Story Settings

I usually have mine somewhere in California, either in Lake Elsinore or in LA. But the story I'm writing right now takes place in New York City in 1899.

For some random reason, I put my Gaspard Ulliel fic in Chicago.
I mean, I live in Australia, and Gaspard is, of course, from France, but I decided, hey, let's set it in Chicago :tehe:

You might want to add, in this thread, the time period that the story takes place in since that refers to setting, too.

I like to put my characters in places that go with the mood of the story. Like I wrote a story where the character was care-free, so I made it take place at a pool, because I felt like the water was symbolic in the way that it "has no rules to go by."

It also never hurts to add irony. Like parents getting angry/upset at their kids birthday party, or some place really happy.

With the story I'm writing now, I'm really struggling with the setting.
Like, it was originally a small town, but what I was trying to write really didn't fit in a small town - I wanted the events to be big and having it set somewhere with a small population and limited resources wouldn't work, although I liked the community feel I could create there.

And now it's in a big city I have the problem of too many resources - the police especially are proving to be a problem because I need them to be really... incompetent or else it won't work. Also, I need some sort of warehouse or something which is totally uninhabited and unvisited which I'm finding hard to get in a city.

So yeah I'm struggling with the setting. :roll:
But that's because I'm a perfectionist and have to get everything in this story perfect.

I don't bother with actually city names. Shame.

I've used the lack of knowledge of the exact location as part of the plot of my story, and the readers only learn about it as the characters do.

It's a kidnap story if that helps explain.

Bandfics would obviously take place wherever it's logical for the band. Chicago, Vegas, whatever.

My non-fantasy OFs I'm working on right now are set in small towns. Evalyn is set in Somers, whose name was taken from Somersville KY but I know nothing about its namesake. The Arsonist is also set in a small town, though it's unnamed and a bit closer-knit than Somers, more of a little village.

My latest story, Transylvania, takes place in the 1800s. It's set in a small town in Essex, England (just because the main character, Dougie Poynter, comes from there in real life) but it's not really important. The story starts in Dougie's parents' mansion that overlooks the small, as yet namless town, but I think it will probably branch out from there.

I'm currently writing a story that takes place in Iraq.
Thus, research is very large.

January's story, which is in Jersey, also required a
very large amount of looking up. Of course, not as much.

I usually don't set it up. I just...write. I create my own little world. My own community, neighborhood, etc. I base a lot of it off of my current town and my old one, though.

I have a few exceptions though. I never really say it at all, but in Stained Glass, Stars, and possibly a few other Shavok oneshots, and my hiatus Shavok - I'd Throw Away Everything to Life - they're all set in New York City. I subtly mention it in Stained Glass by calling it the "city of blinding lights", kudos to U2; and I actually say where it is in ITAETL because Davey did his Tokyo Hardcore shoot there. In my other Shavok stories, mainly the chaptered one, it's in California. I mean, if I don't say it, it's my own creation of something mixed between NYC and Cali. New Cali City? *shrugs*

I don't really like to say. I leave it up to the reader's imagination. I always have some kind of a plan in my mind of what it'll look like and be like, but I never really make it concrete.

I never have a set setting like San Fransisco, California 1997 but kind of like a city, modern times, but with this story I'm writing, I want it to be somewhere like where I live. In my head, it's about the exact same, even the high school, but I want all of the names of stuff to be different.

With My Chem Fiction I usually base it in Jersey, L.A. or wherever they were touring at the time since I like to follow actual dates and so.

With everything else, I try to mix it up, but sometimes it's Australia because it's my home country bust most it's the States.

In one of my unposted stories, part of it is set in Manhatten, New York, where the main character lives and works. Then, when she has to go and visit her parents and brother, she travels to a small country town in Michigan, where she grew up.

Also, in a story I'm currently in the middle of planning, which is still unnamed, the main male character lives in a small 2 bedroomed house in New York.

Yeah, a lot of my stories are set in the States, although I'm from England. In fact, none of my stories are set in England.

I really don't ever specify the location, unless it's imprtant. I think some are set in New Jersey (obvious reasons) but for the most part the locations aren't specified.

Honestly, 90% of my stories are set in either Northern California, (or Venice, California), Washington State, or Oregon. I have one that's set, well, all over the place, seeing as it's about a touring band (but the characters are from New Orleans, Louisiana.) In the future, I would like to do more stories set in New Orleans, seeing as I know the city very well. It's an amazing place, too. Very romantic and almost eerie.

I'm from San Francisco but I usually set mine in New York. Or at least I imagine New York and set it in an unidentified city. Although lately I've been really into making up scary stepford suburbs and setting stories there.

I base most (if not all) of my stories in Portland, Oregon, which is where I live. :XD It's all I know.

I fail. :lmfao

I've set some of my stories in Arizona, which is where I was born and lived for quite a while. Sometimes I'll set them in Denver - where I live now - or in the Denver area.

I also have done a lot of research on New York and know a lot of people from or who've lived there, so I set a lot of stories there, too. I've also set some in San Francisco, since it's one of my favourite cities in the world. <3

I've also set like, two stories in England in the London area and then one in France and one in Russia. I don't generally set stories outside of America though, because I tend to research so much that I hardly write the story.

I tend to do small towns in Texas for some absurd reason.
Like, I'll make up the name of the town, but I'll set it in a big state or whatever.
But I also enjoy New Orleans, New York and other places like that.

And have to do so much research, seeing as I live in Canada.

As for time period, I'm cool with writing any specific era.

Setting is generally not that important to my stories.
If it is, the setting is generally Las Vegas because I'm a PATD writer.
ABC Kids is set in Vegas. So are Dead End Kids and Positive.
Chicago Lights & the Jersey Shore is set in both Chicago and Jersey and the setting is important to the storyline, but not the story itself.
Usually my setting is backstory. I know it, but the audience doesn't need to so it doesn't get mentioned.