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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/31899
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Is the exact address really relevant for the story?

Choosing a real location has several disadvantages:

- It could lead to harassment for whoever really lives there now or in the future
- It limits your storytelling. Do you need the home to be across the street of a store for fishing supplies next to an ice cream parlor for your plot to work? With a fictional location you can just decide they are there.

You can usually just describe it like _"an apartment in [suburb] with view of [landmark] within walking distance of [location]"_. That's usually more than enough to establish the character. The "New Orleans, LA area" is huge. Even someone who lives there won't be familiar with _every_ building there. Nobody will notice if the specific combination of details you've attributed to the location doesn't actually match any real location as long as it is conceivable that there is such a location.

All you need to make sure is that the description of the house is **plausible** for the setting you've chosen. For example: _"He was an office clerk who lived in a house with a garden in Manhattan, New York"_ isn't plausible, because everyone knows there are no houses with gardens in Manhattan. Reading that will stretch everyone's suspension of disbelieve. But move that house out to Hempstead, and it becomes plausible again. Avoiding such obvious contradictions is why researching the place where your story is supposed to take place is important.

Original score: 4