psssss-hey-writer-are-you-cheating

I admit it. I’m lazy. I hate doing setting research. I’m just interested in getting sentences on the screen before the story thief steals my words. Digging up facts and figures? Who has time for that crap?

It hasn’t always been this way. The first book I wrote (as an
adult) took place in a real town. I was meticulous to the point of dragging DH on a field trip. I fell in love with the area. It was by the water. All the residents owned boats and it was a private community. To this day, I still bug DH about moving there.

:poke:

Five books later, I’ve taken to creating whole towns. Maybe next I’ll even create a fictional state.  Hell, I might go all out and do an entire country! Still, I often wonder how writers feel about making this stuff up. Is it cheating? And what about readers? When you open a book and find a fictional town, do you connect with the story less? Does a real place add authenticity? Or do fictional cities make the suspension of disbelief that much harder to achieve?