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| "When Harry Met Sally" (1989) |
No, I’m not talking orgasmic bliss a la Meg Ryan in “When Harry Met
Sally.” There will be no “Yes! Yes!”-ing at Chloe’s table this morning. (More’s
the pity, right? *winks*)
I’m speaking of how a writer fakes a location really, really good… where a reader by the end
of a story dubs you as a native of the place you’ve never been.
Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as picking a name out of the world
atlas “hat” and Wikipedia-ing it (although Wikipedia does have its place,
despite what some experts think.)
It takes intimate knowledge to make a place real to your audience. Such
as…
-How does the city smell during midday? Do food trucks offering
regional delicacies fill the city-goer’s senses, or does the lingering though
slight stink from the paper plant up the river rule the aroma-waves?
-What kind of birds or insects fill the locale’s skies at sunset? Do
bats swarm at twilight? Or is the simple, lonesome call of an owl beginning his
night’s work the only sign of aviary life? Are there mosquitoes? Are there
lightning bugs? Do crickets and tree frogs serenade the rising of the moon?
-Over breakfast at a local café, what talk would be overheard? Would
there most likely be spirited rants about college football or heated debates
over the mayor’s third arrest for public indecency? Are economic times hard or
is the workforce thriving? What kind of accent would you hear?
These kinds of locale intimacies are the key to faking it like a
native.
Best bets for finding out these juicy tidbits of place include…
-Travel blogs by ordinary blokes (a traveler to a strange place is
bound to notice the paper mill stink and the locals obsession with all things
Crimson Tide),
-Lonely Planet (great local color repository), local newspapers (what
is the city council going to do about all those darn bats?)
-YouTube (raw, vacation footage can be key in giving the writer a sense
of “been there, done that”).
Faking it… it’s hard but it’s a load of fun. And remember, play it like
Meg Ryan and give it your table-pounding all.
Until tonight…
Chloe
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