Today’s post is for a specific type of person. The type of person who wants to write a small town romance. More specifically, a fictional small town romance.
Up until last year, I’d set all the books I’d ever written (close to one hundred) in real places around Arizona.
Why? Because it’s easier. I know (or can look up) street names, tourist attractions, restaurants, and hiking trails and plug them into my book. It saves a lot of time.
But there’s something really cool about making up a fictional town. There’s something addicting about picking an interesting name and coming up with the town’s history and deciding the population and the most popular place to eat breakfast and shop for clothes and pick up groceries.
So if you’re reading this and you’ve always wanted to write a book set in a fictional town but haven’t worked up the nerve because you think it’s too much work, let me assure, you it is a lot of work. But it’s worth it and you can do it by following these steps.
Pick an Original Name
I highly recommend brainstorming a list of fun names for your small town and then you have a lot to choose from. If you’re stumped, turn to the internet and search for “funny small town names” or “weird small town names”. You can even look up the small towns in every state (for example: “California small towns” or “Nevada small towns”). Then, if your book is set in say, Arizona, you could potentially use the name of a small town in California or Nevada. Once you’ve picked a name that calls to you, turn to the internet once again and type in the town name and the state you’re setting it in to make sure it’s not a real town. If it isn’t, you’re all set!
Draw a Map
This was the hardest part for me. I’m not artist or map expert. I opened the Paint app in my computer and drew a horrendous map of the small town I made up. I didn’t want to linger on the map too long, and I definitely could’ve fallen down the Google rabbit hole of looking up how to draw a map. Just get a basic sketch down that you can reference when you need to.
Make a List of Everything in the Town
This part was fun but also exhausting. I made a five page long list of everything in my small town and I do mean everything: neighborhoods, businesses, parks, churches…anything I could think of. If your small town is really small, you obviously won’t have too many of these things, but then you have to figure out where the citizens would need to go (for example, if your town doesn’t have a library, where is the nearest one located?)
Refer to Your Map and List Often
Here’s perhaps the most important point when you’ve created a small town: reference all the materials you’ve put together so you don’t confuse yourself and make sure all that hard work you’ve done hasn’t gone to waste. If you realize you need something that isn’t on the list, add it to the list so you don’t forget it later. No detail is too small, because details are important to the reader, so they should be important to you.