Should my character drink a Coke or a generic soda? Should they play for the New York Rangers or the nonexistent NY Gladiators hockey team? Are they shopping in Macy’s or my fictional Diffenbacher’s Department Store?

When we write contemporary (or paranormal or other near-Earth universes) we come up against the issue of real locations and real brands, and the limits to which we want to use them. Real places and things ground our stories in the familiar. If I tell you Jack spilled a Coke and got a stain on their shirt you know what that color looks like. If they drive a Ferrari, you know they have money and like sports cars. Saying “He walked the streets of downtown Manhattan” means I don’t have to tell you there are pavements and skyscrapers.

Real things give a reader a connection to the story. I love finding an author describing a place I’ve been, or a book, movie, hobby, or food that’s a favorite. Being able to clearly picture where the character is or what they’re experiencing can make a story more fun.

Of course, if someone doesn’t do their homework, that can be a source of annoyance.

Which is one of the downsides to going real as a writer. If I talk about Hoboken, NJ, I’d better know it has a waterfront and describe that in ways that local folk will see as realistic. If I change it to Honitoller, NJ, I can stick it anywhere in the state I want to, and give it a dozen skyscrapers or none. Travel time to NY can be fudged (within reason) to what I want it to be.

Another downside to sticking to the real is liability. There’s a thing called “fair use doctrine” that allows a limited amount of use of trademarked and copyrighted material without express permission. So I don’t have to ask before I let my character raise a Coke. However there are limits, and there are brands that very aggressively protect their trademarks. (Like Disney.) If my character is going to choke on that Coke and end up brain dead, I’d better make it an InventaSoda. My guys can shop at Macy’s, but if there’s going to be a shootout or a homophobic cashier in the store, it had better be Diffenbacher’s.

With each book, I face some of those debates– go real or go invented with a host of details? Some types of stories are more deeply affected by that debate, notably sports romances which really force us to decide if we want the familiar leagues and real team names, or to go with fake teams and leagues. There are no clear rules, so if you read a story that has a lot of the familiar, or very little, the difference really is author choice and comfort. And sometimes, author willingness to do the research to go with something real rather than invented. Invented is easier.

So why not just invent all the details to be simple and safe? Because readers of contemporary want to feel the validity of the story; the less it reflects real life in the small details of our mutual world, the more challenging it is to sink into and believe as truth. I love wonderfully immersive books where the setting and details are painstakingly researched and real.

This dilemma’s one more piece of writing for publication that didn’t occur to me through all the years I wrote and hid my novels away (after all, the litigious Chicago-based Zoo would never know I took their name in vain). But now it’s a familiar part of the game.

Kaje Harper

Sept 2023