Resident Writing

[cos]

A story set in a particular place can show how well the writer knows that place. Sometimes, I think it goes to another level, where you don't just realize the writer knows the place really well, but that you're reading something that could only have been written by someone who had lived there. Even if you know nothing else about the writer, you know they've lived in the place where that story is set.

What comes to mind for me is Zodiac by Neal Stephenson. I had no idea Stephenson had ever lived in Boston when I first read it, but it dawned on during the first chaper. Not in a questioning, "huh, did he ever live here?" way, but as fact: "I didn't realize Neal Stephenson had lived in Boston. Huh."

Have you read something that made you realize the writer had lived in the place where it was set?

Any thoughts on what it is about the writing that can make this so evident?

Comments

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

Actually I've been the research end of people trying to accurately write as if they were local when they're not. It's interesting and highly engaging to provide that level of detail to someone who's not a native. Little details are what makes the grade. (All of these examples drawn from the same research project for an unnamed writer friend.) Which ambulance company would respond to a gunshot wound reported, how long would it take them to get there at a given time of day based on standard traffic variations, what would they pass along the way, where would the shooter have been standing for the victim to have been shot through and the bullet ended up embedded in the wall of a specific alleyway. Why would the EMT recognize the area and remember the church that's now condos when it was still an active parish.

[cos]

Fascinating work! Now, does it result in the more usual lots of local knowledge sort of writing, or can this kind of research actually allow someone to write the kind of thing that would make someone think "only someone who lived there could've written this"? I think almost certainly not, but I'm not sure if you were trying to say that could happen, or you've seen it happen?

[whuffle.livejournal.com]

I was referring to research work I have actually done for writers which they've used. The results have had people asking said writers whether or not they were actually locals, so my take on this is yes, you can write a city without having lived there. But to do so you have to be a very good and careful writer and you have to have the right research to make it work

[cos]

Yes, I understood you were talking about research work you've done for writers which they've used.

"The results have had people asking said writers whether or not they were actually locals, so my take on this is yes, you can write a city without having lived there."

Doesn't sound like a yes to me - it's too indirect to tell one way or the other (in that you're relaying what writers told you about what people asked them, rather than having talked to one of the readers directly yourself and been able to ask them about it.) Comparing to my example, for instance - it didn't make me ask whether Stephenson had lived in Boston, because I wasn't wondering whether he had - I just felt like I knew it, and I was more curious about when and where and such so I looked that up.

My impression is that all the research in the world isn't by itself sufficient to write something like what I described in this post, but it may be that all the research in the world plus a certain kind of writing skill may let someone do that without ever having lived there. Or, it may not. I lean towards "not" but I'm not sure.