Where Oh Where Shall My Story Take Place?

Generally if you want a great story, it should take place in somewhere you are more or less, familiar with. Doesn't mean you have to live there or anything, but you should know enough about the area you are talking about that you aren't just guessing where things are. If you mention real street names and real shops in your books, it will sound more confident, at least if you are a beginner/intermediate writer. If you want to have a fictional town, by all means, go ahead. You can describe it like you were describing your own town or a mix of many towns' descriptions. Example: since I live in Washington, I will describe a fictional town that really doesn't exist, but describe it with my town's descriptions: "Marthaville was big, yet small. Hard to get around, yet everything was in walking and biking distance. The town had an abundance of elders and cute little shops which the lacking youth strongly enjoyed. Downtown was where the youth met up: for pre-homecoming and after-sports practice frozen yogurt, after school hangout, and coffee talk. The most beautiful part was not how everyone got along or how well the shops all complimented each other, but the vast, blue ocean. Visible from the edges of the meadow that the town sat in and at the top of hills (and if you were lucky and rich, your own porch), Puget Sound overwhelmed you if you were 2 feet away or 2000 feet away. The turquoise body when paired with an orange, blue, and pink sunset made the perfect opportunity for a first kiss or a marriage proposal. Marthville was the city of dreams, as much as the Titanic was the ship of dreams." Sorry if I got a little carried away. That happens sometimes, because describing things like cites and other items are my second most favorite part of writing. My first is dialogue, which will be an entirely DIFFERENT blog post. So as it turns out, how I described the fictional town Marthaville, Washington, is exactly how I'd describe my own town. It makes the place/setting sound much more relaxed and comfortable if you know what your talking about. Another aspect of setting is time, even though it can really be its own aspect of writing a book in general. Say I wrote a book about somewhere I visited when I was five years old, and I haven't visited it since. Things have probably (and hopefully) changed since 2003, with technology these days and people and all that. Make sure that the time lines up and makes sense. It wouldn't make sense if a book takes place in 1975 and they have cellphones. Unless, of course, you are writing a book where instead of technology advancing as time progresses, everything gets old-fashioned as time goes on. Interesting aspect to think about, huh? Anyways. Setting is also important because maybe it compliments your characters. Say your main character is a country girl. At least have part of your book take place in the country. Maybe another part in a big city, so the reader (and YOU) can see both sides of your characters. She needs to express her country-ness and what she's like in a big city, which is the opposite of what she's used to. Same with maybe a city girl, a computer techie, or a surfer. You get the idea. Well, I hope you've found this helpful and interesting! Just so you know I really enjoy writing these, it's not a chore for me or anything. Happy spring break!! :D