As any author knows, writing anything for any genre can be a long and drawn-out process full of research, maps, notes, ideas, and locations. This includes fiction and science fiction. I have seen several writers in several different groups who have asked the same question in several different ways. ‘Can fiction writers make up towns, countries, locations, and planets or do they have to go with what is really there?’

You might be surprised to learn that a lot of people will respond to such a question with a very strange answer: ‘Even when writing fiction, you must do your research about the places you’re writing about. Readers prefer facts.’ To be fair here, it is true that fiction writers do have to do a lot of research into eras, time periods, geology or anything else that requires a better working knowledge especially if they’re writing about a place that already exists.

To answer the original question of whether or not it's acceptable for a fiction writer to create places, locations, etc… the answer is very simple. ‘If you create a town, state, country, continent or planet in your story it has to feel real even if it's not.’

The point in reading any kind of fiction is to get lost in a different time, place, era or world. For a reader to get engrossed in the story, everything in it should feel real. The characters should always be very distinct from one another and have personality traits that make them stand out. Much like the personalities of the characters, the locations should also have very distinct traits that set them apart from anything else the reader may have read about. The trick to this is simple, everything has to feel realistic.

Most writers keep a journal of some kind to keep track of their characters, adding to it as events unfold in the book. People change because of specific events in their lives, therefore, characters should do the very same thing.

This is equally true when writing about a fictional location. Time and events move things, beaches erode as well as physical things go through weatherization, natural disasters destroy or wreck things and so on.

Just like we keep up with our characters, it is a great idea to keep up with locations and the events that change them. A good way to do this is by creating a map. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or excessively done, especially if it is not going into the manuscript. If you intend on putting your map into your book for readers to enjoy, then it should be a very well drawn out picture that contains plenty of detail without looking messy.

The point in this is to answer the controversial question of real places vs. fictional places. All in all, it is up to the author to decide who, what, where, when, why and how they want to write anything whether it’s fictional or not. It’s obvious that fiction is literally false or untrue but it doesn’t have to feel that way.

Just remember if you’re writing about anything that really does exist, do some research so that readers are not put off by inaccuracies. If you choose to create fictional places, remember to keep the information straight, right down to the street names and their locations. Create an outline and a map to help you keep things in order. That way, when your readers read what you have written they can get caught up in the fictional world and form a working relationship with your characters and the things that surround them.