Board Thread:Watercooler 2.0/@comment-6191693-20130815031827/@comment-6209322-20130815171923

Well, I do my own fair bit of writing... One of my friends even mysteriously got hold of a copy of one of the final drafts to a story I wrote about a joust in middle-ages Germany, one that he erroneously thought was complete, and went through one of those self-publishing companies, presenting the beautifully illustrated but incomplete book to me at my high school graduation celebration... I was very grateful, of course, and probably the draft would have simply languished on my computer had he not gone through the trouble he did, but every time I read through the book again, I see parts that I would change, parts that I would make better... I love writing, but I sometimes think I am too much the perfectionist to actually buckle down and finish a novel... But enough about me:

Fan, you are presented with an interesting dilemma, one I have also encountered while writing, namely how realistic do you want your story to be? If you want everything to be real, then I would recommend picking one of the great American universities for this guy William to teach at (unless you want him to have a more international feel, in which case, choose the nation you want him to be familiar with, and having teach there... i.e. I want Will to know about Ireland --> Dublin University), but if you want the story to feel more fictional, you probably should choose a fictional name... Perhaps the argument could be that the fake university was small and died from lack of interest in the 40's, or perhaps the reason why William is going on this journey (or at least a part of the reason) is because he lost his job teach because his place of employ closed it's doors... It all depends on what you want. And as far as writing 'in Lovecraft's Shadow', I would consider it more of a nod to him than anything like what you describe, kind of like you are saluting his efforts as you boldly go along your own path... But then, I have never been accused of being completely normal in how I perceive things, so use your judgement on that... Personally, I like Tagan Academy of Science and Technology (TAST), but like I said, I really think it depends of what you are looking to make your story into -- immovable factuality where every single place and thing mentioned exists in real life, or a looser fiction where you can make up the same.

I don't know if that advice helps or not, but it is what I think.