Thread: Your Favourite Universe/Setting

Tell us about your favourite setting/universe that you've worked with and why it is your favourite.

Here. Now. Because it's real.

Earth -- specifically the southern/southwestern United States of America -- in the late 20th/early 21st centuries. It's what I can write about with the most authority and the least research.

The inside of my head. Isn't that really what everyone writes about, their interior landscape?

My favourite is always the one I'm working on at the time. I think that's because it has to be if I'm going to get the reader to believe in it. And also because when you start on a new world, you're able to improve on all the things you f$&ked up in the last world you were working on, so your world design should always be getting better.

I've never written in the same fictional universe more than once, I don't spend much time with world building because I only write short stories. I've started (and subsequently stopped) a few projects that were intended to be longer where I put a lot of thought into the universe, but I don't think I have the attention span yet to write anything beyond a couple thousand word story.

I do enjoy the concept of world building though, making things fit together so it all makes sense, I've just never done it for a story that I was writing.

Here. Now. Because it's real.

Ewwwwwwwwww!

ancient rome/greece/carthage/ptolemaic egypt era civilizations

I gotta jump on board with the here/now crowd. Though with a twist. I like to set stories in the present simply because when a weird thing happens, it's that much more effective. It's not too hard to predict what will happen with a dragon flying around and scorching a medieval countryside. But a dragon that's hatched on Uncle Jeb's dairy farm-- that seems much more interesting.

And just to be clear, I don't have a story in the works about Uncle Jeb's mangled manure makers...

Since I am an escapist, essentially, and struggle a lot with the here and now, I am writing in a time, on another world, where there are no guns invented, no vehicles aside from horse drawn, and for damn sure no trash mail. Clean water, clean air, and few if any fences.
Very cliche, I guess. But it is where I like to spend time.

Non-flip answer...Earth, near-future. Preferably non-US. Or an invented planet where I can start with the molecules and work up.

Georgia, mostly -- Atlanta and parts south particularly. My WIP includes a fictional, typical, small southern town that I've also used in several short stories.

Don't have a favorite, but I've worked in about 7-10 settings this year so far. Mine tend to be fantasy of some kind, but some of my tops are science fiction.

Depends on the story, but my novel is set back in 1874, eastern USA, made up town. I mostly work with small towns, either now or in the past. I take a tip from Agatha Christie's Miss Marple's stories where everything interesting happens in a small village/town, where everyone knows everybodys business. Makes for interesting drama.

Li Li

My favorite place to use as a setting is England, because that is what I know. I suppose most of my locations are, in some way, a derivation of England; especially the fantasy ones. The other good thing about England is that you don't have to travel far to experience British life in all of its facets. Where I am we have rural communities and large conurbations within an hours drive of one another but you can also travel a different route and have a larger gap between places. When using traveling in writing this is very handy because it makes the journey time more esoteric. It's not so impossible to believe if you need to squeeze an extra scene in whilst your main character is traveling between locations.