Welcome to Tuesday Book Chat. This is where we encourage book lovers to answer our bookish question of the week.
Today’s question is:
Do you prefer to read fictional settings or real places?
We look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please join in the conversation by commenting on this post or on the blog post shared in our Australasian Christian Writers Facebook Group.
Let’s chat!
It really depends on the book. There are some places that work best with a real setting and its nice if I know the place and can recognise places. But there are books that a fictional setting works best. Especially if its a series. One I am thinking of is Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad. Sometimes a real place the author messes with and moves locations to suit the book. This will annoy locals or people who know the place well. It also if frustrating if you fall in love with a place then visit and its not like the book.
Your turn.
I look forward to reading your comments here or at the FB group. I will be late replying as have a trip to the city today.
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As a reader (and a writer) I like a blend of real and imagined settings, just as I like to read about a mix of city and more rural / village places. It can be a great way to learn about different locations that are real, and perhaps one day ‘follow in the footsteps’ of beloved characters if you’re lucky enough to visit the real setting depicted. But fictional definitely can lend itself to all the things a writer might not be able to do if depicting real life. I’ve used a blend of real and imagined in my historicals, and in my upcoming Original Six contemporary series, based on several major North American cities I’ve visited – and their imagined suburban neighbourhood / village counterparts.
I agree. When Robin Jones Gunn put out the book Under the Maui Moon as I was reading I was saying yes I remember that place or Yes that’s just how it is as It was the year I have been there. Another was an author who wrote on national parts in America one one was on the Lincoln Memorial and I wanted to see it due to the book.
There are others that also had the same effect. Meredith Resce’s book that was inspired by a old home in the Geelong area. I still want to see it.
But sometimes if you know a place really well and the author totally moves everything it doesn’t feel right. especially a smaller town having a major hospital in Australia that doesn’t happen.
This question is one I’m wrestling with for a WIP. It’s hard to write a setting you don’t know from all angles, but so evocative when an author gets it right.
Reality or fictional settings seem to a psychological impact on the reader both during and after reading.
The story probably has a smoother path to deep acceptance by the reader if it is fictionalised-but-based-on-real – like the town in The Dry. The reader is drawn into their ‘known’ if they’re a cultural local, but not put off by inconsistencies or necessary adjustments made for the story.
But the FAN has something to feed their post-reading interest when the place is real. And that helps with merchandise – like Prince Edward Island! Even fictionalised places that attract merchandising acceptance (Hobbiton in NZ from the movie franchise, or Chatsworth for one probable inspiration behind Pemberley, or the Green Gables museum) are never quite as resonant as the truly real.
However no place can ever stay as real as it was in the story at the time it was written. Towns grow. Houses are refurbished (even with plumbing improvements). Trees fall. Contexts shift (traffic, pollution, politics etc).
I do wonder why I love the aspiration of walking through a place made personal out of a much loved story. Readers are inspired to imagine themselves in a place, and so it’s natural that then many of us crave a moment to actually be there, as if being there allows us to become what we felt in the reading.
The pragmatic middle ground is to write a setting that evokes the real but doesn’t set up a dependency on the place remaining perfectly right.
Well thought out answer and thanks for commenting. I read some fictional towns that then have real towns nearby or they will go to a regional center. Sometimes I wonder about the fictional towns I guess coming from Australia we do have hospital in some of the towns but they don’t offer all the services but in books they are like a big city hospital. So even fictional places need a little reality in them.
Using a real town and using say a cafe without naming it can work or going to the a restaurant doesn’t need to name it but would need to make sure the town has the type mentioned. (Like going to an Italian restaurant wouldn’t work here as we have never had one). (even a disclaimer in a book that says the author has taken poetic license would work cos then the reader will know not all is the same)
I like both and really don’t have a preference either way.
If it’s a real place I think it’s important to get the details correct.
To be honest, imaginary places can become just as real in our minds as actual locations.
So true. you can feel like you know the place well. And I agree details need to be correct unless its stated that things have been changed in a note to readers.
I’ve used a blend of both in my writing. The heart of Greenvalley series was inspired by a real place, but I changed the name. The Schoolmasters Bride was also inspired by a real place, but once again I changed the name. But I have also written books inspired by real buildings in real places, and have had to research a bit more about the actual town, as in Cora Villa, based on a house in Geelong. When I read I don’t mind Whether it is real or made up.
Hi Meredith your book Cora Villa is the one I was referring to (couldn’t spell Corio) I still want to see it even if only from the outside. The only time I get really annoyed is when a real place is used but the geography is all wrong like distance to a capital Like Cairns in WW2 being a 2 hour drive from Sydney. everyone here knows that is so far fetched it’s laughable.
I don’t really mind. I have read books in many settings and in Australia and other countries, especially Britain and the USA. One American author whose books I enjoyed wrote two series of books set in Australia. They were very good. One was in outback Queensland. One thing amused me, though. They experienced a typhoon there. We have cyclones, not typhoons.
I recently enjoyed reading Jo-Anne Berthelsen’s book “Down by the Water.” It is set in areas I know very well. Some years ago, my husband ministered in a town in the Lockyer Valley and the areas mentioned are around there. It starts in Helidon which I knew quite well as a child. It was famous for its spa springs and soft drinks were manufactured there bearing the name Helidon. The story moves to Rosewood where we presently live. It was interesting to read of life there in the early 1900s. One of the main characters, Richard, taught in the school there. I also taught there often doing relief teaching. I know ge church where Meg and Richard were married. Then they were for a time in Red Hill in Brisbane, another area I know quite well. We drive through there and Ithaca, also mentioned, on Sundays going to church. Then it moves to Harrisville. One of my dearest friends lived there at one time and through her I got to know this area.
As Jenny said, sometimes we read about a place in another area or country and because of this we look forward to seeing this place. Reading certainly enriches our lives.
I fully agree Heather. I would love to read a historical set in this area or even the Horsham area as mum grew up there and we spent a lot of time there.