When using a real city...

I used a combination of real locations, if the characters were simply discussing or describing places they'd been or intended to go, and made-up locations for extended scenes where they actually were. I described just enough to make the story seem realistic. I also created a fictional suburb in which the bulk of the story was set.

"Fight the good write..." Quote from racinggirl74

I have to use real locations in mine. It takes place in Vegas and every place is real. I know I shouldn't but hey it's my story. For example a couple of my scenes take place at the Luxor, at Mandalay Bay beach, at the Palms and of course at a few places downtown such as the Glitter Glutch... so I guess I will have to use real places.

I'm using real locations. Brings back some warm fuzzy memories of NYC bars and restaurants I've loved before.

Since it's fiction, that means there are no rules. Run with it!
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Definitely using a real city (Chicago, IL) in my book - but all my businesses/places of interest (unless it's the John Hancock Tower or something mega-well-known) are going to be fictional. My MC will work in a bookstore that I love in that town - but the name will change, the clerks, other major details will definitely change. I think only folks who live in the area and are shoppers of the store I'm hinting at will get it. Maybe not, if I mask it well enough! Other than that? It's completely fictional. :)

As much as I'd like to use actual places, I need it to fit my vision - and reality doesn't always fit that vision!!! I know there will be descriptions of certain places, but I'm going to be vague enough where it can be "anywhere", but for folks who know might have an inkling as to where/what I might be referring to, it's that little extra perk of discovery.

*****
I haven't a clue what I'm doing. Ever.
Stay Shiny. Keep Flyin'

It's especially great if you know the area well. Certainly use it. I'm placing my story mainly in Atlanta, GA. I live a good two hours away, I've merely visited a few times. On my last trip, I actually went around Georgia State campus, as that's where it's all located around. I've even been looking at maps to see where exactly things are situated around the campus and such. It takes some patience though to look at an area you don't know very well, whereas if I did my hometown here in Birmingham, AL, I could easily talk about real businesses, parks, and such at the tip of a hat. Though, sometimes it's more fun to create your own store--so you're not trying to recreate the real one.

"However disgusting my being in love with you seems, it's the truth."

I set last year's novel in L.A., and I'm doing the same this year. I used a lot of real businesses and points of interest in my 2006 Nano, but certain key locations (like the heroine's place of business) I made up. I do like to make the local color as accurate as possible so that if someone actually came to visit the city, they'd actually be able to find places on a map. ;-)

"I wanted to sell out, but no one would buy me."—John Waters

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I'm using my hometown (Dallas) as the setting. Since my novel has lots of hockey in it, I'm forced to use my hockey team, but I'm not using any real players, because I think that would be mildly creepy. I'm making up some random player to be my main character's love interest, he just happens to play for the Stars.

Anyway, I will be using a lot of local stuff, probably, but some will be made up.

I have the same issue -- although my real location is Long Beach Island, NJ. There are some things that should work: Barnegat Light, no dogs on the beach in Surf City (and no surfing too) and that kind of stuff, but to drop in at Scojo's for a whole wheat waffle might not work. Using actual casinos is cool -- i think the question revolves around size of the venue. A casino is rather impersonal, while a small restaurant is not. Does this make sense???

Jamie

You have to sing every day so you can build up to being, you know, Amazingly Brilliant. -- Mick Jagger

Leaning toward using my area (San Jose/Silicon Valley) as the setting, but I'll come up with a combination of real places (attractions like Great America or the Museum of Art) and fake businesses (like companies my characters work at or restaurants where they dine).

I'm using London, since I've lived here my whole life. I find it useful to actually navigate in my head where my characters are headed to (although often they change their mind!) but I find it helps me centre the story and give it a little personal resonance.

Mine is a real city - Manchester - which is where i live ... i started thinking it should be set in London (as that was the atmosphere in my mind) but then realised i couldn't then keep it real with things like continuity, culture, even road names, transport links etc.

Next, my MC walks into a bar. I did a bit of slagging off of this bar and it's small minded inhabitants, and then realised that maybe i shouldn't do that ... so i changed the name of the bar, to something not so far off the truth (the bar is called 'Vanilla', I've changed it's name to 'The Pod') ... i think that works well enough - details like this can be returned to at some point if need be though (obviously after November 30th as i'm banned from editing until then!)

I think whether or not you use fictional places depends on the city. Major landmarks should definitely be real, and should be used, otherwise what's the point of setting the story in that city? Smaller places, like restaurants and hotels can be fictional. For example, most of my action is set in Washington DC, so I'll mention places like Georgetown and the Mall, but the shops, bars and apartment buildings are mostly fictional.

If a butterfly flaps its wings in one part of the world, it could cause people at the opposite end of the globe to watch a Discovery Channel special on butterflies. --Stephen Colbert, I Am America (And So Can You)

Good rule of thumb is: If something negative is going to happen at the place of business, i.e., like your MC's best friend finds a rat in her burrito at a Mexican restaurant... don't name it by name.

My chick lit is set in Philadelphia. I'm using real places for the most part, i.e., where the MC's love interest works, where she shops for groceries, where she gets coffee, where she catches the Amtrak (since it's not an essential part of the story). But I'm creating her own place of employment (to fit my authorial needs -- also because I don't think I've found such a thing that exists in Philly :) ) and the bar where she and her best friend hangs out at (so I have flexibility if I need something negative to happen).

Another bit of advice--and digest this during revisions: Be accurate when using a real city. Some readers are sticklers. :) I read a romance novel one time that was set in Cincinnati. I live there; you don't see novels set in Cincinnati. She was so far off, I vowed never to read another one of her books again. It's like she needed a city to set her story in, and just randomly picked Cincinnati.

Hope this helps!

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Stephanie Secrest on Romance Divas

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Stephanie Secrest on Romance Divas

Hahaha, you have no idea how excited I am that somebody's writing a story about a place I'm familiar with (and avoid, in the case of Vanilla). I would love to read your story when it's done.

I THINK mine is set in Manchester too, although currently it's Gecwu (Generic English City With University). Actually, currently it's unnamed, but that's what I'm calling it in my head. When I picture the action taking place, I picture it happening in Manchester, though. I wanted it set in Nottingham but I know nothing about Nottingham really. So far, nowhere's been mentioned by name at all. They went to a pub and just called it 'the pub'. That's about it so far. I know exactly which pub I'm thinking of though and I may use real names of clubs and that later on, just because I'm no good at making them up.

2006: Of Lost Causes - failed miserably.

2007: Those Who Wait

One snarky ex-con, one stressed university student, one psychotic teacher and two generic best friends. If I'm really lucky, there might even be a plot!

Well ... I'd like a home in Gecwu, LOL! Sounds mighty friendly.

Hi everybody ... I'm new here and was just wondering, do you have to get permission to use the names of real restaurants, and even to have your characters ordering actual menu items and so forth? Are these things copyrighted? I've tried but I've never been able to find an answer to this question!

Jenny

"The abyss and the light of the world/Time's need and the craving for eternity/Vision, event, and poetry/Was and is dialogue with you." ~Martin Buber

www.jennyweber.com

I guess it really depends on how well you know your city. But at the same time, having made-up locations gives you more freedom. It all depends on your characters, where they work, live, and so forth.

That's how I'm approaching it, anyhow. :D

I use real names, if only to save me the bother of making up names for pubs or restaurants.

"To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable, only unexplained."
(The Fourth Doctor)

I do both. My setting starts out in St. Louis but she makes a move to a smallish community and I've used real names and made up names. I will be going to the smallish community the end of November, so I might go ahead and fill in the real names of locations just to keep real, but then I don't really think it matters at all.

You figure, people will be reading your book from all over. Many have never visited the town or towns that your book takes place in. So if you have to make up a location or a restaurant, then well....you make it up. :) Most people won't even notice.

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Nicole Humphrey
“Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.” by Jessamyn West
NaN

Mine is set in Chelmsford, though I never name the city. I have taken my MC out shopping and it was handy to know exactly where to find what shop and what you could get there, being 'a bloody foreigner' in this country.. ;)

I definitely make things up, all the time. The secret is to use a seamless blend of 'real' and 'fake' that doesn't get picked up (or cared about) by readers. I download endless maps and street-scene photos from a vast variety of sources-- that is when I can't go there or don't have first-hand knowledge of it, and then include maybe 5% of the detail in the actual text which can be written with some degree of credibility. I got good at making up fanciful Utopias when I was 17 and it's become second nature by now.

The biggest joke or mistake is when you get it totally, irretreivably WRONG. Agatha Christie once received a letter from a sincere fan delicately reminding her that the corner in Paris she mentioned actually named two parallel streets (imagine Madison & Park!). But even a place like 'Vegas has enough room to be less than absolutely finite. And you run into political and legal isues when too precisely naming real places. What if the bar owner doesn't lilke how you've depicted him?

I use a rule whereby I am just specific enough to sound credible whilst being general enough to allow for anything reasonable. It's all in your delivery. I like mentioning places the way I would (if I did) drop names, as though the reader will get that your MC knows her stuff, and is in the right place, but not like it's necessary to describe it. If I told you Jeninne's fashion studio was in the Fifities, you'd have to scour 160 blocks of Manhattan to find it, and you wouldn't, and the result is the same-- you know she's where she should be and you're impressed by that.

For 'Pamela' (see my site) I used very specific real places-- and then went completely off reality when mentioning something like the secret sunbathing spot. The character's reasons for keeping its exact location secret are as good as mine-- since I don't know where it really is. For 'Deirdre' extensive research allowed credible locations without having to be specific-- but I DO know that there ARE exotic-dance clubs AND seedy waterfront neighbourhoods in Nassau and that's good enough for 99.5% of readers to accept it and never care about it again.

I would have them drop in at Scojo;s... if I were you. If I were me it would be George's at 11th and the Blvd. :)

I write local for about 98% of all my books, articles, and stories. Very local. Most of my stories never leave the tiny 7 mile long, 3 mile wide beach-strip town I live in. And in most cases, they never even got 100 feet away from my front yard: I actual dismissed the fact that my house was there and stuck a big manor-house in the same spot! Because I live here, real events... like Ice Storm '98 and the ravenges of Hurrinaine Bob in '91, actualy make it ito my books. I end up writing entire stories based on local events. In my stories you'll often find the OOB Pier, Palace Playland, and Bill's Pizza . . . let's not forget the beach itself!Rarly do I write a story that does not include Old Orchard's Old Orchard Beach. Odd thing is, some 400 miles to my North is Arcadia National Park and it's famous Thunder Hole, and yet, in my stories, I've got the Thunder Hole note more than 500 yards away from the OOB Pier! And the White Mountains of New Hampshire? Yeah, I moved them too.

A lot depends on one question:

Are you planning to publish this story, or is it just for your eyes only?

This is a very tricky area, that the best answer for is:

when in doubt -leave it out.

Why? Because while a few places may be glad for the free publicity, just as many will be quick to slap you with a lawsuit. I know that sounds silly, but it is a sad true fact that many writers learn this the hard way, the same day the sheriff knocks on their door and tells them they must appear in court. This type of lawsuit is far more common than a copyright infringment lawsuit, and rarly goes in the author's favor.

Now you are asking: "Why would they sue me? If I owned their busines I'd love to be in that book!" ...hhhhmm... step outside of yourself and think about it for a minute: Would you? Would you REALLY like it if you were reading a book one day and suddenly found that your home was in the book, and everything from sex to murder was going on in your kitchen?

A lot depends on the nature of what you write.

For example: If you MC says to another character: "I eat at Moe's Pizza on Third St, rwice a week . . . you should go there, they make the best pizza!"Than the two go there and remanice good times over a mushroom and cheese deep dish. Foor something like this (which was actualy done: read -'Mystic Pizza') You are not going to have any problems. In this case you may even wish to give the business owner a copy of the book and ask if they'd sell copies of it off their tables/counter. In a case like this, your book is good publicity for them, and they'd love to ppromote it.

Let's consider instead this example: While eating a Moe's Pizza and remaniscing about good times, a masked robber comes in, blows Moe's brains out, steals the cash drawer, and runs out shooting five more people on the way out the door. This is what would be considered bad publicity, and well get you in a 3 to 5 year slander lawsuit, that could end up in you oweing for "emotional damages and loss of customers", which usualy is a number well over half-a-million US dollars, and nearly all judges and juries answer in the business owner's favor. In a story like this, you would want to change the name of the business to something fictional.

The worst case synario would be if you wrote about a shooting and than a shooting actually did happen. There was a case a few years back when such a thing occured and the court found the author "guilty of neglagence". (Said he should have used some common sence before useing a real place-setting to set a murder in.) He got suspened prison time and owed not only the business owner, but also the murder victim's family. (Family accused author of putting the idea in the murderer's head and the court agreed.) While these type of lawsuits are not as common, they do happen, and the author is usualy found guilty.

This is the kind of attitude that will get you in court quicker than you can blink. Remember, people are still people and most people do not like to be talked about behind their back and they hate it even more if you talk about them in the media. Remember too that every business has an owner, and anything you say about the business is taken as if you said it about the owner.

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"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity." - Albert Einstein"

I've always wondered aout that as well. I'm setting my story in Pittsburgh, where I'm from, but I'm making up names of the bars and nightclubs they go to. Although if you want it to be very personal, maybe use places you really go.

If you want to be happy don't think... if you stutter don't talk.

I'm writing with satirical intent. I have mentioned a real city by name (Newcastle upon Tyne) and a couple of real landmarks there (The High Level Bridge, the tram sheds). I have mentioned other businesses by name (Burger King) unless I was saying something nasty about them, in which case I altered the name a bit (Landward Strife, Northern Crock.) This probably isn't a legal defence against a charge of libel but living in Scotland might be.

For the streets of Hell, I had only to use the names of twentieth century British politicians to create a horribly recognisable urban landscape: Blair Street, Kinnock Drive, Gummer Way, Mandelson Crescent etc.

Ken Johnson

Script Frenzy 2008: The Cross Dressing Detective
NaNoWriMo 2007 winner: Hell and Highwater
Occasional Trainer's Diary

I'm using a real city (Seattle), but I never mention the names of places. It's not that important to my story, so I can just say they went to dinner at a ______ and a movie at theater. The only real place I used was the Westlake station of the bus tunnel, but it was for a dream sequence, so I don't think that counts.

My personal policy is, if you don't give a name and just set the scene, you don't really need to worry about real places or made up places, there will always be something close to foot the bill and the people living in the city won't really care as long as it's well written.

Chibi Hentai-chan
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Proving to everyone everwhere that size doesn't matter

This is why I never use real locations. I always make up place-names, partly because of the issue you mentioned and partly because it's fun. For example, my story takes place in the San Mario Valley (yes, there was a St. Mario) of California--a non-existent place, based on the San Fernando Valley. The town is named Rolling Hills (also non-existent) and is in San Mario County. That way, I don't have to get any details right!