Recently I read an essay that Elaine Meryl Brown, author of the humorous mystery LEMON CITY,  wrote for the Sept/Oct. issue of Black Issues Book Review, about how she created the fictional town of Lemon City. It got me to thinking about the fictional town of Willow, Ohio, that I created for my own mystery series.

One of the main reasons why I decided to set my series in a fictional city was to distance Kendra from myself.  Many people think that I'm Kendra Clayton, which is completely untrue. Kendra and I do have some similarities but the main difference is: If one of my family members or friends is accused of murder, all I can do is help them find a good lawyer. I'm no detective LOL! Having said that, I felt if I set the series in my actual hometown of Springfield, OH people would not only think my series was autobiographical but they'd start looking for themselves in my writing. Already many of my friends and family have picked out characters that they think are based on them, which is baffling to me since some of my characters don't have too many good qualities.

Another reason why I decided on a fictional city was control. I could make up what ever I wanted in creating my fictional town.  I could make it as large or small as I wanted. I could populate it with whomever I wanted. I could locate it wherever I wanted. In short, I didn't have to do any research. But, that's not to say that Willow isn't patterned after some real cities. I actually made Willow a composite of two cities: My hometown of Springfield, Ohio and Athens, Ohio where I lived when I attended Ohio University.

I've completed book two in my series and am hard at work on book three. With each book Willow is becoming more and more fleshed out, more and more real to me.  Each time I work on my book I feel like I'm actually in Willow hanging out at Estelle's restaurant, walking the grounds of Kingford College,  interacting with Willow's colorful residents and loving every minute of it.  But, I guess that's as it should be since I plan to be spending quite a lot of time there.

Hi Angela,

I am so excited to hear that you have completed book two. Can't wait to read that one. I L-O-V-E a good mystery. Also I really enjoyed your post about King's Island. I haven't been there in over fifteen years. My fav of course is Cedar Point:)

I loved the quiet town of Willow, and the way you described it in your book. It seemed so real...

I'm feeling you on the "no research" aspect. I'm a new writer, and I wish I would have set my story in a fictional town. It's rough driving around Atlanta making sure I have my landmarks correct, etc. (LOL)

When I read a book I wonder... does this book have an autobiographical spin to it? A fictional city is a great way to distance yourself from the character. I like your whole "distancing" idea. I might try that for one of my stories!

So bring on the Tangled Roots!!

Ladylee

Charlotte-I'm glad you enjoyed the post about Kings Island. I like Cedar Point too. But I haven't been there in about twelve years. I really loved Sea World but I think they closed it :(.

Ladylee-I know what you mean about checking to make sure landmarks are correct. I've lived in Springfield all my life and am embarrassed about how much I don't know about my own hometown. The thought of all that research made me tired LOL!

Hi Angela, I've been visiting your blog for a while now and I just had to comment after reading about how and why you chose to create Willow. Setting can be a difficult choice. The first fictional story I ever wrote, I set in my hometown which was cool because I had lived there all my life and I knew a lot about it. But what I found was that I always wanted to know more to make it "authentic" and so I got bogged down in "research" about things that were quite insignificant. The next story I wrote was set in a city I've never even visited and I was amazed every time someone read it and said, "Wow, I didn't know you were from Chicago" which made me wonder how much you really need to know about a place to make it real on the page. With both of those experiences in mind, I set my third attempt at a novel in a fictional place that is a composite of my hometown and a place I visited a lot as a child. That gave me some flexibility but I still ended up researching actual places in the state of Florida so that my town appeared "authetic".

All that said . . . my current work-in-progress is set in a well known city and 100 pages into the manuscript I realize that I haven't mentioned the city by name, only by descriptions of streets, landmarks, people. Maybe that's all I need. We'll see.

Thanks for sharing the info about your setting. I love to read about how writers come to their artistic choices. ~Q

Hi Quincee! You are so right. Setting choices can be very difficult. I once read a book by an American author that was set in England. The author didn't do a very good job of making me feel like I was in England. She used descriptions of real places but somehow she missed the mark. You must be quite talented to have described Chicago so well that people actually thought you were from there. If I ever set any of my books in real places, I hope I can give readers a real sense of the setting. Thanks for visiting and for sharing your writing experiences. ;)

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