Settings and How to Handle Them

[ratherastory]

Okay, fellow writers, I have a question.

How do you handle real-life settings with which you're not familiar? I've been reading (dangerous, I know), and many of the books on writing all agree that having a strong setting will add richness and depth to your story.

On the surface, I totally agree. I am a big fan of good world-building when it comes to sci fi and fantasy, for instance. I also love books in which I get a real feel for the setting, the stench of a city's underbelly or the stark beauty of the cityscape at night, the fragrant smells of farmland, etc. I can usually tell when an author is writing about a setting they've lived in or experienced first hand.

The few times I've used setting to good effect, it's been when I was familiar with the locale. In my long-abandoned zombie novel, I was able to follow the characters from street to street and describe in very accurate detail not only what they were seeing, but the kind of weather they were experiencing, the colour of the buildings, etc. In another story, The Built in a Day Job, to be precise, I used my recent trip to Rome in the springtime to evoke all the sights and sounds and smells of the city that were vital to what I was trying to accomplish in my story.

So what am I supposed to do when I need to set my story in one or more places with which I'm not at all familiar? Somewhere I've never been? I can give overall impressions of a place based on research, but I have no idea how to get the level of detail I would like to put into a story. Is there really a shop on that street corner in Memphis? Is that a one-way street? What bus routes should my characters be taking in Calgary? Is there even reliable public transit? What's the weather like in Colorado in March? What did Cambridge smell like in summer in the late 1800s?

So how do you handle it when you have to write in an unfamiliar setting? Any advice?

Comments

[tj-teejay.livejournal.com]

One word: Google. :-D

No, honestly, I've used Google Streetview quite a lot when I was writing fanfic that was set in Toronto. Of course that can't substitute for having been there in person (which I now have), but it still helps. Might also help to talk to someone who's been there and can help you with descriptions.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I may have to try that out again. The last time I used Google for location purposes Streetview hadn't been invented. It's definitely a tool I hadn't considered using. Thanks!

[tj-teejay.livejournal.com]

Well, not all places actually have Streetview, but I think most of the big cities do nowadays. It's really helped me with getting the feel of a particular location (and I actually found a ReGenesis location out in Liberty Village that way).

[cordelia-gray.livejournal.com]

This is an irrelevant and unhelpful drive-by happy birthday!

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

<3

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

I actually have some good advice on this but I'm loopy tonight (just a little late to focus) so I'll expound tomorrow...

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I look forward to reading your thoughts!

[claudiapriscus.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of the stuff, like bus routes or local shops you can either research or just go whole hog in inventing. I think the trick is to look at how you'd describe a place you're intimately familiar, and notice the cues by which you add texture to it. So that's what I try to do- treat setting like you would a character. come up with the idea, then fill in the back story and motivations. I think this works because usually, it seems like the more familiar you are with a place, the more likely you are to describe in not necessarily in technical detail, but in sensation (including feelings/memories). If I were to tell you a story about the murder bar (a building on main street in my home town), I'd describe the feeling of standing outside on the sun-baked sidewalk in high summer as a kid, peering with my friends through windows encrusted with several decades of dust, barely able to see more than some old blinds covered in dead flies and an unlit neon sign for a brand of beer they haven't made in 30 years. I'd tell you that what we were trying to strain our eyes to see was some evidence that the legends we'd heard about the place were true, that the owner just locked it up one night and walked away after the murder of her sister, leaving everything in place as it had been that night. I'd tell you about how it felt to hear that story, and about the way the glass felt gritty under your fingers. Etc. Etc. But I don't need to have actually experienced the murder bar to apply those kind of details, though of course it does help. What I don't really need to tell you is the murder bar's exact details or description, because the emotional connection is more important and more useful.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

the emotional connection is more important and more useful

That's a very good point, thank you!

[bellatemple]

Agreeing with all of the above and adding: hunt down other people's narratives about the location. Look for common threads between them, re: weather and smells and atmosphere and all. Read enough of these that you start to get the sense that you have been there, that you have experienced it. Don't copy their impressions, but work with them, develop them into something of your own. The experience of a place is actually very specific to the individual -- my memories of my college town are not the same as my classmates' memories -- so by building on the facts and common themes of others' experiences along with your own experiences in similar environments (if you have any) and just your own experiences in your own environments all put together will give your reader that depth that you're looking for.

Aim for honesty, rather than accuracy. There will always be someone who will go "you can't get a bus through town at that hour", but for each one of them, there will be ten times as many who just appreciate the way your setting adds to your story as a whole.

[ratherastory.livejournal.com]

I think I was a little too worried about the people who would pick up on the inaccurate bus route. I've had people knit-pick about the presence of seatbelts in the Impala, so imagine if I got location details wrong about someone's city! :P

I'll have to find some books set in the locations I decide upon, it seems.

Thanks for the input!

[agelade.livejournal.com]

Research a ton, and yes, I use street view a lot to get the lay of the land. If you were possessed of more money than sense, you could consider just going to visit. If you're writing about a bigger city, like Memphis, there are probably travel message boards where you can ask your questions and get answers. While it's true that the honesty, the emotional connection is more important, I have been blindsided in workshops with some information that is apparently commoner knowledge than I thought and I'll have to change entire parts of the story to accommodate.

Sometimes it's enough to get the name and details of one shop on a street, and paint around it. You'll be forgiven for an impressionistic view of the surrounding if you've got one or two really sharp details to pull out.

Cheat, maybe. If it's a small town, the number of people likely to read it and get up in arms about how there's no street called "Main Street" is low. If it's a bigger city, there's rarely going to be a person who knows all the nooks and crannies, so you can write in a way that obfuscates the street details but invents a shop in a general area, and no one's the wiser. There's a middle ground that is dangerous there, of course.

[harrigan.livejournal.com]

The story I can most remember setting in a city I was only marginally familiar with was NYC. And the story was for a prompt that specifically asked for a big-city SPN casefic, preferably NYC. (I had been a tourist there but hadn't explored the residential neighborhoods, certain churches I wanted to use, etc.)

Besides all the other great comments you've gotten here, I have a couple more suggestions. One thing I did was rent some movies to scrutinize that were set in that city. (For NYC, that wasn't hard. Not sure if that's an option in your situation.) And the other was to solicit input from folks who lived there, ask for descriptions or anecdotes that can add a you-are-there quality to the story. (Again, maybe that's not an option in your current dilemma.)

Good luck!

[jesseofthenorth.livejournal.com]

The first thing I do when I am researching an un familiar place? Google earth street veiw. Sounds weird right? Only. It actually puts you on the street. After that: research, research, research.. You can extrapolate a lot just from having background data that never makes it into a story. And? when in doubt make some shit up and put upa disclaimer (although I am not a big fan of that onemyself).

The beauty of being a writer in this day and age is that you kind find as mmuch detail as you want about a place. To the point where I know so much about west Texas, because of a story I wrote two years ago, that I can spot a wrong detail in a movie. I might have over done the research a bit on that one ;)

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

Yes! When I had my two main characters move to a town and take a walk, I literally went to Google Street View and took the walk myself, first. It's dated to whenever they took those photos, but it still feels very real.

[tabaqui]

Research, research, research. That's it. Go on the Old Farmer's Almanac site (if this is the US), and look and see what time sun rise and sunset is/was (their archives go back for decades), see what the weather is/was like, if they get snow, or rain, or whatever.

Then research what kind of plants grow there. What kind of plants are planted in an urban setting. Are there abandoned lots or are there mini-parks and community gardens? Lots of 'urban blight' or lots of gentrification?

Who has immigrated there? Is there a large Ethiopian community, or a long-settled Chinese community? What whiffs of regional cooking will you encounter in apartments, alleys, and along the street outside of restaurants?

Google image is your friend. Look at *all* the pictures. Ones taken professionally by the city for the tourist board or whatever, and ones taken by tourists. Read people's 'vacation reviews'. Look up stuff like public transportation, taxis, etc. Are there big buses all over the place or do people ride bikes? How about subways or elevated trains?

That thing on google where you can look at street level, pictures taken by a person or car as they drove up the street? Use that, too.

Ask on a comm like little_details if anyone lives there and what the 'vibe' of the city is, what certain parts are like, that kind of thing.

And relax, too, because car exhaust and over-full dumpster in summer smell the same from New York to San Fran, so some thing you don't have to worry about too much.

Anyway, that's what i do. Takes me several days before i tackle the actual writing, but once i'm satisfied that i've done enough research, i just go for it. Nine times out of ten, it'll be just fine.

Oh, and - even the smallest town generally has a google map, and you can get street names off of that, and usually at least one or two 'main street' type pictures that give you an idea of what the town is like and such. And then look on their Chamber of Commerce page, you'll see the names of some of the prominent businesses and such, if there is a hotel or any restaurants, that kind of thing. There won't be a *ton* of info, but i'll give you a sketch of what it's like.

You got some *very* good advice here in the comments. :)

[cappy712.livejournal.com]

I saw someone else recommend Google Street View - but you could also go to some sites find someone who lives in the area that you are using for the background and ask. Most people would be willing to help with a description of their home town.

You could also go to the public sites for the towns / cities and take a look through their pictures - see if there is a chat available to talk to some of the locals.

Most to the time when you are writing a scene the writer is allowed to take "literary liberties" it's like some movies do, they don't always stick to the book they are turning into a movie.

Colorado in March - unless it is an unusually warm time it's still pretty cold (from what I've seen on the weather channel and reading from others) the weather channel might even have past records on file of what the weather was like ...
Cambridge smell like - possibly manure and fields (horse and buggy time) I am just guessing here.

[quickreaver.livejournal.com]

Okay, skimmed all the comments, as not to repeat info.

Google Streetview is one of my tools, as is flickr for gorgeous, tony photos of your area-in-question. Commenters have also touched on emotional honesty and details that are likely to hold true, regardless of locale. But my secret weapons is vacation blogs. Look for folks (with your Google-fu) who have blogged about visiting your mystery spot on a vacation or live there and simply love their city. Tourist books tend to glamorize spots and may not necessarily be as current as you'd like.

Also, hunt down the adventures of Anthony Bourdain (http://www.anthonybourdain.net/) or Andrew Zimmern (http://andrewzimmern.com/). They get beneath the surface of the places and people they visit and avoid the tourist traps.

Specifics such as bus routes, you'll just have to research independently or put out an all-call for beta readers who are familiar with your location.

And I'd also like to add that it's okay to fictionalize your setting a little, think of it as a character unto itself. Almost personify it. If you approach it from an atypical viewpoint, who's to say you're right or wrong, yanno?

Hope this helps!

[lavinialavender.livejournal.com]

Two sources: Google Maps and Wikipedia. With Google Maps, you zoom in close enough on a neighborhood, you can see just about every street on the block (I'm not talking about Street View, which other people mentioned; just zooming in real close on the maps so that all the shop names become visible, and you can prowl around that way. Also search for libraries, parks, police stations to get a feel of how friendly the town might feels -- then it's good to use Street View to see how they actually appear, too). Wikipedia will tell you everything notable about that town, including climate expectations year-round (though you sometimes have to go to the regional page), as well as varied demographics. You can keep going, visiting the websites of any businesses that look interesting to get a better feel for them, or just google-image "downtown -----" to see pictures of the downtown life.

You can put in destinations between two spots in Google Maps and make it spit out bus, walking, driving directions, etc., to give you a feel of what it's like to get around the city. You can also set it by specific times of day, to see if it changes late at night or something.

I really feel like I've been to Boulder, CO, despite how I never have been, because of the amount of research I did for that town for FC. What can I say, I like research. And you always get great discoveries by scrutinizing Google Maps, like when I found the place called Laughing Goat Coffeehouse.

[fuzzystill.livejournal.com]

*de-lurked, wave sheepishly* Hi :) There are so many thoughtful comments, I hope you don't mind another one?

As a reader, I agree with claudiapriscus that emotional connection is important. To add to that, I think context matters greatly. In my own attempt to write fanfic, I often have a particular place/city in mind although I dispenses with the descriptions -- while it may have add bulk to the story but I tend to ask myself, is this important? What does it contribute to the story? Because if nothing else, I feel over-description (and this may be because of my lack of skill) tend to get in the way of the story.

Amateur observation aside, if I may share from a professional one? Here's what Thomas Foster wrote about the subject in How To Read a Novel Like a Professor. In the discussion of setting, Foster uses Joyce's Ulysses's fictional Dublin to illustrate the point that the goal of any fictional work is to 'create the subjective reality of its object'. Joyce was a notorious recluse so he used whatever informations he could get (i.e newspaper cuttings, ads, playbills etc) to create enough details about the city, in service of the characters -- 'The responsibility of setting is to the characters in the story. Their world doesn't have to be ours but it absolutely has to be theirs'.

All the best!

[leighannwallace.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I'm lucky enough to find someone who's been there. Then I just try to get their feelings for the place, what they remember about the place, brought away from it.