What states/ countries/ cities do authors mainly use in their story plots?

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Undead M

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Im writing a story and Im looking for a country/state or city to base the story around. But I dont want to use the common places authors use in their stories. So my main question is if anyone knows what those countries/states and cities mainly are. I would really appreciate it. Thank You! :)
my writing is fiction and i want it to be in a place thats busy but isnt a city. When writing fiction do you hae to be specific about the location. I mean do you have to know the place well or can you just play along and make it up?
 
The US is commonly used - every place. Do South America, only older adventure stories are written there ... or Africa. I mean if you want to stay in the states then stay away from big places like New York or Los Angeles or the South (anywhere). It depends what you're story is about and when it's set. The victorian age is mainly england, some france - Europe mostly. Classical is in the Greecian, Roman, Persian, etc. area. But present day is mostly US. So doing something different would be South America and maybe even Canada, depending on what it's on. Or Australia - I've never read a book, I don't think, set in Australia. That's long overdue.
 
Most authors use the area's in which they live in as their inspiration for locations in their stories. This is because they know the area well. Others use places they have visited but usually it's where they live. For example, Stephen King's stories usually take place in Maine (Bangor I believe). Dean Koontz usually take place in Orange County, California. Jodi Picoult's usually take place in New Hampshire. It's easiest to place your story in an area you know well so you have reference points and your readers can picture where you are talking about because it makes writing the details easier.

I know that a lot of other stories I have read have taking place in big cities.....NYC, London, Paris, etc. But there again, it's places that the author knows well and can give explicit detail about.
 
Short answer - it's your story, so do whatever you want.

Some authors use real places, while others make one up. A made-up one might be a real town in disguise (say, with the street names changed), or it might be a blend of several.

You don't have to be specific about where the story takes place if you don't want to. If it's all in the one town, there's no real need to identify it. You could say it's somewhere in Oregon (for instance), or somewhere in the USA, or not name the place at all.

If you want to use a real town, and give the name of it, it's best to use somewhere that you know, or can easily find out about. Otherwise, there's bound to be at least one reader who knows more about the town than you, and who will be merciless in pointing out any mistakes.
 
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