Can you get too local?

[alchemist]

I needed somewhere very remote for my characters to hole-up during the Apocalypse, so I based it on my great-uncle Paddy's long-abandoned farm. The whitewash still stands out clearly in my mind.

Then I needed a city-by-the-sea within one day's driving range, with some fun and frolics along the way. So I'll probably choose Galway or Dublin, or maybe even Belfast, since I know those roads well.

But am I risking limiting my potential readership's interest by choosing settings I can describe well but are unfamiliar to them? Will my efforts to explain local quirks and traditions stand out as infodumping? Or am I limiting potential publishing outlets for this short story/novelette/novel (not yet decided)?

"If it's written well enough, they won't mind," you might say but I think readers do want something they can relate to, to some extent. Plan B is Scotland (been to the Highlands once) or Plan C is Colorado (got a nice snowy Christmas card from a Coloradon Chrons member) but I'd then worry about authenticity.

So, write what you know v write what the reader may be more familiar with?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

No, you can jump on the bandwagon of Irish sci fi. . Proponents, two.. It really doesn't bother me when something is set locally, cos the writer knows it and it gives me a sense of grounding, that the world is very real. But, I know you were uncomfortable-ish with Inish being so set in the real world, and if it made you uneasy to read it (noone else has minded that aspect of it) maybe it isn't what you want. In which case, if you're not targeting the local market, you can get away with being a little vague, and very few will be any the wiser.

 

[Scott R. Forshaw]

I don't think so, no. It's like saying someone who'd never been to London would hate to read a book which was set there; I don't think it matters. If you can explain the setting clearly enough and make it interesting, then whether it's set in a field in Slough or a carpark in Birkenhead, it won't make a difference.

 

[alchemist]

@springs: Only uncomfortable-ISH rather than uneasy (because I like Inish). There's a balance to be found somewhere and I worry I won't have it. This was partly prompted by some research on a character who is a member of the Irish equivalent of a SWAT team. I might write in some of the information I read about, but no-one beyond this jurisdiction will really care what weapons the Garda ERU carry, or how difficult it may be to drive along the Mullingar bypass following an Apocalypse.

@Scott: the difference here is, London is big and sassy and everyone knows it, even if they haven't been there. Who here, hand on heart, can say they've been to, or seen a film about, Lough Easkey? Still, you're mildly reassuring me.

 

[Scott R. Forshaw]

Okay, so maybe London was a poor example, Alc. I've read books which have been set in small hamlets or towns in the middle of nowhere, and still had my mind blown. It's down to how well you're able to spice it up, to capture the readers imagination. Even a peat bog, in the wilds of Derbyshire can be the most entertaining place on earth, if you know how to make it come to life on the page.

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Everything has to be set somewhere, and most people who will read it won't live there. I think you're better off making it a place that you can bring to life from experience. The people who haven't been there will gain from your knowledge, and the people who have will be happy to recognize it. If you try to write Colorado (for example) without having been there, it won't ring true for people who haven't been there, and people who have will be put off by the things you don't know. Nobody in particular, of course, just random readers.

 

[Ursa major]

I've never been to Edinburgh, but I like the way the city plays an important part in Ian Rankin's Rebus stories; I believe the latter benefit from the way Rankin weaves his locations (including the parts of Fife he knows well) into them.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

One of the things I love about fiction is the way in which a good writer can make me understand what a setting feels like. This can be done with an entirely imaginary place, but it also works well when the author knows a real place intimately.

The problem is that an author who is very familiar with a real place might lose the reader who is not so familiar with the place. If I were to say something like "I walked down Frazier Avenue, past the usual North Chattanooga shops" and left it at that, I have not made you feel the place. I need to say something like "I walked down Frazier Avenue, the narrow sidewalk crowded with joggers and young mothers with strollers, past shops full of so-called primitive art and flavored olive oils." I hope I have given a taste of what that area is like.

 

[Abernovo]

It's not the location, but the story, alc. A couple of months ago, I saw the film Here (2011), a romantic drama about a cartographer working in Armenia. I know very little about Armenia, but thoroughly enjoyed it. Likewise, I've never been to Sweden, but really like Henning Mankell's Wallander novels (detective fiction), which often have a significant amount of rural/small town scenes.

What would we be missing if someone didn't produce these films and books, simply because some readers aren't familiar with the locales?

Go for it, I say.

 

[alchemist]

Thanks for the replies, everybody. It seems nobody is put off by the idea so I'll keep it local and see how it pans out. I might even show it to someone and watch for scratching of heads! Or I might even have some ready by the time I reach 2,000 posts (both writing and posting are going slowly - it's not an exciting race)

 

[pokiepup]

I think your idea sounds good, it's rare to find locations in stories that aren't in the major, well know cities. Kind of adds a fresh mystery to it. Not to mention since you can descirbe it well it will give a good picture plus the reader can make a continuation of that in their head rather then going for like New-York or Chicago where you really can't. Just my opinion.

 

[Montero]

Another vote for write in Ireland.

Saw a documentary on Minnette Walters the thriller/murder writer. Her books are all set in places she knows, cute sea side towns in Dorset (if I am remembering correctly) and up on downs, in a stone cutting quarry etc and she said that the very specific to UK scenic nature actually helped her books sell in the US.

Also, I once read a book set in a small town I know well and it was
a) great fun recognising places I knew
b) Hilarious at what was done to them. (A somewhat destructive book - as in demons fighting down the street and the medieval town square did not fare well.)

 

[allmywires]

I don't think it matters. For instance, I have no idea why but I love the romanticism/mysticism of Ireland as a setting. I've never been there, but I would probably be more likely to pick up a book if it was set in some back country Irish setting because in my head, I know the idea of it will be good.

On the other hand, if anybody were ever to write a book set in my hometown, I'd also love it. Like Montero says, I'd read it just for the joy of recognising places I've been.

 

[HareBrain]

"This is a local book, for local people -- there's nothing for you here!"

I'd echo the calls to keep it local. It won't matter that readers won't have been there; what will matter is that because you know those places, they will come across as being deeply real. A great example (coincidentally also Irish) for me is Paul Kearney's A Different Kingdom, parts of which are set in the Boyne Valley. The reality of the place just bleeds from the page, far better than a later bit set in London.

 

[nubins]

If you are really concerned about it being too local, you could always change the names or make up a fictional location. But I personally don't have any concerns about reading books set in unfamiliar real locations.

Sometimes it can add quite a bit to the story. Robert Rankin does this (admittedly for comedic effect) a great deal. His book the Brightonomicon (for example) is brilliant.

In fact, it's part of the appeal that makes him so successful - just look at some of his book names:
The Brentford Triangle
The Brentford Chainstore Massacre
Waiting for Godalming
The Witches of Chiswick


So you maybe you shoudl celebrate the local setting, rather than be concerned about it

 

[Mouse]

nubins has kinda said what I was going to, but, what's the difference between writing somewhere fictional and writing somewhere that not many people have heard of? None, I'd say. So get on with ya, and stop flapping.

 

[Peter Graham]

Note of caution.

I once got personalised feedback from an agent telling me that he couldn't sell a supernatural murder set in the North.

There is a world of difference between Chiswick (smart London suburb populated by lots of wealthy media types), Godalming (sprawling southern commuter belt town) and Brentford (see Godalming) and some genuine rural backwater outside the south east populated by thirty locals and 300 sheep. Put simply, millions of people will know enough about Chiswick or Godalming to keep reading.

There is also a certain Londoncentric spin in the media. Look where the vast majority of agents and publishers are based. Now, I'm not saying that my book would have been snapped up had it been set in Twickenham or South Ken or Docklands, but the geographical location clearly counted against it, at least in one agent's mind.

Of course, once folk start reading, the magnificence of one's narrative style will do the rest and the depth of knowledge will shine through and undoubtedly improve reader enjoyment. But you have to get the buggers to open the book first. If I was in a bookshop and saw two books, one called "Zombie Maypole Mayhem in Kirkby Lonsdale" and one called "Zombie Maypole Mayhem in Islington", I'd go with the former. So, probably, would the other 400,000 or so Cumbrians. Meanwhile, the 12,000,000 or so residents of the M25 conurbation are picking up the latter........

Regards,

Peter

 

[Montero]

OK - but I do wonder if there are also folks like me (possibly even agents though there is no evidence of it to present) who are bored with everything being set in London.

Other than that, there are plenty of published authors who are not setting things in London or the most major city of their country.

Tanya Huff - a good chunk of her latest, the Wild Ways is set in a couple of small fishing ports on the Canadian coast.

Sharon Lee - Carousel Tides - seaside town, fishing village and funfair on the Maine coast.

Already mentioned Minette Walters.

Jasper Fforde - his versions of Swindon and Reading. (And those aren't even cute and scenic.)

And moving to TV - Morse and Lewis are in Oxford, Taggart in Glasgow. Torchwood is in Cardiff.

 

[Peter Graham]

OK - but I do wonder if there are also folks like me (possibly even agents though there is no evidence of it to present) who are bored with everything being set in London.

I'm sure there are plenty - me included. But it isn't just the domestic market. London has an international reputation that very few other places in the UK could even dream of. It also routinely attracts the greatest number of tourists (with the Lake District batting at number two!).

Other than that, there are plenty of published authors who are not setting things in London or the most major city of their country.

Of course there are. I was merely sounding a note of caution - not saying that everything has to be set in London.

And moving to TV - Morse and Lewis are in Oxford, Taggart in Glasgow. Torchwood is in Cardiff.

After London, Oxford and Cambridge must rank as two of the UK's big hitters when it comes to international recognition - along with Stratford, Bath, Durham, Edinburgh and possibly also Manchester (for music and football fans, at least), Liverpool and York. Glasgow is another massive conurbation with at least a national, if not international, reputation for grittiness that plays well with detective stuff.

Cardiff is less well known, but given that it is the home of BBC Wales - who make Torchwood - one can perhaps see how that one came about.

As someone living, working and trying to write in the North West, I'm delighted about the BBC shift to Salford Quays. If it kick starts greater regionalism, I think we'll hear more and more northern voices and see more and more stuff based in the north which doesn't rely on the lazy, Royston Vasey-esque stereotyping of desperate, decaying industrial towns populated by parochial wierdoes and thick pigeon fanciers.

Regards,

Peter

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Just to stick my oar in and say that of all the idealised place settings (and I stress idealised, the locals know better...) Ireland is one that tends to resonate, particularly in America with its large migrant history. And where Alc is setting it, towards the west of Ireland (I'm assuming that anyway, Alc, that's its up near Donegal/Sligo?) is a part that holds particular resonance.

There is a huge industry in Irish-set books, albeit not sci-fi, that consistently shows that as a setting it is hugely popular. I genuinely think provided its not too Irish in its tone (and I'm trying to find the balance in one of mine, both setting the flavour, but not alienating) being set in Ireland is a sellling point.

If you feel a city setting is needed, then Dublin, again, is a massive literary city, with tons of books set in it: Joyce, Roddy Doyle, O'Casey, most contemporary irish writers, and even Belfast has a fairly established, albeit bleaker, literary history. I think Ireland will appeal (but, ahem, I would say that. )