What would be the best thing to do for the setting?

In my story, I am writing about a state I have never been to. I have gathered tons of info on this state and I have used 3 towns in the state as a point of reference. My original goal was to create a made up town in this state. However, the town is going to have many qualities of all three of these towns. Plus, having a made up town may mean I need to have a made up name for mountains and names of businesses within these towns. What would you suggest in such a conundrum? Should I continue with the made up town and just make up everything else as I need? Should I keep everything the way it exists, keeping in mind I have never been here and my story takes place many years into the past? Or should I have a made up town and keep the real life name of the mountains and businesses knowing that if someone ever reads this from this state they may be rather confused?

The Lonely Recluse2010-12-21T18:59:48Z

Favorite Answer

If you decide to just go for it and create your own place you should be able to get away with it easily enough, it also means that you have plenty of ways to go if you need a place to be there for a point of the plot. Just because you make the town up doesn't mean you need to change the place names around where you are set (ie you could just place your fictional town over one of the real towns you have researched).Considering your story is based on the past you can get away with changing a lot to do with the area, as people will generally not know any better, or if they do, they shouldn't mind or find it at all weird, Authors and all people of art have artistic licence to change things as they need to be to fit into the plot. Hope this helps =D

10

Ambrosial Wolf (♥myfeliupus)2010-12-22T02:55:40Z

I'd go with a made up town, keep the mountains, and make new business names. Mountains don't just randomly appear, but towns can go unmapped and businesses can too. Plus it's fiction. Keep it geographically correct, but make up the rest. :)
Good Luck!

10

Robert2010-12-22T02:52:15Z

yep writters do it all the time

02

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