: Re: Troubles with unfamiliar locations and settings based in the real world I have a question: is it hard to write about a foreign country/place? I know that Dostoevsky was Russian, his themes and

The first step is to hold back your urge to write. First do your homework, thoroughly.

Learn. Learn a whole lot about the place.

Start with Google StreetView and Panoramio.
Proceed through Wikipedia to learn not just about the place but about landmarks, anything in the area.
Find movies, amateur videos, anything to take place around there.
Read blogs of people who live there. Maybe get in touch with them, ask them to tell you about their daily lives. Listen to their daily worries. Make sure to see the place in all seasons and weathers. Read a local newspaper (online) even if through Google Translate. Find historical maps of the area, learn how it changed alegiances through ages. Learn basics of the language. Get a feel of how it sounds. Watch any artwork created around there. Try something of the local cuisine. If a given activity, sport, hobby, leisure is typical to the area, go and try it locally, feel it on your own skin. Find little details of the country culture. Find little details that make given country what it is. It's not the towers of Kremlin that create the feel of Russia, it's a podstakannik on your tea glass.

If you can afford, go there. If you can't, live by proxy.

Eat your heart out, Lovecraft! World got much smaller since your times!

...I could find my way from Dityatki to Chernobyl blindfolded. And if I had to, I'd stop and sit to have a lunch on the brick fence of the communal farm in Cherevach without ever taking the blindfold off. And I wouldn't even step into the nettles.

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: The classic symbol for trade is a standing set of scales, standing (as opposed to handheld/hanging, more frequently associated with justice). If you want an animal, the one most frequently associated

: Re: Troubles with unfamiliar locations and settings based in the real world I have a question: is it hard to write about a foreign country/place? I know that Dostoevsky was Russian, his themes and

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: Dealing with lackluster plot failure So, I wrote the beginning of something about novel-sized. I drafted totally sweet, lovable protagonists in an interesting, original relationship, I placed them

: How many commas is too many? I find myself often in writing using too many commas, but then going through and editing many of them back out again or restructuring to use full-stops. Is there

: Self/vanity publishing a game manual I'm writing a player's handbook for a game I'm producing. The game is fully open source, and the manual itself will be online. However, I would like to

: The classic symbol for trade is a standing set of scales, standing (as opposed to handheld/hanging, more frequently associated with justice). If you want an animal, the one most frequently associated

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