Do you like to read about real places, or do you prefer made-up settings?
I don’t mind. I enjoy real settings, because it feels like an opportunity to take a virtual vacation. But I also enjoy well-developed fictional settings that are written so well they feel real.
What I don’t enjoy is reading a novel where I have no idea where it is set.
It’s usually obvious whether a story is set in a big city or a small town, but what country is it set in? What part of the country? The location impacts on big-picture story elements like language and culture, so is important. But location also impacts on smaller story elements, like weather and seasons (and is Easter in spring or autumn … or fall?).
I’m also not a fan of authors taking a well-known real setting and changing the name.
Either set the novel in the real place and tell us, or set it in a fictional place (and make that clear). If I’m reading a novel and wondering if New Cambridge is Boston or an imaginary setting , then I’m not thinking about the characters … and if I’m not thinking about the characters, then I’m probably not paying much attention to the plot.
(Okay, so that could be a problem with the plot or characters and not the setting. But it’s still a problem).
I like to be able to place myself in the setting, whether that setting is real or fictional.
I don’t mind which, but I do need enough information that I can imagine myself being there.
