Setting Help

[anygivenmemory.livejournal.com]

HELLO FELLOW WRITERS! I need a little help. I am outlining my novel at present. I have the character sketches done and I know what I want to do with the plot. I even know the general area that I want to set my book, at least in my mind's eye. I wanted to ask the community: What do you do for settings? Do you completely make up towns for places, or do you set your stories in real towns and use actual landmarks and street names? I have noticed that Google maps can be very useful, but I don't know if I can stick strictly to the real setting. For one, I have never actually been there myself, and secondly I am worried about writing something that may rub people the wrong way. For instance I have an orphanage in my novel. I am concerned that if I use the name of a real orphanage and write about a bad employee or something that there might be repercussions if my book was to actually get published. So what do you do for your own writing? Use real or made up settings, or a combination of the two? What kind of settings do you like to read about?