Writing Dilemma in Contemporary Urban Fantasy

[MstrTal]

So for the past year and a half I have been world building and writing scenes making more progress than ever in the past. I have been having a blast and aside from enjoying the process happy that I have made strides beyond what I have ever made before. Now I have hit upon a stumbling block that I can not overcome.

Until now I have been able to keep forward momentum and discipline by not committing to any hard location. The scenes I have written have been done in such a manner that they can be placed in any modern city anywhere in the world. The same holds true for my flashbacks and scenes from antiquity. Such scenes are held in such generic locals of antiquity that even though they may take place in such and such a location the specifics do not matter only the scene description. Now however I have come to the point that to progress any further I must make a choice from my research and world building of a Hard setting.

This is the city that everything will revolve around. It is here that all characters will eventually connect all divergent plot lines meet and all the main players and developments stem from. The problem is that in my research and crafting back stories for many of my characters I did the same for many of the cities in my world building. I even created a few small towns and new cities out of whole cloth.

I am at a loss for how to continue. This has got to be the oddest case of writers block I have ever suffered!

 

[Tecdavid]

I'm not so sure I understand. You say you have in fact created a few towns and cities with back stories, but you're unsure what to do now you're story has reached a point where a hard location is needed?
Couldn't you just select one of those cities for the purpose? If you're previous locations aren't set in stone, so to speak, then what's the trouble? There's less solid details surrounding them, so installing one that you've written a background for shouldn’t provide many complications or contradictions one way or another, should it?

 

[Ursa major]

Do all your characters have to come from this one city? I only ask, because some cities - London, New York, Paris, Los Angeles, to mention a few 'World Cities' - are magnets for people of every sort. If your characters come from their individually realised origins and meet in your World City, your earlier work need not be in vain**.





** - Not that each one has to be described in great detail. It may be enough that you know their backgrounds and how this affects the way they behave and react.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Must it be a real city? Couldn't it be a composite of several modern cities? Just give it a name that sounds convincing, and start building it out of the details you already have?

 

[MstrTal]

Please forgive me I was so focused on my own problem I realize now that I failed to give adequate background on the issue. My WIP is for all intent and purposes set in the current modern world that has diverged at some point in history to allow for the existence of paranormal entities. Sort of in the vein of Briggs, Harrison and to an extent Butcher though more public and less under the table.

I guess I am just trying lamenting the fact that I can not seem to settle on a final city for all the main action to take place. I know that certain pivotal scenes take place in specific cities and towns but the bulk of the work needs a home. Some how in all my world building I sort of found myself homeless.

So to speak.

I feel like I am not making any sense here and that is not a good thing for a would be writer.

 

[Warren_Paul]

When writing contemporary or urban fantasy I think writers tend to base their novels in regions of the world they are familiar with. Take Laurell Hamilton for instance. Her Anita Blake novels are based in St Louis, where the author lives.

That's half the reason I never write stories based in the real world, because I've never been out of New Zealand, and this is such a boring place to write about. I wouldn't have the first clue about writing a novel based in other regions of the world.

So my advise would be to pick a city you know or have visited on a regular basis and go from there.

 

[MstrTal]

Sadly I did.

That is part of my problem. Growing up in a Military family and then moving around working road construction for many years before settling down I have lived quite a few places. Add to this my hobby for scenario paintball which in and of itself had me traveling all over the place visiting towns and other states to play and I have many miles under my feet.

I feel I am just over thinking this. I may just need to put a few scraps of paper with city names in a hat and blindly draw one out. It seems my muse vindictively silent at this point so might as well leave the future of my work to chance.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'd give it a day or two stewing in the back of your head, maybe write a couple of the scenes, see if you get a firmer idea of what you want.

 

[Ursa major]

But in your alternative world, MstrTal, hasn't Des Moines become a megecity?

(Even in this world, the metropolitan area contains more than half a million people.)

 

[Montero]

Since you have a lot of cities you could use, then perhaps start thinking about what you want from the city.

Hot climate
Temperate
Snow in winter
In the hurricane belt
Liable to flooding
Liable to earthquake
?

Colourful and quirky with festivals (my impression of New Orleans gained entirely from fiction - or at least my impression before it was hit by a hurricane)
Full of factories
Busy and bustling
Turning into a ghost town (and not the sff type of ghost )
Elegant and classic with really upmarket bits (my fictional impression of say Boston and bits of New England)
Characterful and homesy (fishing port with character - again my impression from fiction)

Might help you start pinning down which city. Assuming these are in the US.

One other suggestion. Maybe one not used before in SFF.

 

[Mouse]

I would (and did) make one up. The place I know extremely well is mostly countryside and unless I was writing Rural Fantasy, I have no choice but to set it somewhere I don't know very well. Figured I'd make up a town. Course, then the characters go and end up in London. So I feel your pain.

But, maybe you need to think about where your characters would live. Technically, I could've chosen a city nearer to where I live, but my MC is an actor so the only place he'd be, realistically to get any work, is London.

 

[Tecdavid]

I know how you feel about sounding unclear, MstrTal. Sometimes I worry my posts are utterly unreadable.

Mouse makes a good point, in that you could create a fictional city for your story's hub-area, but reference/include real towns and cities whenever you need to. In doing this, you can safely decide how your main city works, what its history is, and - better yet - you can decide precisely what's to found inside it, and what its layout is. In short, you can mould and shape it however you need to best fit your story!
I've done this very thing, actually. Segments of my story take place in this here world of ours, but the settlements the story explores are fully fictional.

 

[prizzley]

My WIP is for all intent and purposes set in the current modern world that has diverged at some point in history to allow for the existence of paranormal entities.

Why wouldn't a composite city work? If you chose, say, London, it woudn't have to be the London everyone knows, as your divergence would cover any differences. It could, for example, be the crazy current Olympic set-up with roads closed, the Queen parachuting into the stadium with James Bond, the last few few hundred years concertina'd as per Danny Boyle's opening ceremony vision, multiple extra street entertainers etc.

Speaking of divergences, I love Ash by Mary Gentle, full of scary possibilities.

 

[MstrTal]

Thanks Everyone!

I think I was simply freaking out because this is a writing issue I have never run into before. Granted I have never allowed myself to get this far before. I am going to take all of your advice and give myself a few days before rushing to decide.

But in your alternative world, MstrTal, hasn't Des Moines become a megecity?

(Even in this world, the metropolitan area contains more than half a million people.)

This is one of the reasons I took up writing again. . . to escape Iowa!

Don't tell the wife.