basically in my story at present i have made up the name of this town/country they live in for ease fro now as i was planning to work out where they could live once i have finished the whole thing and then change bits i need to, however, after looking on google i found a picture of a mountain and a lake in bulgaria which looks exactly like how i imagined my characters home to be like, but no i have the problem of i have never been to bulgaria and never could any time soon, and it would be hard to get names of streets and locations etc correct... So, my question is, can you have a made up place where they live and still mention in the book places like london and africa? part of me thinks you can as jk rowling harry potter books mention london etc and yet anything in the wizard world is completely made up, the other half of me thinks it may not work as in my book this town should appear normal, like as if they lived in bulgaria, because unlike harry potter this place isnt a secret some people are privy to this needs to been seen as a realistic place where you could plausibly go to in this book. Im really confused any advice? i always get great advice on here :)
Books & Authors - 6 Answers
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1 :
Why don't you use the mountain but change the name and place, that way you don't have to worry about being correct.
2 :
i always confuse myself too with locations and street names and the authenticity of my stories. sometimes i just want to write about these stories and my home town but its not realistic. but also, the whole making up a town and still writing about other places that are not made up, you can do that! There are plenty of books and movies where they make up the towns name, and put it in a real state, or province. John Hughes did this for his movies. it works both ways with the book as well. i like it because, they can be from the state or country you want them to be from, but also you have this town in your mind or city and it is your complete creation. You can name the streets whatever you want, make up everything completely! its almost like you are the mayor, founder, god of this town. go to town. make up and even jot down things you want in this town to get your ideas flowing. you can even loosely base it off another town or city you know, but make sure it is loosely based and more important your own. good luck!
3 :
Yes, of course. To Kill A Mockingbird (by Harper Lee) is set in Maycomb, a place that doesn't exist. Yet, it was a "town" in Alabama and had a history.
4 :
Sure you can make up a place Most people won't even know that the certain place in Bulgaria doesn't exist or whatever. Dont worry, people do it all the time. I'm writing a book and it's set in Melbourne but the actual suburb is made up.
5 :
Yes, you can make up a place and still refer to real places. For instance, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycombe, Alabama, which does not exist in real life. Additionally, the film "The Princess Diaries" invents an entire country, that of Genovia, yet still speaks of real places including San Francisco, Switzerland, France, etc. However, just because you are allowed to make up cities and set them in real countries does not excuse you from doing research. The audience still expects even made up cities and towns to resemble real cities and towns in the real country that you have set them in. In the case of making up a country, you have more leeway, except that if it has relations with other countries that are real, you'll also want these relations to feel authentic in some way.
6 :
Yes you can - but why not use the lake and mountains but place a made up city nearby? That way you can refer to real surroundings, but not have the conflict about using a real city when you've never been there.
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