By Emily Cline
I recently attended a book talk by a local author whose hometown-inspired novels made me wonder: what is it about regional fiction that attracts such a loyal and enthusiastic readership? Literary regionalism has been popular since at least the nineteenth century, and the appeal of “local color” has since exploded in contemporary fiction, from small-town cozy mysteries and romances to insular horror settings. Regional fiction is rich ground for writers, who don’t need to travel far afield for inspiration when it can be found right in their own backyard. Small-town doesn’t mean small appeal: consider, for example, the success of the atmospheric, New England settings of Stephen King’s horror novels or the tourism economy that has arisen around the quaint communities of Louise Penny’s Three Pines mysteries, based on Quebec’s Eastern Townships. These fictional locales are grounded in the authors’ lived experience and local knowledge, resources that writers in any genre can draw on to make their stories feel grounded and ensure that, for the reader, they hit close to home.
What is Regional Fiction?
Don’t be fooled: the regional novel is not just about setting. Yes, this type of fiction often takes place in rural locales, drawing on earlier Romantic penchants for the pastoral or provincial, but it has evolved into almost a kind of anthropological lens, focusing not just on place but also on people and culture—dialect and slang, local customs, landmarks and cultural sites, and social organization. There is a lot of diversity in this mode; focusing on one region, such as the American South, might bring up anything from Mark Twain’s Reconstruction-era novels to the post-WWII short stories of Flannery O’Connor to Toni Morrison’s Southern Gothic masterpiece, Beloved. The distinguishing factor of regional fiction is its recognizable and highly developed sense of place.
Landmarks and Customs
Fantasy novels often include maps of their complex kingdoms and realms; however, regional fiction’s precise geography also requires careful spatial planning. Author Caleb Wygal, for example, includes a map of key locations in Myrtle Beach as bonus content in the fifth-anniversary edition of a novel set in the real-life South Carolina vacation spot. Building a story around specific locations adds realistic detail and engages readers with the fictional world by making it accessible, not just visually but physically. Walking tours of the real-life locales that inspire regional fictions, for example, benefit local communities by drawing tourism and engage readers by providing off-page opportunities for fans to follow in characters’ footsteps and further explore their favorite stories.
Besides landmarks, which might include natural features, historical architecture, or distinctive mom-and-pop shops, local settings are excellent places to stage unique cultural events. The community parade, fair, festival, or block party can be the catalyst for any number of conflicts, epiphanies, resolutions, or even heartfelt romantic meet-cutes (Christmas market, anyone?). Ancient and arcane rituals and traditions, complete with mummer’s masks, often feature in folk horror; on the other hand, the town potluck or village fête is an excellent device to bring together a cast of characters all in one place for a dramatic dénouement.
Slang and Dialect
One of the elements that makes regional fiction so relatable and authentic is the genre’s deliberate attempt to capture the way that ordinary people communicate. Many authors think about how to write realistic dialogue. Observing familiar local patterns is one way to improve the consistency and realism of character speech. By incorporating candid regionalisms, authors can create conversations and expressions that feel natural. Mark Twain was famous for his use of vernacular in his literary fiction because his characters’ colloquialisms cut through formalities and convention to resonate with everyday audiences. Besides adding to a story’s realism, regionalisms in character speech provide a shorthand for sprinkling in details about a character’s background and personality. Are there socio-economic factors that inform how a character expresses themselves, for example? Obscure slang might also offer opportunities for misunderstanding, misdirection, or flashes of comic relief.
Character and Situation
Characterization goes hand-in-hand with language. Regionalism taps into not only how people speak but also how they behave in particular settings. What family feuds and community cliques create tension in the neighborhood? Which social hierarchies dominate the landscape—a magnate with commercial interests, an old-money family resistant to change, local law enforcement agents with an axe to grind? Authors can take advantage of opportunities for observational research, recording interesting incidents or personalities that they encounter day-to-day, in order to gain inspiration for character traits and social conflicts that have a true-to-life quality. While it might seem counterintuitive, honing in on the local and specific will have widespread appeal: similar characters and situations are universal, and, as Agatha Christie’s small-town sleuth Miss Marple once said, “Human nature is much the same everywhere, and, of course, one has opportunities of observing it at closer quarters in a village.”
Bio: Emily Cline is a writer-researcher interested in literary history, especially topics touching on genre fiction. Her writing has been published in Mental Floss and various academic journals.
