[ SECRET POST #2373 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2373 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 052 secrets from Secret Submission Post #339.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

10. http://i.imgur.com/zXlnNoe.jpg

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

I guess I can understand your problem if the location is a big part (or even the focus) of your story, otherwise... I really don't think you should worry so much about it. I write both original stories and fanfiction set in real cities that I've never set foot in, and so far no one's ever complained about it. Research stuff you want to get right, and screw that stupid "write what you know" adage.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I know the feeling or something like it. Roots one place, upbringing in another where I was made to feel like I didn't truly belong, where do you 'represent'?

[caecilia]

Nothing wrong with that. Keep at it, and you'll get good at creating your own worlds.

Although it's okay to write something critical about a place, too. But don't worry about how you're "supposed" to write. You're writing, that's what matters.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't have those kinds of issues, I just think using a real place as a fictional setting is too complicated; too many details to get wrong. I also find it a bit boring-- I prefer creating my own places and rules, and love reading about what other people come up with.

So basically you'll squeeze a story set in a real, specific place out of my dead bones.

[(Anonymous)]

I...kind of understand the 'You don't get' bit, tbh. Where I'm from there's a very real feel for that when it comes to transplants because, more often than not, they have some pretty odd - and usually insulting - ideas about the place that they'll 'justify' with the flimsiest of things [Think 'That person just cut me off! Everyone whose from here must really be assholes!'], or just never bother to break out of their transplant bubble and actually *meet* the natives and assume that because...of um. Reasons?

So yeah - I can understand that attitude, though if you grew up there then it's a little weird.

[(Anonymous)]

SA

Also, to clarify - I'm not saying that means you shouldn't write something set there. Personally, if you want to then I say go for it! Just do your research and make sure you have an idea of what you're talking about when you do it.

[(Anonymous)]

Honestly not meaning to start wank here, and I don't know what the OP's situation is, but I was born and raised in my country and I still get treated like an outsider because of where my parents were born. It's my country, but when people treat you like an outsider for long enough, in the end you start to feel like one. I realise that's not what you're talking about (it sounds like your're talking about people who moved to a country at a later age?), but even people who were born somewhere get this treatment sometimes, and it sucks.

[(Anonymous)]

I can't speak for that because, for where I live, if you were *raised* here then you aren't generally treated like an outsider unless you go out of your way to come off like one. It's only people who are obvious transplants who get that treatment. I also ask you to bear in mind that most people aren't actually unfriendly, or anything - just particularly wary [we're...a very friendly place so it's a noticeable thing] until they get to know you and/or more closed off about talking about somethings.

To add a little context: The assumptions I mentioned are usually stuff like 'racist' 'sexist' 'stupid' and 'completely backwards' and the majority of people here have gone through someone assuming those things when someone not from here first met them. I don't know if it really explains it, but that's a large part of why it happens here.

[blueonblue]

I don't think I understand this - many writers write stories that don't have much of a sense of place. I've been rereading Trainspotting and I realized that I think of it as having a strong sense of place because of the dialect (and the movie), but there isn't much about the city in it.

[transcriptanon]

[Picture is a city at nighttime. It has many tall buildings close together and there is a green and slightly blue illumination coming from the windows and many city lights.]

I don't feel I can do justice to anywhere I've lived if I write it as a setting for original fiction. Likely because I'm not very fond and don't have a broad experience of where my "roots" are and mildly conscious of my not born/raised "you don't get our nationalism" status of where I am now (though really very mild on the spectrum of this sort of thing).

Setting it anywhere else is pretty iffy regarding "write what you know". So that's why fanfic/sci-fi/fantasy is what I want to focus on.

Secret because: Don't I have to deal with my microscopic issues through embarrassingly whiny reality based writing instead of sticking my head in clouds.

[(Anonymous)]

Did I write this secret in my sleep? I feel exactly the same way, and it sucks because I'm not interested in writing sci-fi or fantasy, so I always end up writing things set in these non-specific real life locations, but most of the time that doesn't really work because it leaves everything too undefined, but when I try to set something in a specific place I always feel like a faker, and like people are going to find me out, even when I've lived in that place for a significant length of time. No place belongs to me.

[feotakahari]

My only published story takes place on an island in the Pacific. I've never been to a Pacific island, and I feel like a Pacific islander could probably have done more with the setting than I did--maybe tied the events into a local legend, or portrayed the island itself as suffering from the same malaise as the characters. But ultimately, I was using the setting as a springboard, writing about the loneliness someone might feel on an island or a farm or even in a city full of people. I feel like I did the best I could with what I knew, and that's good enough for me.

Write wherever you want. Do what research you can, ask questions of people who live there if you can find them, and in general try for accuracy, but don't worry about every last detail.

[(Anonymous)]

I feel the same. That's why I always just make up a fictional town/city. Kinda like a soap opera fictional city.

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, you should concentrate on being coherent first.