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I've decided to do The Other Side as my NaNo project (it's shiny! -- I told you I have a problem with that before, but if I have to write like the wind it's better to grab that shiny, I figure).
Anyway under the cut is some pondering about the setting.
But actually prepping it to write, raises a few issues. For instance, I have to actually decide WHERE to set it. It would be easier to set it here -- I know the area well, and there is a certain advantage to knowing the workings of law enforcement and stuff like that. There are ways to make it claustrophic, even while acknowledging it's spread out to hell and back, I think. There's a certain sameness about every ten miles, or so -- the specifics might change, but a lot of the stores are the same, too. So I can see that maybe from an immortal perspective it could certainly build the impression that humans are ... interchangeable.
BUT. On the other hand.
It's a very new city. Our idea of "history" tends to be anything before 1950. Although, on the other other hand, maybe that would be a draw for immortals to settle there? It's new, it's different? Things move, there's a mix of people? There's other beautiful people, so they won't stand out as much? lol.
It's easier for Terrell to be head crime boss in a smaller city. Here, well, he'd have lots of competition. Not necessarily a problem, as long as I keep it in mind - but he'd be only one of several.
I like writing about snow, since we don't have any. :(
To LA, or not? I was also thinking of Chicago, which I know at least a little. Or somewhere else you think would fit better?
So any thoughts, those of you who read the summary?
Anyway under the cut is some pondering about the setting.
But actually prepping it to write, raises a few issues. For instance, I have to actually decide WHERE to set it. It would be easier to set it here -- I know the area well, and there is a certain advantage to knowing the workings of law enforcement and stuff like that. There are ways to make it claustrophic, even while acknowledging it's spread out to hell and back, I think. There's a certain sameness about every ten miles, or so -- the specifics might change, but a lot of the stores are the same, too. So I can see that maybe from an immortal perspective it could certainly build the impression that humans are ... interchangeable.
BUT. On the other hand.
It's a very new city. Our idea of "history" tends to be anything before 1950. Although, on the other other hand, maybe that would be a draw for immortals to settle there? It's new, it's different? Things move, there's a mix of people? There's other beautiful people, so they won't stand out as much? lol.
It's easier for Terrell to be head crime boss in a smaller city. Here, well, he'd have lots of competition. Not necessarily a problem, as long as I keep it in mind - but he'd be only one of several.
I like writing about snow, since we don't have any. :(
To LA, or not? I was also thinking of Chicago, which I know at least a little. Or somewhere else you think would fit better?
So any thoughts, those of you who read the summary?
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(heeee)
hrm. Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, some little town in North Dakota?
Chicago is big, too.
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It does make it clear that the Others must have been watching Bridget all along, waiting for this to happen. Because it can't be coincidence in LA -- too big. In a smaller place it could happen more naturally - Saskia and Kevin put themselves in position to influence law enforcement. and Bridget's sort of a side-effect. Set in LA, at least Saskia has to know and have maneuvered to make it all happen.
*ponders*
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Could they travel? One of the tropes for paranormal societies is to have some sort of network, especially if these guys are Immortal. Depending on their powers they'll need some way to keep them in line, especially if the paranormals are in hiding or if they're out and about (and if so, then you have societal ramifications to deal with...)
So I think there could be any number of reasons for traveling between LA and say Chicago. And while I don't "know" Chicago, there are any number of mid-size towns around it that would give that small town claustrophobic feeling (and snow!) without being smack in the middle of a big town, but having it easily accessible. I grew up in a small town in Iowa, got to say, as far as a small town in North Dakota ;) They're going to know. You can't fart in a small Midwestern town without your neighbor across the street lighting a match and telling you not to eat chili again. LOL!
However, being a Midwestern girl, I would love to read about LA, because that's somewhere where I will probably never go.
So your mileage my vary. Just got done doing some heavy duty editing, so I still have my editorial hat on. Sorry!
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My heroine's a cop in a fairly large department. So, yeah, no small towns just on that basis alone. She's not like Liz Forbes on TVD (sheriff of a small town), Bridget's a homicide detective.. Not to mention the problem of immortals going unnoticed in a small town - they'd have to decamp every ten years and that'd be a pain the ass. At least in a city if you move across town and change your hangouts you'd probably never intersect the people you used to know.
Which is all to say, it has to be a biggish city. In some ways LA is almost too big, since it starts requiring reasons beyond coincidence for everyone to interact (in a smaller city there's only one courthouse, rather than the several we have here, for example), but I think I have a reason.
I figure in the end if LA turns out not to work, I can always change it. But NaNo isn't exactly the time for taking time to research a new city. :)
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