Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022.
June 16th: Books Set in Real Places
Prompts: Do you like books set in real places? How accurate should an author be when writing about a real place? Have you read a book set in your town or city that was depicted in a way you liked or didn’t like? Do you think an author should have first-hand experience of a particular place in order to write about it?
I do like books set in real places – sometimes it’s just fun to read something and know you could visit that place if you really, really wanted to! For accuracy, I’d say the author should try and be accurate, but depending on the story that might not always be possible, though they should try and write in a way that wouldn’t have locals tearing their hair out going “no, that place is over here!” I think some slight adjustments, adding in streets and buildings and so on is fine, or even renaming places in a way locals can recognise them – oh, The Fox & the Hare pub is clearly based on The King’s Head, kind of thing.
Some of these touches can be a nice acknowledgement, and also allows the author to avoid legal hot water if they, say, portray the landlord of the pub watering down drinks. Crime books seem to relish their real-life settings, and if the locales were exactly the same, well, it would maybe be too easy to see how that rude neighbour got turned into a killer!
I’ve actually read very little set in Cardiff that wasn’t a kind of ‘bygone’ era. If you have recommendations or know of books set around here, please do let me know!
I don’t think they necessarily need first-hand experience, depending on where it’s set, the characters, genre, etc. Major cities are going to be easier to write without that experience, because the research on them will be a lot easier. The smaller the place, the harder it’ll be to pull off, and writers, no matter where they set their works, should try and talk to or read stuff written by locals to get an idea of how a place feels, if they don’t live there themselves.
Like with many things involved with being a writer, I don’t think you have to totally completely have first-hand knowledge, but you should research, research, research, and definitely treat it like you would, say, a fantasy second world setting – who said contemporary novels don’t have world-building elements?
So yes, I do enjoy when books have real-world settings, I’d love to read more set in and around Cardiff, definitely, and if authors are writing about somewhere they’ve never been, they need to research it, and gather as many accounts from locals as possible!
Unwrapping Words 