Location Research
Tips on how to do the deed

Everywhere I go I find a poet has been there before me.
 —Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)

I am planning a few stories that take place in cities I have never visited and don't have the funds to go to. I was wondering if any of you had similar concerns, and any suggestions on what to do are greatly appreciated.  —Stacy Sobotka

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From Meri
There are several ways to do this, many of which have already been mentioned and are all helpful. If you're looking for basics, like character interests, background, etc, The Writer's Guide to Places is good for quick reference. You can find it at Writer's Digest. Beyond that, go online and grab addresses of places people are generally familiar with: chain stores, Starbuck's, restaurants, whatever, then grab a street map and use it to allow your characters to turn a corner here and there and make it real. 

You can create places, use hotel names without giving directions to them, and whatever else you want to give them places to be to. Chances are, half your readers haven't been there either and are going to pull their own visual from it anyway. Good luck!

From Emma Keigh
The first place I go is my local AAA office, and get street maps and as much as they have about the city I'm researching. Since I'm a member of AAA, it's all free.

I also check to see if there's a Chamber of Commerce website, a local, on-line business directory, school websites, etc. I've had good luck emailing Cs of C with specific questions about types of business (particularly shops) available. Often such websites have loads of photos, which help descriptions immensely.

From Liam Taliesin
Another good idea is to write local Departments of Tourism, which usually provide free brochures on events, cultural activities, and neighborhoods.

From William Dean
There is simply a flood of ways to research distant places, depending upon how much detail and familiarity you want to duplicate.

Do a google.com search on the area for general and specific aspects, such as history, clubs, nightlife, attitudes, and influences. Also you can read a few editions (or more) of the local newspapers/magazines online. Another thing you may wish to consider is to search for blogs written by people in the area which (like op ed pages in newspapers) can give you a deeper view of the local scene.

From Lesly Sloan
It's amazing what you can get from Google. For example, I just used Google to look up stuff on Detroit, a city I've never visited. By entering the word "Detroit" in the Google window, I got quite a bit of information, visitor guides, etc. A few more experiments using Google:

a) Lesbian clubs in Detroit
b) BDSM in Detroit

Each of those yielded many hits, links to clubs, you name it. In the past I used Google to discover that the closest legal brothel to Las Vegas is in Pahrump. Then I used Mapquest to get directions from Vegas to Pahrump, getting driving directions - and the fact that the two cities are about 60 miles apart, a 1-hour drive.

From Seneca Mayfair
If you feel like taking a drive to your local library, you might want to check out some of the travel videos for specific cities or countries. You also could look at the travel guides such as Frommers, Lonely Planet, and so on.

You might want to check the "Off the Beaten Path" series. Those are really cool especially if you're looking for some sort of unusual locale within the city or region.

Then there are all those non-fiction books for kid's reports on the different states and in those there is a lot of information on what the favorite past times are, the state's history and demographic mix, what the major cities are like, etc. The nice thing about the kiddie books is that they don't take hours to read and the information is reliable.

From Madelynne Ellis
You've had some wonderful suggestions, I'd just like to second Seneca's suggestion of the Lonely Planet Guides etc. They take a bit of reading but contain some real information gems.

From Lynne Connolly
You can get detailed street maps at www.multimap.com/.
Most places have their own websites for tourists and visitors, and they are a wealth of information. When I wrote a story based in New York, I was able to shop online for an apartment, using the online estate agents.

I also received awesome help from a few New York residents, passionate lovers of their city, who gave me the nuances I couldn't get from an official site.

From Ishmael Goat
In many states at around middle school there is a required course in the history of the state. Usually there are approved text books.

For depth, colleges - especially state colleges - will usually offer a course within their history departments.

I would definitely subscribe to the local newspaper - maybe it is free online but the flavor of the local ads would be different. Local ads and letters to the editor would offer a lot of insight. Often there are free neighborhood newspapers.

From Anonymous
I'm not sure if I missed any of the posts in this thread, but one idea occurred to me that I haven't seen yet, so here it is:

ERWA [email list] is a terrific resource. If you want to set a story in a specific place, you could always post a message to writers and/or parlour asking for anyone who lives in that place to write to you offlist so you can pick their brains. I'd guess that the people who live in a certain place would be the very best source of all for information, and the members of ERWA have always proven to be extremely helpful in many ways.

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