When writing a Novel set in a certain town, do the streets and shops be in exactly the same place as real life

Answer 1

Not at all. To give an example, Thomas Hardy set all his books in Wessex yet he made up towns, villages and places within it. He often still referred to real places and real roads, landmarks etc. He blurred the line between the real and the ficticious. So much so that at the start of his books, there is a map of Hardy's Wessex, pointing out which were his made up places and which, real. Be imaginative. There is no limit to what you can get away with. If you intentionally do certain things in your writing that breach logic or reality, you can get away with it. It's if you decide to be faithful to real life and don't research it thoroughly that you will get crticised.

Answer 2

You've forgotten that a novel is a novel! That means you can get away with practically anything. If you couldn't, it wouldn't be a novel but a biography or even an autobiography, where the facts are needed to be true. For this reason, I wrote a book, (novel) that's classified as Comedy-Drama, Light Science Fiction, (set in the near future, 2011). With that in mind, how could it be factual?

Answer 3

You can take some license with it. I would keep main thoroughfares and buildings the same. You could create streets and buildings that aren't actually there, though. Tennessee Williams outlines the route of the Desire streetcar at the beginning of his play, but the Desire streetcar has never actually run the route he describes. Just don't do anything ridiculous like give a different name to an obviously recognizeable building--that's when readers have issues.

Answer 4

No, you can always add a fictional street or shop or something, but if it is a really well-known city like New York, it might do you some good to include a few streets and landmarks that actually do exist as well.

Answer 5

I'd say that if you are choosing a particular town as your setting, you should try to use local landmarks correctly as much as you can. If you don't, any locals who read your work will nit-pick the errors and complain about it. It also shows laziness on your part: if you are going to use a real town as the setting, you should research it and use it correctly. If you are not going to make up the details of your setting, you should use a fictional town.

Answer 6

It depends on what your purpose for using that certain town is. If you want to depict it factually, if using that specific locale is endemic to the storyline, then have your names and places cemented properly. If all you're looking for is atmosphere (like picking New York City because you want that feel of the big city) then details are incidental and can actually get in the way of the feeling you are trying to convey.

That's why they call it fiction!

Answer 7

Well, if you've actually named the town, and you get any aspect of it wrong, you'll have a lot of smart-a*rses writing in to tell you.

Why not come up with a fictional one, based on the real one.

But the answer to your question is no - it's a novel, you can make it up as you go along.

Answer 8

I imagie you can chage it a little, with a note at the start that you don't know where the shops are. You could get a map of the place to help with the road,

Answer 9

Its your story and you can write it as you want. When harry potter was written she muddled up the stations and set her platform to hogwarts in the wrong one.

When you are famous people can have fun picking up on your boo boos Good luck with the book

Answer 10

It really depends on how seriously you want to be taken.
I read a published book that had the main characters going up the M1 to the Lake District!!!!!!
They lost me there.
Please make sure all your references are correct.
Any idiot knows that the M1 goes nowhere near the Lake district..please don't get the simple stuff wrong..or your book..if it gets published...will soon be on the remainder pile!
Good luck..and get your locations correct!!!!!