup of several CA towns around the Central Coast. DH suggested name for it: Santa Marinara. Town Motto: "Where the Sauce Comes From." I'm thinking that's a temporary fix...

i'm setting mine in albuquerque new mexico. i don't even think i'm going to alter anything. just roll with the reality

I've used a real location (Dallas) in two of my mystery novels, and a made-up town in Kansas in one other mystery novel. When I use a real city, I do so because I'm using specific buildings, venues, etc. I might use a real area of the city, but I make sure there are no such real addresses as the ones I use. My 2011 novel is set in a real courthouse in Dallas, so I'm using real street names, locations, etc. Using Google Maps is a good idea and a way to get a feel for what a place that you've not been to looks like.

I'm using a fictional town, Nuevo Oro, which 'exists' on the Mexicali border. I wanted my own, more realistic, version of Discworld - a sandbox in which I could tell stories of many different genres without having to worry about realism or upsetting anyone too much. My NaNo novel is quite political, massive conspiracies, etc. If I set it in a real town, I'd get sued. My setting it in a fictional one, nobody can touch me.

I'm using a fictional town just because it gives me the freedom to tweak the geography as needed. The idea being that this is a town where bad things happen, and everybody is willfully ignoring them or sweeping them under the rug. Except for the protagonists, of course.

Mine is real and I have only been twice. Manchester, right here in the UK. I have taken some geographical knowledge from google so I hope its enough to make it work

I'm not even sure I'm going to mention a location. I like having that element of mystery, but I might change my mind. In my mind, the story takes place in my (small) hometown, but if I go back and edit it later, I'll probably change it to some other town like mine.

I'm using a fictional location, but that's mostly because I want to make it feel like it could be Anytown, USA. But, that's just me.

All real locations for me, I'd rather not have to create a new everything. I'm actually going to be visiting Boston in the middle of the month so I'll use it as a local for some good killin'

then my trip is 'research' see?!

Real locations for me.

I am doing the same thing one of the previous posters said: Writing a real location to start with, but I might change it during revision. The city I am setting it in is small enough that I might not be able to get away with everything I plan on changing, just because there isn't enough stuff here to play that fast and loose, but at the same time I feel like I know the area well enough to be able to come up with setting details on the fly without research and still keep things consistent.

If I feel too uncomfortable with all the details later, I'll edit to move it to a fictional - but very similar - city.

My concern with dealing with the politics too closely, or using the real people involved, is that you can get in trouble for libel later on. I am not a lawyer, but I think you would have to pretty substantially change the details to get around that even if you do set it in the original location rather than a fictional one.

Tweaked location based on a real location for me. I'm basically combining 2 small towns into one for my novel.