Writting a murder mystery?

Question

I am writing a murder mystery but have no idea what to call the town that it happened in

is it best to use a real town that i am familiar with or make one up?

what would be a good name for a town in australia if I made it up?

Answer 1

Either good. You can do both actually make up a name for a town by base it off a town you live in of familiar with.

Answer 2

A lot of Australian towns have names with Aboriginal origins or, if not, then English origins, so if you made up a name you would have to make sure that it suited. If you use a town that is real, you kind of need to be familiar with the area or else it can come across as really fake. A novel is meant to take you into another world, which you can't do if people are distracted by obvious discrepancies.In fact, even if you make up a town it would be much better to have a feel for the area you are setting it in, or else you can run into the same problem. My suggestion, write about somewhere you know, especially for your first novel. If you know Australia, then great, set it there, but if not stick to places you have been. I live in Australia, if I were to read a book set in Australia that had gotten even the simplest facts wrong it would really put me off. Good luck.

Answer 3

From writer to writer, if you have no idea what to do at that point, note it and come back to it. As your story progress, you will have more ideas and some thoughts come out, you even go back and change a few things. Well, I would create a town, give it everything a town has (county, city hall, etc.) that way, you wont have to have exactly FACTs about too much, you can make up anything you want about the town, and there would be not editor or publishing company to tell you to get your facts straight, which leads to research and blah blah.

This can lead to writers block so i would skip it if i were really stuck.