The Word Cloud

I posted this on 'My first novel' but this forum might be better able to offer advise.

It's all in the situation?

I am in the 'revising' (hope that's correct EmmaD) phase of my first completed novel. The story telling process has come easily (as in my previous uncompleted novels), the who, what and how - it is the where part that it I am battling with. I do have an entirely complete understanding of the setting my novel travels through, but I don't want to use the actual names.

South African authors have an irritating habit of naturally feeding into the standard cliché: The definitive guide to The Rainbow Nation or Apartheid: our anguished history. I find this so predictably dramatic, as a result, I seldom read SA books, the political undercurrent is never as subtle as the author thinks and being such a vast part of our heritage, it is understandable, but it does detract from a story line.

So, my novel is full of blanks ______ , and they need to be filled. Can I create a hypothetical situation within a hypothetical town, within a hypothetical province and again within a hypothetical country? I feel I want create new towns, but leave them in their respective provinces and still based in SA.

What are the rules? I am South African and this is my frame of reference, I cannot ignore this and this is not my intention, I just don’t want my story diluted by the readers perceptions and prejudices, especially to a South African audience, interpreting it into the political mould.

I would appreciate any advice.

XXX

I have no idea about 'the rules' but I have read plenty of books with hypothetical towns and villages but still within the UK. I can't see why you can't do the same in South Africa.

Maybe do it like Hardy; create names sort of based on the original names but altered so as to... er... well I suppose

a) to free you from the necessity of absolute accuracy

and

b) to avoid whatever 'political' associations the real places have

So if I understand you correctly, if you mention certain place names in your novel, then your readers will think you have a political point to make and will thus misinterpret your story? That's weird. What political point would I be making if I set my story in Johannesburg?

Anyway, check it out:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_yROgVUGnRfA/TESUmaRLO5I/AAAAAAAAAcs/-cdmcNAE8gM/s1600/Thomas+Hardy%27s+Wessex.jpg

I agree it can be a dilemma. Apart from Joburg, Cape town and Pretoria - most (but not all of your international readers) wouldn't be any wiser whatever city/town you used.

If you're marketing to a SA public, the emphasis changes - would your story be believable if you use fictional places? Is it critical? Would you feel comfortable using fictional names?

I am facing exactly the same challenge. Do I know enough about where I'm basing my story to sound credible? Research can help. A little fact interjected like nuggets into a fictional piece, can work.

But all is not lost - hopefully your publisher will advise - it's only a cut&paste jobbo.

stephen

Johannesburg is not a contentious city, but it is one of very few first world multicultural cities, pertaining only to Durban and Cape Town, Pretoria even has its own pile of contentious associations (don't want to get into that now). My novel revolves small towns in Limpopo Province, a notoriously conservative Afrikaans province (racist generally) vs the quaint English villages in Natal, mostly 1820 Settler descendants, hot potato, private school, poncy type stuff.

I feel very exposed with the idea of using real names, hence my question. If the opportunity to publish arose, I would seriously consider using a ghost name!!! No, it’s not that bad, but I want the focus on the story.

I have the exact towns in mind; I just don't want the reader to know that.

Thanks for the help and as you say, Stephan, it’s just a cut and paste job anyway.

Hey Green Polka, sorry for my neurotic message earlier, thought you wanted some serious critique of your writing, which I am not qualified to do. This is much easier. I understand your point completely, I also dislike most South African writing, our whole anquished history thing is a pain in the arse, but South Africa as a setting for novels should be sensational! I also dislike having African "things" shoved down my throat, all the African and Afrikaans words for stuff, I don't know why but I don't like it.

For what it's worth, I was/am writing a novel based in Natal Midlands, from Valley of a Thousand Hills down to the Umkomaas Valley, I have a map of the area, so I know exactly where I am and I have used some real names such as Hillcrest (which feels really weird), but the main action takes place in a fictitious Game Reserve on a fictious dam (based on Shongweni Dam). I feel comfortable with that.

I would base the novel in Limpopo, but in a fictitious village, or on a fictitious fam. I would love to read a story in a South African setting without all the political stuff. Oh, and if I was living in a small Limpopo village I would definately use a Ghost Name, but then maybe I'm just a coward. If I ever get published it certainly will not be in my real name, I don't think I could cope with that!!

Maybe, now is the time for South Africans to write novels just set in SA without all the complicated stuff. Have you read any of Marion's blogs? You're not always aware that you're reading SA stuff.

Regarding getting published, I read an interesting book "Get Your Book Published in 30 (Relatively) Easy Steps", by Basil van Rooyen, he basically recommends that you do not try and get published in this country. I think the average good seller is about 3 000 copies. "Spud" being an exception. He says that SA Publishers are not really looking for best sellers, because books flow into this country, not the other way around, the costs are too prohibitive. So then I got the Writers' and Artists' Yearbook, which lists English publishers and agents, and seems to be definately the better way to go. I now try and write with English publishers and agents in mind, not SA's, and definately not American, I don't think they would even know where SA is let alone Limpopo.

Oh, and one last thought, as an ex-English person I think Limpopo is a lovely name, far more romantic and mysterious than Northern Province, or whatever it used to be. Ithink you could definately make use of the name to add interest and mystique to your novel.

I hope I've helped a bit, and as Steve says, in the end it is only a cut and paste matter!! And if I can help you with any info (both books came from Exclusive), would be glad to.

Good luck, and well done for getting so far with your novel.

Cafxx

Thanks Caf, that's great.

I have read the Basil van Rooyen book and found it very informative, so have definitely come to the same conclusions. I have ordered the Year book direct from A&C Black and am waiting for it to arrive in the post. I hope to find some tips in there.

I have a renewed sense of understanding of a 3rd world country now, after my blogs this week. I am still shocked everyone had so much to say ... I really thought these issues of gender discrimination etc mostly pertinent to us, but boy was I wrong. These major cities and world leading countries are not that far ahead of us!

I think, I am going to keep the provinces and just alter the actual names. I’ll read Marion’s blogs to see what tips I can pick up.

The usual feeling among writers and readers, it seems to me, is that if you mention a real place, you have to be reasonably faithful to the basics of what's there, so as not to break the deal with the reader: they will 'forget to disbelieve' that this is fiction, provided that you will deal 'honestly and responsibly' with them, as john Gardener puts it.

So you don't want to trip them up by putting Johannesburg ten minutes away from Cape Town when everyone knows it isn't, but in the gaps between the important things, you're much freer. There's a totally tacit ethical system going on (and a PhD topic for someone) about what it's fine to invent, but I reckon it goes something like this (assuming you're not writing counter-factual or fantasy fiction)

You can't just move Manchester and London to be next to each other, and the journey time needs to be roughly what it really would be, say.

You can't make a known district of Manchester be radically different from how it is, but you can invent a street, or a shop, or even endow it with a cinema it doesn't really have, or a posh suburb say, provided you make that cinema or posh suburb reasonably convincing as something that might be there. If history deals with the probable, fiction deals in the possible: 'as if it happened,'

You can invent a district of Manchester, and be a bit freer with what it's like, within the bounds of likelyhihood for geography, society, period etc. You can invent a village - I usually pick a real village on a map, to make it simple to get the roads and connections right, and then just put my village (which is perhaps based on a different real village from somewhere else) there instead, mentally speaking. And of course you'll base all these invented things on ones you know, because that's how fiction works.

If you want to play fast and loose with a real town or city, call it something else: David Lodge's campus fiction is all set in Birmingham, which he calls Rummidge but barely changes a thing else - maybe more relevant to a comic novel where a lot of the fun is in spotting the correspondences. E H Young's novels are all set in a pretty recognisable Bristol, including Clifton, which she calls Radstowe (Bristowe being the old form of 'Bristol'). then, too, you can be freer with tiresome things like journey times and weather.

But I would say, we aren't journalists: while you'll be working out your own ethics about what you can and can't invent, it's important keep the splinter of ice in your heart, and do what your story needs, not get too bogged down in 'yes but they can't go courting in the cinema because there wasn't one'... (Having said that, sometimes having to work round inconvenient facts you don't feel you can gaily trample on is how one comes up with much more exciting stuff. Necessity is the mother of imagination..)

Sorry, I didn't see your comment till now - thanks.