It's My Hometown: Making the Reader Feel Like a Local

by William Dean

One of the most difficult tasks of writers is making the reader at home in the locales of the story. Too many times, writers name streets, businesses, and add a whole lot of research material that confuses readers in order to try for verisimilitude.

Now, it's hard, I know, to take a reader from anywhere and plop them right down in a story locale and get them to feel they're really there. Every town had a Main Street, probably, if not necessarily by the particular name. Every city or neighborhood has local "hangouts" for people, famous "landmarks," and new places going up as well as some part of town that's "old." These are good places to start for writers wanting to make a reader feel like they've just stepped out of their house, down the block, and into their city or town, no matter where it may be, New York or Paris, or Smalltown.

To pull the reader in, think with your senses, not a mapbook. What's the chatter like on the street or in restaurants? What's the local dialect sound like? What are the scents like? Is that curry spice wafting on the air or the aroma of barbeques, the smell of dry pine needles or sweet magnolias?

Don't forget the "feel" of a place, and that's not just the ambience. Is it rough road underfoot or the slick cement of a metropolis. Do people have to wipe their shoes off from mud or dust? Get your reader into the scene with seemingly small details that define "place" in their minds and habits.

And what about tastes? Does the air taste acrid and dry like a Texas desert or cool and moist as a lakefront cabin? Writers often confuse narration and description as "a feast for the eyes," but the sights of your locale are only a small part of the world you're creating.

In my own writing, I've lost count of the times readers have asked if I'd been to this place or that which I wrote about, Venice or Port Said or the deepest jungles of Africa or the Amazon. I've never been to any of those places, but, as I often say, a little research goes a long way.

With the Internet and search engines, you can get the real local feel for anywhere on Earth, anywhere you want or need to set your writing. But remember to not get so detailed that you lose your reader in trivia. Hit the senses strongly so that they feel they're in your story and then go on with the action. Only give historical detail if it's germane to your action and characters.

Most readers don't really have to know that Tiny's Cafe used to be Johnson's Hardware and before that was Henderson's Feed Store and before that...well, you get the picture. Unless it's a crucial point in your story, they don't need all that information, and they'll thank you to get on with the action of the tale instead of bogging them down in useless information.

I've been to a lot of places, and every single one has similarities to use as "keys" for making the reader feel at home. There are always "old timers" and "new arrivals," always some local hangouts and some "just started businesses trying to make a go." Utilize the character types that people know live in every town or big city neighborhood, just don't stop with the cliches, make the characters alive and living in their town, fearful of its faults and proud of its successes. You can do it, after all, you live somewhere and ought to know about it, so just stretch your world view and knowledge to include all the places you want to write about.


Copyright © 2005 William Dean

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