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Q&A How to write about characters and places you aren't personally familiar with?

You mean, what if you're a resident of country A, writing about a citizen of country B travelling in country C? Go ahead, enjoy yourself. Jules Verne, for example, had never visited the places he ...

posted 6y ago by Galastel‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-12T21:57:21Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36061
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:47:41Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/36061
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T08:47:41Z (over 4 years ago)
You mean, what if you're a resident of country A, writing about a citizen of country B travelling in country C?

Go ahead, enjoy yourself. Jules Verne, for example, had never visited the places he wrote about: Africa, Australia, the Pacific etc. The MCs of his _[Les Enfants du capitaine Grant](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_the_Castaways)_ are Scottish, while he, of course, was French.

However, **make sure you do your research**. Prosper Mérimée, for example, had not done his research when writing _Carmen_: it is very clear that he hadn't so much as looked at a map of Spain while writing, let alone visited the country (views, travel distances etc. are all wrong). As a result, the book is a [storm of clichés about Spain](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TorosYFlamenco) [TV TROPES WARNING]. This makes the book feel stupid and annoying. You don't want that.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-05-10T11:24:10Z (almost 6 years ago)
Original score: 3