McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Fictional Locales, Real World

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MisterBananas:
If you're here, thanks for taking a look. I'm trying to work out a home city for the main character of a story I hope to eventually get published. The story predominately takes place in urban environments, sprawling metropolises and such. Which is where my problem arises.

Having never lived in a city and thus having nothing to pull from for a specific location any city picked for the character's hometown probably just wouldn't be done justice. I want the story to feel like it could be in our real world, or at least an only slightly distorted mirror of our world. So the question is: Do I still try to use a real city and likely flub up or make up a city?

LizW65:
My recommendation would be to find the city nearest you and spend some time walking around, soaking up the atmosphere and making note of the ways in which it differs from your rural home: more heavily populated, most things within walking distance, different ethnic makeup, etc. as well as the sounds, smells, quality of light, and so on. Also, Google Earth is your friend. After you've experienced the real thing for yourself, it will be easier to decide if you want to use a real city or create one by cherrypicking bits from existing locations as needed.

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:
I'd add, the more cities and neighbourhoods in cities you know well, the more plausibly you're going to be able to make bits up and have them feel right.

Quantus:
As a general rule Id caution against making a completely new city for an Urban Fiction, unless you are looking to put a relatively large emphasis on the "Alternate Earth" setting.  Having a city that is completely new tends to distance the reader from the setting familiarity that Urban Fantasy banks on, and really drives home the sense that this is NOT their world.  Now, for certain stories that may be a benefit.  Comic Books have long been able to get away with it (Gotham City=Chicago, Metropolis= New York, Coast City=L.A, etc) but they have that single unifying difference of "this is the modern world, only with Super Heroes."   Similarly, wouldnt be a big deal for one of the several Urban Fantasies were, for example, the Supernatural World is open and known to the general Populace.  But in both cases it works because a big theme of the story is going to be about all the ways the setting is NOT the Real World.  But if you want the feeling of the setting being this world, just with secrets that the average person doesnt know, Id say its worth the effort of researching a particular City, so that you can maintain the sense of familiarity with the wider world

That being said, there is also a danger of being TOO familiar with a city.  I see this most often with writers that are native New Yorkers.  New yorkers are notorious for viewing the City as its own world, and tend to forget that certain things that are common knowldge for a resident are not actually known to the rest of the world.  For example, they may use certain park statues as landmarks that dont mean anything to non-natives.  Or referencing neighborhoods by their street number;  its the difference between saying "the young College girl knew she shouldnt be in that part of Harlem in the middle of the night", vs saying ""the young College girl know she shouldnt be north of 110th street in the middle of the night."  Anyone who has never lived in New York City wouldnt have any clue what those street numbers represent. 

the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh:

--- Quote from: Quantus on September 06, 2013, 03:52:38 PM ---As a general rule Id caution against making a completely new city for an Urban Fiction, unless you are looking to put a relatively large emphasis on the "Alternate Earth" setting.  Having a city that is completely new tends to distance the reader from the setting familiarity that Urban Fantasy banks on, and really drives home the sense that this is NOT their world.  Now, for certain stories that may be a benefit.  Comic Books have long been able to get away with it (Gotham City=Chicago, Metropolis= New York, Coast City=L.A, etc)

--- End quote ---

I've always read Gotham as mythically "big scary city where you get mugged all the time" and Metropolis as "bright shiny city of tomorrow" and both of those as aspects of how New York is seen.

(Last map of the DC universe I saw, Gotham replaced Delaware and Metropolis took up about the southern quarter of New Jersey; and New York itself is much smaller than in RL, and judging by the Manhattan Guardian miniseries, full of awesome buildings and things that were proposed but not actually built in the real world.)

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