1 Knightsbridge , Walton Street , London

Fictional locations are places that exist only in

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying individuals, events, or places that are imaginary, or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent with history, fact, or plausibility. In a traditi ...

and not in reality, such as the Negaverse or

Planet X Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's ...

. Writers may create and describe such places to serve as backdrop for their fictional works. Fictional locations are also created for use as settings in role-playing games such as '' Dungeons and Dragons''. They may also be used for technical reasons in actual reality for use in the development of specifications, such as the fictional country of Bookland, which is used to allow

EAN Ean may refer to: People * Ean Campbell (1856–1921), Anglican bishop in the early 20th century * Ean Elliot Clevenger, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and songwriter * Ean Evans (1960–2009), bassist for Lynyrd Skynyrd from 2001 until his death ...

"country" codes 978 and 979 to be used for ISBN numbers assigned to books, and code 977 to be assigned for use for ISSN numbers on magazines and other periodicals. Fictional locations vary greatly in their size. Very small places like a single room are kept out of the umbrella of fictional locations by convention, as are most single buildings. A fictional location can be the size of a university ( H. P. Lovecraft's Miskatonic University), a town (

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

Salem's Lot ''Salem's Lot'' is a 1975 horror novel by American author Stephen King. It was his second published novel. The story involves a writer named Ben Mears who returns to the town of Jerusalem's Lot (or 'Salem's Lot for short) in Maine, where he ...

), a county ( William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County), a state (

Winnemac Winamac was the name of a number of Potawatomi leaders and warriors beginning in the late 17th century. The name derives from a man named Wilamet, a Native American from an eastern tribe who in 1681 was appointed to serve as a liaison between New ...

in various Sinclair Lewis stories), a large section of continent (as in north-western Middle-earth, which supposedly represents Europe), a whole planet ( Anne McCaffrey's

Pern ''Dragonriders of Pern'' is a science fantasy series written primarily by American author Anne McCaffrey, who initiated it in 1967. Beginning in 2003, her middle child Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. T ...

), a whole galaxy (

Isaac Asimov yi, יצחק אזימאװ , birth_date = , birth_place = Petrovichi, Russian SFSR , spouse = , relatives = , children = 2 , death_date = , death_place = Manhattan, New York City, U.S. , nationality = Russian (1920–1922)Soviet (192 ...

's ''Foundation'' books), even a

multiverse The multiverse is a hypothetical group of multiple universes. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, information, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. The di ...

('' His Dark Materials''). In a larger scale, occasionally the term alternate reality is used, but only if it is considered a variant of Earth rather than an original world.

Austin Tappan Wright Austin Tappan Wright (August 20, 1883 – September 18, 1931) was an American legal scholar and author, best remembered for his major work of Utopian fiction, ''Islandia (novel), Islandia''. He was the son of classical scholar John Henry Wright ...

's '' Islandia'' has an invented continent, Karain, on our world. However in fanfiction, along with

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

and/or parody, it is not considered canon unless they get authorized.

Locating a story

Within narrative prose, providing a believable location can be greatly enhanced by the provision of maps and other illustrations. This is often considered particularly true for fantasy novels and

historical novel Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other ty ...

s which often make great use of the map, but applies equally to science fiction and mysteries: earlier, in mainstream novels by

Anthony Trollope Anthony Trollope (; 24 April 1815 – 6 December 1882) was an English novelist and civil servant of the Victorian era. Among his best-known works is a series of novels collectively known as the '' Chronicles of Barsetshire'', which revolves ar ...

, William Faulkner, etc. Fantasy and science fiction novels often also provide sections which provide documentation of various aspects of the environment of the fiction, including languages, character lists, cultures and, of course, locations. In an online article on writing Dawn Arkin writes about the importance of location to the author's art: Maps are an immediate necessity for some works, as they do not take place on our Earth. Writers need working maps to keep straight at a glance whether the castle is north or south of the river, and how long it takes to get between valleys. This can be very helpful in preventing snags when dealing directly with fictional geography. Sometimes an actual geographic corner is used as a model for "getting it right", and identifying these can become a game for readers. Authors may turn an island into a continent or vice versa, rotate orientation, or combine two similar locales to get the best (for the story) of both.

Footnotes

References

*—includes science fiction and mainstream maps, as well as maps imagined only for their own sake, lacking any literary connection. {{Fiction navbox Location *

Locating a story

See also

Footnotes

References