Thread: How Vague/Specific should one be?

I'm writing a novel and I have a county police station on long island. Suffolk county has only 7 precincts and by specifically mentioning the town the character was picked up at, anyone with the intent can find out exactly which real police station all the fictional characters reside at.

Am I reading too much into this?

I just know of one example where, even though Jim Butcher didn't name a precinct or anything, he made a character named Karrin Murphy who worked at the Chicago Police Department, but when they made it into a TV show they renamed the character to Connie Murphy because they found out there really was a Karyn Murphy who worked at the Chicago Police department.

I'm probably just being paranoid.

Depends on how hard-boiled you're wanting this to be. If you want to come off as insider super-boiled stirring-drinks-with-your-Magnum noir-fashion, who cares? People don't read those stories for the research but instead for hard-boiled characters and scenery. If you want to come of as well-researched, do what you can and expect the story to carry the rest.

Create a fictional town inside a real county. How many tales did Stephen King set in Derry or Castle Rock, ME? Neither place exists, but he got the "feel" of small, Maine-Yankee town correct.