Where or When? Let's Talk About Setting

As a reader, I love a really well-drawn setting with lots of nitty-gritty details, a setting that is just as key an element of a story as the characters. So I decided to talk a little about setting today.

First, a cautionary tale: I read a novel once that took place partly in my hometown in suburban New Jersey. I was probably sixteen when I read it, and I remember at first feeling proud and excited to see the name of my town—which pretty much nobody has heard of—so prominently displayed in a book. But then it became clear that the author had never actually been there, because the town in the novel bore little resemblance to the actual town where I lived. Had he just thrown a dart at a map?

Writing setting can be tricky. Do you choose a fictional place, which requires making up a lot of detail, or do you choose somewhere real and risk getting a few details wrong?

I've lived in New York City for almost a decade, which maybe doesn't make me an expert, but has given me enough frame of reference to set a story here and get most of the details right. It means that I'm also easily distracted when others get the details wrong, especially in movies. (There's a certain superhero movie, for example, that includes a dramatic scene on an elevated subway train that… goes through midtown. Although NYC has a few elevated subway tracks, you won't find any below 125th Street in Manhattan.)

I normally write stories that take place in real locations, and I like writing about New York in particular, but for The Boy Next Door, I chose to set the novel in the fictional town of Greenbriar, Connecticut. This gives me free reign to make things up—streets, parks, even the bar that's the main hangout of most of the residents of the town. I wanted the town to seem like a real place, though, and it's based somewhat on the little town I grew up in, both in terms of geography and the types of people who inhabit the town. I also grounded it in Western Connecticut geography. I have family there and spent summers there as a teenager, so it's an area I know pretty well. The characters namecheck a few real places—the Danbury Mall, the Brookfield Y—so the reader has a sense of about where this fictional town is located.

Writing about real places takes some research, but even if you can't get to the place, the internet has a wealth of information. (Google Street View is an amazing tool, for example.) Making up a town makes the research easier, but requires a lot of imagination. I personally like to draw maps and little sketches.

What do you think? How do you feel about setting? If you're a writer, what little tricks do you use to help get the details right? If you're a reader, what kinds of settings do you like (made up, real, historical, fantastical, etc.)?

Kate McMurray
www.katemcmurray.com
@katemcmwriter