Close to home

[OddLove]

Yup. All my stories are in the Pacific Northwest, although I usually go with huge cities like Seattle, Vancouver, and Portland instead of the sticks. But if I had 'fuck you' amounts of money I would move to Seattle and operate my own hot dog stand.

 

[bi_cathy]

My earlier stories, circa 2011-2019 started out with unnamed locations (and unnamed, un-described characters, too). There was one that was set in New York and had a French character, but nothing aside from that. I preferred to let the reader decide.

Since then, though, I've written longer and more involved stories, and these have bounced all over the globe. Brazil, Costa Rica with two characters from Chicago and another with Spanish roots, London with two Americans who live in Tokyo and Buenos Aires, Jeddah with an American character and a Saudi Arabian, and a scene set in Prague. Some of these are places I've been, some are not. Some are cultures I understand, some are not.

[...] but being from Europe, I think this is silly. After all, we have an erotic life here on this side of the pond too. So a place that would offer a similar geography would be Frankfurt, Germany. But this is so close to home that it feels cringy. And it makes an emotional difference whether it is a 2-hour drive towards Mount Hood, or a 20 Minute drive towards the Spessart Hills. One is an escape, the other remains next door. Can you understand such feelings? Do you write "close to home" or project into distant or even invented locations?
How does it feel writing "close to home"? Or am I overthinking?

Speaking of Europe, my recent series was basically a love letter to Europe, with a German and a Norwegian meeting in the context of Eurovision and bouncing between Madrid, Barcelona, London, Amsterdam, Basel (and vaguely Oslo, Berlin, Stuttgart). Many of these are places I'm familiar with and I felt extremely comfortable writing about them. I had the vibe, the local references, some of the culture (food, subways, sports teams, art expos, etc), and it was so much easier than pretending to know a city I'd never been to.

I didn't think it was odd or "too close to home." It was actually oddly comforting. My next works will wander closer and further from home, too, and now that I feel equally comfortable exploring the known (comfortable) and unknown (exciting), I'm looking forward to that.

 

[SimonDoom]

My stories are close to home in the sense that I often draw upon settings with which I am familiar. But in most cases I don't identify them. The settings are left unidentified and abstracted. I think in most cases it works fine that way.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I've gone both ways. Some of my stories are grounded in real places and others are more generic.
The story tends to drive that for me. Even if you aren't familiar with an area the research to set a story there is rather simple.
For my section of a chain story I found a restaurant with an interesting history I wanted to set as the backdrop for a date. Easy enough to find pictures of the interior online. Zillow let me find a building with apartments that would be within the budget for my FMC. Street View let's you check out the neighborhood.
Longer and more complex stories are better served by grounding them in reality.

 

[crookedletter]

I think the only actual place name I've used was Cancun, Mexico, for my story set in an all inclusive resort. And that only because the characters were traveling there, and it seemed appropriate to name their destination. Or to put it another way, it would have required some intentional vagueness to not name their destination, which didn't seem necessary.

Other than that, the where has generally been of less interest in what I write than the who. And not naming specific places means I get to make things up about setting that I'd be less free to do otherwise.

 

[Actingup]

Like some others have mentioned, I like when reader feedback reflects their appreciation for a story making them feel more engaged due to it including locations and places that they are familiar with.

Definitely - sometimes there's really specific feedback that that is what makes the story special for the reader. Even more so if there is an 'I was there moment':

"I remember the 1983 cold boxing day, the South Africans were playing at the G for tge first time since tge apartheid bans and I got 3 tickets,one for dad, one for my sister and one for me.
It rainedcatt day and we saw no cricket but had a great day. Our seats were undercover and we talked like we never had. My wife had the heater going when we got home."
(I got that on 'Memories of Sandy', when I'd researched the actual weather on a particular day in the story and what happened at the cricket.)

 

[Kumquatqueen]

My stories generally start off somewhere unspecified in the UK, possibly a big city, sometimes a smaller town or somewhere rural. It's obviously the UK from my words and the general assumptions - driving to work isn't a given, lots of tea is made, etc. - unless I put effort into putting it elsewhere. Usually London. Lots of South London, because it's easy for me and has the right vibe of general dodginess, subversion and queerness and sexuality that you don't get the impression of from, say, Archway or Wood Green.

Also lots of generic hotels - one reader said Premier Inn should pay me. And it made it easy to write about Vegas, which I've never been to because the characters only went from a chain hotel to a bland conference center and back.

Sometimes place is very important to a story, like rural Scotland for Only One Bed, Again!, Istanbul contrasted with cold London in Turkish Delight, alleyways round the river and South Bank for a hellbeing to lurk in, in London. Or, more rurally, I mentioned the Wye Valley and a couple landmarks, and one reader identified the exact field I'd put a camp site in!

Sometimes I have to reinvent an area - so part of Bermondsey has a churchyard just off the main road, overlooked by an old bingo hall converted into flats, near a café called Mario's and, towards London Bridge, a street of old warehouses, mostly converted, called Neckinger Row, because most of London's underground rivers are memorialised in street names. Various restaurants, fetish clubs and saunas are real but often now closed.

I did get one review which liked the story but found it disconcerting to have his dad's favourite restaurant in the middle of it. Could be worse - no sex or illness happened in the restaurant!

 

[Kelliezgirl]

I did get one review which liked the story but found it disconcerting to have his dad's favourite restaurant in the middle of it. Could be worse - no sex or illness happened in the restaurant!

I had a slightly different experience this comment made me smile:

"I enjoyed your story. The location was surprising as that is my home area. I was born and raised in Auburn Indiana many years ago. I will be pulling into the Hampton Inn in Auburn in about 11 days."

 

[MrPixel]

I did get one review which liked the story but found it disconcerting to have his dad's favourite restaurant in the middle of it. Could be worse - no sex or illness happened in the restaurant!

The first episode of my big Barstow series had somewhat detailed descriptions of numerous points of interest in the Mojave Desert. I had one commenter who posted an excited "lol lol I live in the high desert and was cool to read this story and know exactly the spots you mentioned! Awesome story"

Conversely, there was lots of sexy stuff involved!

 

[Britva415]

I'll use real places for inspiration but file the serial numbers off it just so people don't point out inconsistencies. For example one story is very obviously set in the Bahamas but the specific islands and towns named are made up. Others are very obviously California but the particular park or property I had in mind is not named and slightly changed. This isn't so much to hide from doxxers as much as there's a reason that serves the story for it to not 100% precisely match a real location.

I do this both when it's close to home and when it's not. I live nowhere near the Bahamas, and a park I had in mind for one story is 2 minutes around the corner.

 

[MrPixel]

Reminded by a comment received this morning, I should re-mention that a moderately accurate portrayal of a real locale will pull in a reader or readers interested in what you might have to say about an area they are familiar with. You might have to make stuff up to fill in gaps, but the sense I get is they appreciate the attention and maybe even read themselves into the story.