This week, Alida, Robert, and Kathryn talk about using real places and place names in your writing. Why would you do it? And what should you consider before you do it?
VIDEO
AUDIO
SHOW NOTES
What are the advantages and pitfalls of using real places and names in your writing? What should you fictionalize, and what can you leave the same? It all comes down to genre expectations, how close to reality you want to be, and not pulling your readers out of your story!
What we talked about:
What are the advantages and pitfalls of using real places and names in your writing? (0:32)
Do we write real world places into our settings? (3:50)
What about real world distances? (5:17)
How real to life do you want your story to be? Does it enhance your story? (6:12)
Should you change a places name? How much should you fictionalize? (10:24)
A brief sojourn into the business side of this topic. (13:00)
Naming versus appearing settings. (14:30)
Write what you know! (15:15)
What about in fantasy world building? (17:25)
LINKS
Things we mentioned:
Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson
Stephen King
Want more about these topics? Check out:
SWRT 020: Setting
SWRT 044: World Building in Dystopian & Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
SWRT 055: Hard & Soft World Systems