Bright Light City
I’ve known for a long time that I’ll rarely write stories in the city where I currently reside. More often than not, I write about cities I no longer live in, or ones that I visit frequently.
The current Twitter Novel Project is set in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, two cities I’ve spent a decent amount of time in. And it’s not just because I’ve been to these cities, or because I like them, that I chose to set the current story there. It’s because these cities both have a lot of character, and are quite fun places to throw my made-up people and mess with their lives.
Pictured: Somewhere in the Dakotas
Another story I’m currently finishing up takes place in New Orleans and Amsterdam — again, two cities I’ve visited, and ones that have boatloads of character. If you’re pals with me on Facebook, you can see I’ve gone camera-happy in New Orleans recently, because it’s such a fun city.
So what about you, folks? What are your favorite cities? And what are your favorite cities in which to set stories? Are the two different?
I prefer to make my own cities……thereby avoiding the limitations any real city might have. 😉
I do that sometimes, but it’s rarely the main setting for the entire novel.
My favorite city is actually a city within a city – Flushing, a part of Queens, New York. It is one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse places on the planet, and is home to the second-largest Chinatown outside of Asia.
Awesome! I spent a little bit of time there in the late 90s, and it’s definitely another place with a lot of character and its own feel.