Location Station

How do you guys pick your location?

I haven't published yet so you might want to see what someone else also says. I usually write about locations I've been to or where I know someone who can give me details.

I think the story should determine the location. Is there anything about the location that enhances the story? I just completed a novel that's located in Ghana, West Africa. Change the names and the cities and you could have it anywhere in the world, but there are some details that would have to change, and for me those things enhance my story. There's some sexiness about what's happening because it's happening in Accra, Ghana.

I spent a month in Scotland several years ago so one of my stories takes place there, modern Scotland. Another story I wrote takes place in Alberta, Canada. I got so interested in the area I drove up there (three days) spent four days exploring and drove home. The border guard couldn't understand why I wanted to visit Alberta in October. I also do a lot of internet searches. 

But mostly my stories take place right here at home. I've invented a fictitious valley situated where I live so I can have amenities like a transit system and physical features needed for the story. Lake Tahoe and Carson City are close by so readers have something to identify with. And I can answer questions about this area if anyone is interested.

I'd love to have the means to travel just to study a location for a story. Wouldn't that be fun? Maybe someday. 

There are certain things in a story that help me in choosing a location. Everything from the background of the person or persons, the activity taking place(some of my stories involve things specific to a location or thing in a location)... There are different variables for me, and since i have lived in a number of different places, and currently travel quite extensively i have something of a feel for certain areas. Traveling the way i do allows me to research locales fairly easily - as long as they are in the US i should add.

When i do have to move my stories to a place i have never been, i start my Internet searches of wherever the story is moving to. Oh, and for stories of local flavor i look to travel blogs of people who have been there or live there.

Hope this helps, m

I've recently read two books where the authors have not done their homework. One just made me laugh, leaving  the Mediterranean Sea via the Straights of Gibraltar usually puts you on the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Pacific as the heroine stated. Presumably the hero was after her body and not her brains.

The other was a book by an author I enjoy and there was lots of detail about the area where I live which was just plain wrong and could have been fixed by probably less than an hour on the internet. So out of respect for the reader surely things should be right or left out!

I've researched manhattan quite a bit for my ms, but was wanting to set my heroine in a small older house outside of manhattan, even though she will have to commute to manhattan daily. can someone give me an idea of a suburb where that would be best set in? or shall i move the poor darling back into an apartment?

carrie

I recently read a book where the hero's fist wife was killed on 'the steep, winding road between Carson City and Reno'. Oops! I've driven that road many times. It's Highway 395 and it's not winding, it's four lanes wide, and it goes over gentle, low mountain passes, not mountains. Now, if the author is remembering a road she drove in the area, it would more likely be the road between Lake Tahoe and Reno. Highway 431 or the Mt. Rose Highway. Now that's steep and winding in several places as it goes over the mountains.

But only readers who live in, or often visit this area would notice.  

Another local slip I read a few years ago was in a story about a ranch near Reno. The author called the mountains EAST of Reno the Sierras. 1) They're very obviously WEST of Reno. 2) The proper short name is the Sierra. (no s. I've seen this mistake even locally) Or the Sierra Nevada (not Sierra Nevada Mountains, Sierra Nevada means white mountains or snow-covered mountains. Is Spanish for snowy mountain range).   

Both slips made me laugh and took me out of the story for a moment but neither took away from my enjoyment of the stories.  

Now, I hope I remember enough of my travels in Scotland not to make mistakes in my MS that the locals will laugh at.   That is if I'm lucky enough to get it published and a dear reader in Scotland buys it. 

Here's an odd question for you...How do you feel when you read a book that doesn't specify where it's taking place? For instance, one of the manuscripts I'm working on at the moment doesn't state where it is, other than the fact that it's in the US, and is somewhere north of Florida (a character mentions heading south to Miami at one point).

I've thought about creating a stronger sense of place, but location just doesn't seem significant to the story. Instead, I've left it as an Anytown, USA.

I guess I'm wondering if you all think this is fine for an otherwise well-fleshed-out story, or if it stands out to you as a gigantic black hole that needs to be filled in?

Karen

As a reader, if the story and characters are strong I can live with a vague location. But I do like to have a general idea. I may be picturing someplace north of Miami thinking it might be Georgia, hot and humid, then a blizzard happens and I'm thrown off balance. I like to travel and I like to know if it's a place I've been to, or someplace I've dreamt of visiting, or someplace I've never considered visiting but the story makes me want to go there.

As a writer, it doesn't have to be a real location. Make one up, especially if it's a small town. I've set several of my MS in my home town, a small town (40,000). But I've fictionalized it. Mainly to give it what I needed in the story: a small hospital (up until two years ago we didn't have a hospital), a regular bus route (we have a small commuter bus with majorly insufficient stops). I've renamed everything, made one town in the middle of the valley instead of three spread out. It's a fun part of my writing, making a world for my characters. I use real names of the more well-known and well-populated areas around me. Lake Tahoe, Carson City, Reno...

(small town nevada girl) 

I was born and raised in LA and Orange County before moving to NW Nevada. In LA San Jacinto Mountian was pronounced San Hah-cinto. In TX, where my brother lives, the San Jacinto River is pronounced San Jah-cinto.

I have a story set in Scotland and I've been there but I certainly don't know the dialect. I found an online translator for Scots dialect. I translated some words then found an email address of one of the Web site's linguists and mailed my short dialog to him. He made some corrections and now I feel a little more confident that the dialog is logical. 

what fun, you've got plenty of choices if you want your heroine outside Manhattan in a small, older house...I guess the question I'd ask is, depressed, middle-class or affluent?  There are plenty of older suburbs in New Jersey, Westchester and Connecticut, and any of them could be within a reasonable commute of Manhattan, but they can be VERY different from one another.  I think someone mentioned Hoboken, which could be interesting (Brooklyn could work, too, though it's not a suburb)...but go slightly further away and you could have a leafy suburb with a small-town feel to it (say, Westfield NJ or Bronxville NY), which might be interesting as well...

...and watch out, because NJ trains come in to Penn Station, while Westchester and CT trains come into Grand Central. 

thanks for the input Florie and Chrissie Sue..much appreciated!

 carrie

much appreciated again florie! i never thought to check there!

carrie

I'm setting my book in a fictional small town somewhere between Ottawa and Toronto. It's been a while since I've been to Toronto (1994, to be exact), and I've never been to Ottawa. My characters decided they wanted to take me there.

My hero will be traveling from Ottawa to my small town. I looked on a map (thank you, Google Maps!), and it looks like Highway 401(MacDonald-Cartier Freeway?) is the way to go. 

My questions are: what is the traffic like there, especially at rush hour in Ottawa? Is this a well traveled road? What is the terrain like? The map looks like it would be a straight shoot from Ottawa-Toronto. I would put an exit to our fictional small town there.

I would have the hero traveling on a motorcycle in the freezing cold to get to the small town's hospital. He looks like a macho biker, but he's actually a caring ER doctor. (think Luka Kovac as a blond with glasses)

Would this be appropriate?  Help! 

Claire:

Wow!!! Thanks so much for the details! Looks like I'll send off for some tourism packages soon!  Noelle doesn't have a thing for doctors with frostbite, so it looks like Ryan will do the sensible thing and drive a car down the 401. And get stuck in traffic going from Ottawa to my small town.  Not to mention getting snowed in during a crucial point in the story.

I have a question out to another forum user about Canadian med schools.  She's been as detailed as you about the answers, so I'll have plenty of research material to ponder before I start revisions. The book is only one chapter through, and I have plot and conflict to consider.

Also, thank you for the clarification about the Canadian health system. I'd wanted a POV about it from someone who actually lives there.  I'm American, and you've probably heard all the news about the system here in the States. I have my own views on it, but this is the wrong place to discuss politics.

Again, thanks so much for your details. I'll probably be picking your brain again soon.

Hollie.

MS - If you're having trouble finding tourism guides for the Eastern parts of Ontario, try Kingston, the 30,000 Islands and Prince Edward County (not Island :).  They're all larger centres/regions that will likely have tourism info.

Health care is different here than in the states.  It's nationwide in that it is paid for by the federal goverment through tranfer payments to the provinces, and is governed by an Act of Parliament that limits things like for-profit fees etc.  However, the provinces run the healthcare in that they fund the hospitals, decide on the overall list of procedures and drugs, set wait time standards etc.  Everyone gets coverage and you don't pay for most services directly - that's what your OHIP card is for - and your doctor or the hospital is reimbursed by OHIP (or whatever province's health program you are in) You don't have to have your treatment preapproved and the government doesn't deny service or limit access as a cost saving strategy.  The Ontario Ministry of Health might be another site for you to research: they have a lot of info on how the system works here.

Repeat after me:  double-double, two-fer, chesterfield, toonie, poutine.  Sprinkle liberally and you'll pass just fine as a moose-hunting, toque wearing, snow-mobile riding Canuck. :)

Claire