Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A What are the advantages and disadvantages of setting a story in a made up country, compared to a real one?

Three main advantages: You won't have to actually research that country... If you set the story in Iraq, there is a lot of history and politics that your readers are already aware of, and your ...

posted 5y ago by ashleylee‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T10:40:04Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41530
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar ashleylee‭ · 2019-12-08T10:40:04Z (over 4 years ago)
Three main advantages:

1. You won't have to actually research that country... If you set the story in Iraq, there is a lot of history and politics that your readers are already aware of, and your fictional iraq must share much of the same history as the iraq that people know.

2. You won't risk offending the actual country. If you write about a real country like China, India, Saudi Arabia, etc. etc., many of them can get very sensitive about your portrayal of their country. 

3. You can have a lot more artistic liberty about your fictional country.

There is a key disadvantage....

1. You risk looking like a mega racist. Now you making broad stroke assumptions about an entire continent...
#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-23T15:15:11Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: -1