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tj_teejay January 6 2014, 07:49:30 UTC
One word: Google. :-D

No, honestly, I've used Google Streetview quite a lot when I was writing fanfic that was set in Toronto. Of course that can't substitute for having been there in person (which I now have), but it still helps. Might also help to talk to someone who's been there and can help you with descriptions.

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ratherastory January 6 2014, 08:22:14 UTC
I may have to try that out again. The last time I used Google for location purposes Streetview hadn't been invented. It's definitely a tool I hadn't considered using. Thanks!

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tj_teejay January 6 2014, 12:02:20 UTC
Well, not all places actually have Streetview, but I think most of the big cities do nowadays. It's really helped me with getting the feel of a particular location (and I actually found a ReGenesis location out in Liberty Village that way).

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cordelia_gray January 6 2014, 08:06:45 UTC
This is an irrelevant and unhelpful drive-by happy birthday!

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ratherastory January 6 2014, 08:22:26 UTC
<3

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quickreaver January 6 2014, 08:07:12 UTC
I actually have some good advice on this but I'm loopy tonight (just a little late to focus) so I'll expound tomorrow...

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ratherastory January 6 2014, 08:22:47 UTC
I look forward to reading your thoughts!

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claudiapriscus January 6 2014, 08:32:00 UTC
I think a lot of the stuff, like bus routes or local shops you can either research or just go whole hog in inventing. I think the trick is to look at how you'd describe a place you're intimately familiar, and notice the cues by which you add texture to it. So that's what I try to do- treat setting like you would a character. come up with the idea, then fill in the back story and motivations. I think this works because usually, it seems like the more familiar you are with a place, the more likely you are to describe in not necessarily in technical detail, but in sensation (including feelings/memories). If I were to tell you a story about the murder bar (a building on main street in my home town), I'd describe the feeling of standing outside on the sun-baked sidewalk in high summer as a kid, peering with my friends through windows encrusted with several decades of dust, barely able to see more than some old blinds covered in dead flies and an unlit neon sign for a brand of beer they haven't made in 30 years. I'd tell you that what we ( ... )

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ratherastory January 6 2014, 08:54:01 UTC
the emotional connection is more important and more useful

That's a very good point, thank you!

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bellatemple January 6 2014, 08:43:40 UTC
Agreeing with all of the above and adding: hunt down other people's narratives about the location. Look for common threads between them, re: weather and smells and atmosphere and all. Read enough of these that you start to get the sense that you have been there, that you have experienced it. Don't copy their impressions, but work with them, develop them into something of your own. The experience of a place is actually very specific to the individual -- my memories of my college town are not the same as my classmates' memories -- so by building on the facts and common themes of others' experiences along with your own experiences in similar environments (if you have any) and just your own experiences in your own environments all put together will give your reader that depth that you're looking for ( ... )

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ratherastory January 6 2014, 08:55:56 UTC
I think I was a little too worried about the people who would pick up on the inaccurate bus route. I've had people knit-pick about the presence of seatbelts in the Impala, so imagine if I got location details wrong about someone's city! :P

I'll have to find some books set in the locations I decide upon, it seems.

Thanks for the input!

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