Build a Town or City Meme

History

1. Who founded the town and when?

2. What was the location like before it was founded as a town?

3. What were some of the indigenous people in the area like before the town started to boom (if it did)?

4. Where is it exactly?

5. What county is the town/city located in?

6. What were the demographics when it was first founded? Was it mostly French? German? Asian? African?

7. Why was it founded? Were the people escaping persecution? Free land? Looking for something else?

8. What was the main industry in this town when it was founded? Was there a lot of fur trading in the area? Logging? Car manufacturing?

9. Depending on how old this town was then, how did the Revolutionary War affect it? The Civil War? World War One? World War Two? Vietnam?

10. Have any major disasters occurred? Fire? Plague? Flood? Tornado?

11. Have there been any hate groups in the area? Ku Klux Klan? Neo-Nazis? Has there been a history of
sundown laws or has this town been pretty tolerant?

12. Have any famous people hailed from this town?

13. Have any murders occurred? Any blood feuds? Witch trials? Anything else shocking and scary?


Current

14. Who are the prominent families in this town? Why are they prominent? How did they get to be prominent? Does everybody like them or are people too afraid to hate them? Do people openly hate them? How do they present themselves to the town? How are they behind closed doors? What do they do to support the community, ruin it? Describe the members of the families in details, from their jobs to their schooling to who they are as persons (you can always use my other questionnaire to build some of these characters if you so wish).

15. What families are generally looked down upon in this town? What have they done to become outcasts? Do they have any friends or are they generally disliked? How do they present themselves to the town? How are they behind closed doors? Do they try to support the community or do they say 'To hell with it'. Why do they stay in this town? Describe some of the people in these families (again, use the questionnaire if any of these folks are to be main characters).

16. Describe some of the other families. What is their history with the town? How are they looked upon in town? What do they do for the community? What kinds of jobs do they hold? Again, you can describe some of these people by using my questionnaire. ☺

17. What is the main language of this town? German? English? What about heritage? What heritage do most of the townsfolk seem to possess?

18. What's the population? What are the demographics? Are most of your townsfolk white? Black? Asian? Hispanic? What are the religious demographics? How many of these people are below the poverty line? What is the average age? Income? Household size?

19. What is the biggest job supplier in this town? A factory? What job do most people have? What types of jobs do teenagers in this town have?

20. How many schools are there in this town? Are there any nearby colleges? Where do most students go when they graduate? Are there any parochial schools?

21. How many churches are there? Any synagogues? Any other places of worship? What denominations are there? Baptist? Catholic? Jehovah's Witnesses? Does everybody in town go to church? What do the non-church-going people do instead of church?

22. How many taverns? Any dives? Are any of the taverns nice? What kind of clientele do they seem to attract? What's the history behind them?

23. Where do your townspeople do their grocery shopping? Describe the store. Is it a clean supermarket or a dusty little mom and pop store? Any history?

24. Are there any parks in your town? What are their names? Any history? Describe.

25. What about restaurants? Names? History? What kind of food do they serve? When are they usually busy? What is the clientele like? Any fast-food? Ice cream parlors? Coffee shops?

26. Any beauty parlors or barber shops? History? Names? Describe them and their clientele.

27. What about hotels or motels? Names? History? Any ghosts?

28. How about graveyards? How many are there? Are they separated by religion? Are there any ghost stories surrounding them?

29. What about gas stations? How many are there? What's the current gasoline price in your town?

30. Any little shops in your town? What do they peddle? Clientele? History?

31. Any theaters or cinemas? Again, describe the history behind these. Theaters tend to have great ghost stories.

32. Any attorneys in town? How about doctors? Dentists? Eye doctors? Describe them.

33. What do kids do for fun in this town? Where do they go?

34. Describe the police force in this town. Who's the captain/chief? What about the fire station?

35. Are there any town busybodies? What are they like? Why are they busybodies?

36. Do your townspeople have a kind of accent? Southern? Upper Peninsula of Michigan?

37. Are there any lakes or oceans near your town? Any rivers? Describe them, their depth, animal life, how people might use them to entertain themselves ect.

38. What kind of animals live near your town?

39. Are there hunting seasons? Fishing seasons? When do they occur?

40. Is there any public transportation? Is it any good? What's the fare? What about taxis? How many are
in your town?

41. Do any highways intersect your town?

42. What is the nice area of town like? Who lives there? Describe some of the houses.

43. Are there any suburbs? Describe them.

44. Is there a sketchy area of town? Describe it.

45. Is there a local haunted house that all the kids are afraid of? Describe its history. Is there really a ghost or are kids simply afraid of a town outcast? Describe the outcast.

46. What does the town smell like? Cow crap? Foundry? River? Sausage? Describe.

47. Is there a stadium in your town? What team does your town represent? How good are they? Who's the MVP? Coach? Describe some of the most famous players.

48. What are the school colors? What kind of sports teams does your school host? How many students are there? Who are the popular kids? Teachers? Outcasts? Principal? What cliques are there? Jocks? Punks? Goths? Is it a good school or substandard? If your story is set before the mid-sixties, is the school segregated? Have any scandals rocked the school?

49. Does your town have a newspaper? How long has it been running? Who are the editors? What's it called? How long is it usually?

50. What political viewpoints do most of your townspeople seem to have? Why?

51. What style are most of the houses in town like? Cape cod? A-frame? Victorian townhouses?

52. What about the courthouse? How old is it? What does it look like? Describe its history?

53. Who's the mayor of this town? What are they like? Their family? Have they done anything corrupt or do they actively take care of their town?

54. How are new people welcomed in this town? Does a welcome wagon pay them a visit? Are people cold to them? Why would anybody move to this town?

55. Are there any festivals in this town? Picnics? Where do bands play? Is there a band shell? What are the festivals like and what do they celebrate?

56. What are some neighboring towns and what relationship does your town have to its neighbors?

57. What is the cost of living in this neighborhood? How much does the average house cost? If there are
apartments, what's the average rent?

58. Are there banks in this town? What are they called? How many are there?

59. How do your characters view this town? Do they love it? Hate it? If they're adult, why do they live in this town. If your characters are mostly under eighteen, do they plan on staying in this town after they graduate?

60. What's the weather like most of the time? What are the average temperatures?

61. What kinds of flowers, trees, grass, and shrubs are indigenous to this town?

62. Does this town get decked out for the holidays? Describe the décor over the Christmas season.

63. Are there any strange modern art pieces located anywhere in this town? Any statues of town fathers or anything along those lines? Describe.

64. Is there a library? How big is it? Is it pretty much up-to-date or are the books positively Jurassic? Who's the librarian? What's the history behind this library?

65. Are there gyms for people to work out at? What are they like? Are there a lot of machines? Is there a pool?

66. How about a public pool? Is there one? How deep is it? Is there a diving board? Is there a hot dog/hamburger stand? Do people hang out here a lot during the summer?

67. Are there any criminals living free in this town right now who might be successfully hiding their life of crime? What did they do? How did they hide their crime? Have there been any kidnappings? Robberies? Murder? Are there any gangs? What do they do? How powerful are they? Is there Mafia? Are there any Ku Klux Klansmen or Neo Nazis or other hate groups living in this town? Do your townsfolk feel pretty safe living here?

68. Are there any airports or train stations near this town? How do people get here? How far is the nearest big city? Is this a city? Do any trains zip through this town?

69. How many traffic lights are there? Are there any? Do they have roundabouts instead?

70. What streets run north and south? East and west? Are there any dead-end streets? How clean are the streets? Are there plenty of plants and trees to make the town look pretty? Is the town even pretty?

71. Are the streets paved? Are they simple dirt roads? If they're paved, what's the condition like? Good? Bad? Are there a lot of potholes? Are there any nature trails or bike paths?

72. What's the terrain of your town like? Hilly? Flat?

73. Is it a touristy town? Why or why not? What are some tourist traps that might attract a bunch of
tourists? How do townspeople react to tourists?

74. How do people who don't live here view this town upon seeing it for the first time? With disdain? Or do they think it's a cute, pleasant little town? A perfect place for raising a family?

75. Draw three maps. Draw just a street map showing what streets are what. Then draw a map of where your characters' houses are located. Then draw a map of where the businesses were located. Of course you could combine these to make one map instead of making three separate maps. It's up to you. Just draw a map.