Novel in Progress
 

Hi everyone. So I'm in the process of writing a young adult novel that takes place in the South. In which state, I'm not sure. I was in the hopes of visiting a small southern town for inspiration: to completely absorb and surround myself with how life in a small town moves. There is a writer's retreat in Charleston, SC every year, but it takes place by the seaside and I wouldn't gain inspiration from that. So with that being said, do any of you have destinations from which I could gain inspiration from? I already have one in mind but I'm curious as to what all of you have to say. If I travel there, I would be staying a week. Thank you so much in advance.

I have a suggestion based on the premise that it's important to write what you know. I think visiting anywhere for a week would give you very little insight with real meaning. I'd recommend rethinking your project with the idea that somewhere you've been for years might inspire you more deeply and produce higher quality work, assuming you can put it down, than any fictional "south" you might imagine.

"Writing what you," should be revised to be read, "Writing what you by the time you write it." There have countless books written from the imagination and or extensive research.

But...

The problem with writing about something of which you know nothing or little, is that there will always be someone who knows a great deal. And when you write about a location, there are phrases, references, ways of describing locations and people, etc. that are specific to that area.

You can do your due diligence but that will be expensive and time consuming.

Reed Farrel Coleman, the well regarded mystery writer, says, "You can write about guns. You can write about the Civil War. But if you write about Civil War guns, you better damn well know what you are talking about."

How to research for a book about a small town in 10 easy steps:

Step 1: convince spouse to move there. Wherever you pick must be less than 2,000 in population, and no movie theaters, restaurants or malls. "Civilization" must be at least an hour away. Part of the fun of small town life is those monthly trips to Costco.
Step 2: live there for no less than 20 years. Still fell like an outsider in year 20, but that's okay, your kids probably don't. Of course, they will leave for college and move to a big city at 18 because even if they didn't want to leave...no jobs.
Step 3, 4, 5: develop an unhealthy interest in church dinners, funerals, high school sports. Lose one friend to either meth, farm accident, or drowning.
Step 6: get the hell out of Dodge and retire to the "big city" I.e. the town of 30-80,000 people an hour away.
Step 7: complain about the traffic, crime, and cost of living.
Step 8: Move back to small town.
Step 9: write the book
Step 10: self publish and have the gas station sell it. The only people who will read it are the people who live in the town.


In other words, I agree with Mme Perdu. But on the other hand, if you want no realism at all, stick a pin in a map about a town no one has heard of and that you've never visited and populate it with...I dunno...sparkly vampires. It worked out for both Stephanie Meyer and Forks, WA;)

IMHO, writing only rings true when the writer writes about things, people, places he/she knows and understands. That takes much longer than a week.

Everyone has said it well--and the South is really NOT the easiest genre to learn in a week.
And not sure why the seaside in Charleston wouldn't inspire!!! It does it for me! LOL

I'd be interested in the one you have in mind.
Try Chester, SC or Ridgeway, SC. Dillon, SC. where there is still the sign for the 2 story main street opera house. Troy, NC. a mill town. Fort Mill, SC for a town with the wealthy "mill owner" still there but a great philanthropist and ecological maven. Mountain towns of NC for an entirely different take on life. New Bern, NC for old colonial history and money. York, SC for historical setting.

So what was yours.

Gretchen, yours was the most helpful. Thank you. I was thinking about Aiken, SC.

As far as inspiration is concerned, I always mention the advice of Chuck Close, perhaps the greatest living American artist, which also applies to writers:

Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work. And the belief that things will grow out of the activity itself and that you will - through work - bump into other possibilities and kick open other doors that you would never have dreamt of if you were just sitting around looking for a great ‘art [idea].' And the belief that process, in a sense, is liberating and that you don't have to reinvent the wheel every day. Today, you know what you'll do, you could be doing what you were doing yesterday, and tomorrow you are gonna do what you [did] today, and at least for a certain period of time you can just work. If you hang in there, you will get somewhere.

IMDonehere, great advice. I know several successful authors, and they would agree.

Thank you History. I am on a few boards with young or inexperienced writers and they become mired in the romance and the stereotypes that surround writing. But the only way to be successful is to sit your bony ass down and do the hard work, write.

Some of my professors were brand name writers who specialized in historical fiction. There is so much in making that work beyond research. What young or inexperienced writers do not understand is that the sense of time and place as is important as dry facts. That introducing exposition is an art unto itself. And that creating vivid, original, and interesting characters and events that reflect that time and place and the research is the substance of the imagination.

Aiken or Camden aren't bad choices. They are the horsey set if that is your bent. Different from a lot of other places.

In a way, Durham and Winston Salem would be interesting towns--both with a LOT of wealth and a lot of industry plus the town and gown. And the wealth in WS was of the kind that there was a lot of class strata

Addendum, the class strata of towns often makes even larger cities, "small" and insular.
SO much has changed in all these cities in the last 50 years however

Typical small town, not famous for anything - Conway SC.
Look in Georgia too. If it does not have to be the Deep South, look in Kentucky and Missouri.

Still think a week won’t help in creating a setting.

Madison GA

Elmore Leonard, famous for his realism, wrote westerns while living in Michigan and employed a full time researcher once his writing career took off. That guy’s job was to travel to places and collect information Leonard used in his books.

Stephanie Meyer set the hugely successful Twilight series of novels in Seattle, but she lived in Phoenix and had never been to the PNW. When she was writing the first book in the series, she couldn’t afford even a trip there. She did her own research.

There are as many ways to write fiction as there are writers. “Write what you know” shouldn’t be taken literally.

How about Mount Airy, NC? Not the Deep South, but it was the inspiration for Mayberry...

Elmore Leonard, was one of America's most under rated writers. His skill went far beyond incorporating research.

The Twilight series is not about Seattle, it is about teenage creatures in heat, whose readership I assume cares little about the backdrop.

James Michener had many researchers but his writing seemed to about constipation.

The American south is a well-trodden source of literature. As soon as anything is written, the comparisons will be fair, unfair, and critical. It behooves the OP to know what she is talking about.

I agree that you can’t spend one week anywhere and think you understand the place. Write about things you know.

BTW: “do any of you have destinations from which I could gain inspiration from?“
First, learn how to proofread.

Gee, I thought this was a travel board...

I think the odd thing is the OP doesn't seem to even be familiar with small town life, let alone Southern ones. At least there are some similarities in small towns. I do think the best writers write of places and experiences that have inspired them and they know, but I'm guessing this book won't be compared to Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Pat Conroy, Zora Thurston, or Eudora Welty who all did this brilliantly, but from their experience. I'm not clear on the motivation for writing about something you know nothing about and wanting to be inspired by going there rather than having an idea already. Of course, the YA market isn't going to be in those leagues.

I really don't understand considering Aiken. It isn't that small, is part of the Augusta metro area, and was a resort area for wealthy people. I thought a small town would be under 20K population. Durham and Winston-Salem are not towns, either, they are large cities. If you really want small towns, you need to consider the goal. Now Mt Airy makes sense in that regard. Jimmy Carter was from a small town and it still is, Plains GA. Try Fayetteville or Madison GA, or Oxford MS might do it given it inspired Faulkner.

Maybe it isn't southern "vibe" the person wants but architecture and ambience of streets. Trees, gardens, victorian houses, fast food, where the kids gather, what the high school looks like, where the WalMart is, etc.

Maybe Aiken being close to UGA is even in the wind.

Meyers set it in Forks, not Seattle. Seattle would have been better. I agree that her audience wasn't reading for the setting, but it was one of the many reasons there were giant plot holes. Even her fans notice that stuff. It's bizarrely one of those books that actually makes a better movie because of how poorly Meyer knew or described the setting.

I'm not saying you have to write what you live. You don't need to know vampires to write about vampires. But you need to convince your reader that they could walk into that book and see that place and the people that inhabit it. I'm leaning towards what Christina said. (Except the bit about the YA Market. The good stuff is good.) Anyone who is so unfamiliar with small town life that they think they can get a feel for it in a week probably shouldn't be writing about small towns. A lot of your readers will be from small towns. Sometimes I'll pick up a book and get to the second chapter, and there will be some tidbit about the county fair or fishing which will make it abundantly clear that the author has never experienced either, and I'll toss the book. Because if you can't get basic research right, I'm doubting your ability to get the larger storytelling part right either.

Yesterday I watched 'Tender Mercies' which takes place in middle-of-nowhere, Texas. I'd watched it years ago and was again dumbfounded by the gut-wrenching poetry of the spare country language and, not that I'd necessarily know, how true it sounded. Using that film as an example because it's fresh in my mind, to make writing honest is the thing. Language is all a book has and I cannot imagine a week would give that insight nor can I tell from the OP's question if they can write. It seems not, but who knows.

Yes, well Tender Mercies was mostly shot in small Texas town, obviating the need for description.

While Aiken and Camden are good choices for Southern towns, they are also as Gretchen said, the horse towns. Look at Newberry, SC. Truly small, but rich in culture, growing quickly, yet still has that small town feel.

Wherever you go, look for a local tour guide and spend some time with them. (I’m good friends with the one in Newberry, and a day spent with her would give you all you need to know!). They know all about their town, and are willing to share. Hire them for personal tours for a few days, ask to be introduced to the town movers and shakers, buy them a cup of coffee or cocktail and take note of the lingo.

I will differ. I do not think a day or a few days with any local guide, no matter how good, will give anybody all they need to know to write about the place or to write a book set in that place. There are nuances of place that can not be achieved by a visit like that.

Maybe the novel in question isn't meant to be anything one might think of as literature and her target audience isn't a discriminating one. In which case, save the money, google what you imagine you need and just make it up. It'll likely be as believable as the "research" described will produce.

Anyone who sits down to write a novel is courageous, and I admire the effort. A week's visit could start a lifetime of research.

tuscanlifeedit

While I appreciate the sentiment, too many novice writers believe in the romance and stereotypes of writing and writers. This often becomes something between a distraction and an excuse. The only solution is doing the hard work, which includes comprehensive research and endless hours of rewriting.

When the OP knows the name of the barber of 20 years ago and why Jimmy Paige's boy had to leave town and go to New York, will the story become believable.

Oy vey. The OP would be wise to quit this place and never return.

The OP would be wise to seek writing advice from people who write, not travelers. And if the OP thinks it is anything less than a lot of hard work, he/she is sadly mistaken. And to offer whiskers and bread crumbs is anything but helpful.

She asked a travel question, not a writing question.

Granted, some of the comments were perhaps too blunt. Sometimes it is kinder to be blunt rather than encourage an endeavor that won't accomplish what the OP wants. She wants a place that would inspire her writing and be a good setting for the story. People are mostly pointing out that no place actually works for that. So it was about travel for writing.

She asked a travel question, not a writing question.

How did I know this was a first time poster?

<do any of you have destinations from which I could gain inspiration from?>

Sorry but that sentence does NOT inspire confidence!

One week anywhere is not enough to truly even begin to know a place, regardless of the reason you are trying to get to know it.

Of course, you might have a character who doesn't know what s/he's getting into -- and make up the rest. The best stuff is always made up.