Using Real-World Places to Inspire Fictional Settings
By Sophie Masson | September 6, 2016 |
photo by Sophie Masson
A couple of weeks ago, I was in an extraordinary place: Rotorua in New Zealand, where bubbling mud pools, shooting geysers and steam-wreathed villages create an amazing otherworldly atmosphere, complete with sound effects (gurgle, hiss, splash) and smell (rotten eggs, burnt toast). It’s a place full of stories, of course: Maori legends, tales of historical tragedies, love stories and scary stories…A place to fire the imagination! And one which could be a living example of the idea that setting does not have to be just a backdrop to story, but almost a character in itself.
It’s easy to see that in Rotorua, where the bubbling mud seems ready at any moment to spew out a strange creature, the very hot springs sometimes called murder ripples have a weirdly placid beauty under their clouds of steam, and the fires of the earth’s center are much closer to the surface than is truly comfortable to think about for too long. Here, a writer can–and in my case, does–file away verbal and written impressions as well as photos and videos to help in the creation of a fictional setting that won’t be actually Rotorua, but will be greatly inspired by it. And like the real place, it will be more than just a backdrop.
That kind of real-world setting, which in its extraordinary distinctiveness can seem almost fictional (as, in a contrasting but complementary example, a city like Venice, which I’ve also used in my fiction, does as well) might seem like an easy way into creation of a fictional world. After all, how hard can it be to take elements like boiling mud and clouds of steam and sleeping volcanoes—or gondolas and bridges and golden-domed palaces–and fictionalize them? Don’t all you need to do is simply faithfully transcribe what your senses tell you?
Newsflash: What must be believed in real life because you see it (and smell it!) in front of your nose is not so obvious when you’re dealing with fiction. You have to work at it to make your reader believe, even when you’re departing from a real-world setting as atmospheric as Rotorua or Venice, and even–or perhaps especially–when you are creating fantasy fiction. So how do you do it? What do you leave in, and what do you leave out?
Here’s my advice, based on some of the things I’ve learned over the years:
- Choose just two or three striking elements from your real-world setting to include in the initial description of your fictional setting, or risk overwhelming the reader with detail. You can always sneak in extra elements later.
- Don’t be afraid to mix and match: Combine elements from different real-world places to create one fictional setting. Yes, you could have mud pools and gondolas—provided you can think of a believable way it might work!
- Look at the history of the place that has inspired you; elements from its past might be transposed into your fictional setting. For example, in the 19th century, a volcanic eruption near Rotorua wiped out a village and the magnificent (and natural) pink and white rock terraces it was famous for. In fiction, those terraces could still be in existence…
- Consider the ways in which the physical setting—land, water, sky—interacts with characters. How do people live in the real-world place you have based your setting on? How can that be transposed and transformed in your fictional world?
- Don’t just describe a place for the sheer pleasure then leave it aside. It should mean something, if you are going to take the time over it.
Over to you: What real-world places have most inspired you, as a writer? And what are your top tips for creating great settings inspired by real places?
Born in Indonesia of French parents, and brought up in France and Australia, Sophie Masson is the award-winning author of over 70 books for children, young adults and adults. Her latest books include Sydney under Attack (children’s historical novel, Scholastic Australia, 2022) A Hundred Words for Butterfly (adult novella, ES-Press, 2022) and Cock-a-doodle-doo (children’s picture book, (illustrated by Kathy Creamer, little Pink Dog Books, 2022). In 2019, Sophie received an AM (Member, General Division) award in the Order of Australia honours list.
It’s funny, but I had never been there when I started writing my fantasy series set in Europe. I used often used photos and paintings. When I was preparing to write a scene in a setting based on a real place, I simply perused Google images. I’ve traveled Europe pretty extensively since, and I’m sometimes amazed by how well I captured the feel of places based on research. But there’s definitely an advantage to having traveled.
And you’re right, Sophie – it’s not just the big splashy (or molten and bubbling) setting elements that make a story special. It’s in the little things, sparingly and carefully woven. Things you’ve gleaned from your own travels add nuance and plausibility. But these insights are most effective when they’re subservient to story.
Thanks for the reminders and tips. Happy travels!
Rotorua! Been there. Yes, it stinks. And enchants. Did you soak in the hot mineral waters? Amazing place, and indeed more vivid in memory than a great many fictional places I’ve visited.
Why do authors fail to create places as smelly and magical as Rotorua? I believe that’s because the emphasis has been on accurate description. Capturing places so that we can vividly see them paradoxically produces places that we don’t vividly experience.
I like what you say about history, people and the interaction of people and place. Great classic novelists understood that place is more than what we see.
Terrific post, thanks.
Wonderful post today. Location! You said it. I love to set stories in real places. I set one third of my mystery on Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts. And it such a boost to actually stand in the place where your characters stand to get that deep reality as part of the imaginary world. It’s also helpful as a marketing advantage. I’m selling a good number of books in Massachusetts bookstores and in the mountain resort gift shops and libraries.
Great post, and so practical. Third or fourth on my list of books-to-write is a spooky novel set in the Arts and Crafts house I lived in as a teenager, surrounded by gorgeous dramatic scenery. Lots of atmosphere, nooks, crannies, front and back stairs, alternative routes through the house to be taken by characters chasing, fleeing, or hiding. The hardest part? To be selective, as advised here.
I can’t recall a Writer Unboxed post I enjoyed more. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Veronica!
I don’t write fantasy, so the real places I visit to find a setting for a scene become the real places in my books. When I was first researching a mystery set in Dallas, I wanted a particular house that my antagonist would use. I drove around the area of the city that I thought would have such a house, and then I found it. Once I saw the house and the streets, and the nearby buildings, I had the backdrop for a scene in which the police officers trap the killer at that house. I could then write the scene with all the logistics in place.
Even though some of my other stories are set in fictional suburbs of Dallas, I still like to drive around and find a real place that I can then use as the backdrop for a scene. I agree Sophie, it is so much easier to write scenes with a visual in your head.
You are absolutely right–whether for fantasy or realism, grounding them in real places makes fiction so much more believable. Sounds like you have exactly the right approach.
Sophie, I loved your post. I cannot write a story without a setting. I must be firmly planted in a place to write and I often make maps to help me navigate my characters’ paths. Because I write for children, I tend to view a place from their viewpoint. Is there a park or a playground. I’m often very close to the ground itself because that is what my characters pay attention to.
Thank you, Vijaya. Lovely point about having that child’s eye view and being close to the ground!
Perfect timing! I’m planning a return visit to my beloved southwest Louisiana, where history and culture hang as heavy as Spanish moss on live oaks. I’ll be sure to pack a fresh notebook and new pens.
Yes–Louisiana is so atmospheric! That was a setting I loved using too, in my novel Malvolio’s Revenge..like Rotorua or Venice, a place so redolent with atmosphere that it’s a real embarassment of setting riches..
Hi Sophie. What a surprise to see a familiar scene at the top of a Writer Unboxed post! I can smell it from where I live in southern New Zealand.
Setting is a biggie in my writing. For my two novel manuscripts I’ve used the crazy natural places of my local area. Thank you for the tips to enhance my use of setting!
Thank you Bronwen and lovely to have a New Zealand comment too! Not surprised setting is a biggie for you: NZ has such a wonderfully atmospheric and striking landscape..
I been everywhere, man. It’s true. I was a navy brat and a sailor. I always loved the approach into the Phillipine Islands. They are absolutely glorious from the sea. They’re so green and lush that you could easily believe you’d discovered some uncharted paradise, complete with canibals and giant gorillas. The contrast, of course, is the city of Olongapo, where the US fleet used to berth. It was poor, full of bars, prostitutes, and children begging for pennies. And it stunk, as most impoverished locations do. I reallly should write about that, I know. It’s on the list.
I think it absolutely sounds like you must, Ron! What fabulous settings..
Great blog. Sharing it with my writing students. Love the line, “It has to mean something to include it.” Good point!
Thank you!
Wasn’t Rotorua the setting for a Ngaio Marsh mystery featuring Roderick Alleyn? The title escapes me at the moment – maybe 3 decades after I read it – but the imagery of the boiling, reeking mud remains.
In my Steampunk YA, the settings are firmly grounded in real Victorian places (also history, society, politics) with added exotic transport, gadgets, and possibilities. I get the visuals from postcards and photographs of the era, and fill in the sensory details from travelers’ journals and other texts. The description of the Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor came from on-the-ground research. All I added was an airship gangplank to one end of the roof, and a stairway access to it.
The title of that Ngaio Marsh mystery is “Colour Scheme”
I live in the next city over from Rotorua … and you know what they say about familiarity. It’s good to see the city through new eyes. I guess there’s a lesson there.
As it happens, research suggest the pink and white terraces might still be there, buried under the waters and mud of Lake Tarawera.