Oh man, lately I've been plagued with the "At Least It's Not Raining!"(TM) cliche at work, and while, yeah, I'd like to whine and gripe about it, doing so just makes me angrier. So excuse me as I stew in my awkward "My manager is an idiotic shitnickeled douchewaffle and I want to straight up punch him" juices.
Instead, I wanted to open the floor to another fandom discussion.
oflittleuse brought this up in a comment on my last discussion post, but I had been thinking about it for awhile myself, and that's the idea of writing stories based on locations the author is personally familiar with.
Now, I'm going to come out and say flat out that I've done this before, but more along the lines of used real locations as inspiration. For example, the brief aquarium scene in "Drown My Sorrows in Yours" is based on actual aquarium, a fact I was reminded of when I visited the Tampa Aquarium just recently. I took a (albeit blurry) photograph
here, most likely in the spot Arthur would be at when Merlin was at the glass in the front.
Now, that's just a small scene, so I don't know if it really counts. But I borrowed from real life again when it came to my Big Bang this year. The seaside cliffs are a relatively major part of the story, and are actually inspired by
Black's Beach in California (photo not mine). My mother grew up in the area and told me about people jumping off the cliffs, so that idea kind of stuck with me in ways I didn't realize until I starting writing my BB.
However, even though my stories were based on actual places, I never actually had them set there, and the reason is simply because I'd feel weird placing characters in an actual real life setting, if that makes any sense. For example, I went to
Annapolis this past weekend, and as I was walking the city streets that have been there for ever with the Naval Academy near by, I thought of how fun it would be to set a story there. To have men in naval uniforms (mm, yes) having a Superman ice cream at Storm Brothers and watching the water, or maybe a chase scene through the narrow alleyways.
But as much as I would enjoy it, I don't know how those who have never been there would, because they don't have the same experience I do with the city. So to me, it feels like they might not be able to connect as well, and I would fear I would either a) explain the city too much and the story would become a tour guide, or b) explain it too little and leave the reader scratching their head, wondering why a certain places or person is important.
I think having a story set at an actual place can be limiting as well. Going back to my BB, I mentioned Black's Beach to my artist,
itzcoatl, as my inspiration for Ealdor in the story. We discussed how the town would look (so she could get a better idea for her artwork), and proposed the idea of the houses being painted in bright colors. While there's probably towns in the U.S. that are painted this way, it always struck me as a European theme, and I loved and wanted it. It's just a small detail in the story, but I think it better described the feeling of Ealdor that I wanted instead of just relying on what Black's Beach looked like.
I fear I'm just rambling and perhaps not making much sense, so I'll stop here with a question: when you write, do you base your stories off actual locations, or do you prefer to make your own?
Finally, here is your PL rec:
In Joy and Woe, as in a Doubtful Ease (Story by
angelqueen04, art by
satavaisa)
Summary: (minor Arthur/Gwen, Arthur/Merlin friendship, PG-13, 49k) Morgana's second occupation has wrought extensive damage and in the weeks following his restoration, Arthur struggles to help Camelot recover its former strength. With starvation a looming threat to his people, he seeks the aid of his foreign allies. However, a helping hand comes from an unexpected source - the kingdom of Cornwall, which has been closed and silent to Camelot for decades. After accepting an invitation to visit the mysterious kingdom and its equally mysterious ruler, Arthur finds himself thrust into a web of secrets kept from him his entire life.
I admit, I was a little wary about going into this, but this is a wonderfully epic canon story. For those of you who are not interested in A/G, their scenes are very brief, and it's mostly about A/M going on adventure. What really struck me were the OCs; they were well-crafted, and it was very believable how they were weaved into the story and Arthur's past. The diary excerpts annoyed me at first, but I soon grew to appreciate them with the rest of the story.
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