O Is for Ohio, My Home Sweet Home

I like where I live. I was born and raised in Ohio and, though it would be fun to set up house somewhere else for a while, I never have. I went to college here, met my husband here, got my first job here, and both my children were born here.

But, for whatever reason, I'm always nervous about using my home state in my writing. I have this weird idea that Ohio is dull (it's not) or too Midwestern (it's just Midwestern enough). I get the feeling that people from outside the state will think my characters are boring, inexperienced, or one-dimensional just because they live in Ohio.

The YA novel I'm currently rewriting is set in Florida, New York, and Massachusetts. The adult novel I'm starting is set in Chicago. But the new YA that I've been thinking about is going to be set in Ohio. I didn't want it to be set in Ohio, but, for some reason, the characters just seemed like they were from there.

Glee also takes place in Ohio. The kids attend the fictional William McKinley High School (he was the governor of Ohio!) in the real-life city of Lima, Ohio. They chose this location because one of the writers was from a suburb of Illinois and he wanted the kids to be in a Midwestern setting.

This might have been one of my favorite Glee moments...



Overall, it's cool to hear the little Ohio in-jokes (of course, sometimes I wish they'd pull out a map. Supposedly Dalton Academy is in Westerville, which is two hours away from Lima! Kurt is not making that commute every day). But, I did get a little annoyed recently. I was reading some spoilers for the upcoming prom episode. Apparently Blaine and Kurt are going to attend prom together. Awesome, right? But Ryan Murphy explained the upcoming drama like this: "Can you imagine two boys wanting to go to the prom in Ohio?" Sigh.

I guess that's what people think of Ohio. We are just bigoted monsters. If two boys try to hold hands we will lose our shit.

I would venture to guess that two boys or two girls have attended prom together somewhere in Ohio. You probably didn't hear about it because "Gay Kids Have Very Nice Time at Midwestern Prom" isn't a very compelling headline. I’m not minimizing the problems that gay teens face in high school, but I also don’t think it’s fair to paint a whole region as anti-gay.

So, maybe that’s made me more open to writing about Ohio. We do have stories to tell here.

Oh, and if you needed more proof that people from Ohio are awesome, here are some awesome Ohio bloggers:

Candance Granger at Misadventures in Candyland
Lisa and Laura Roecker at Lisa and Laura Write
Stephanie M. Lorée at Scribbler to Scribe
Brianna at Bri Meets Books
Marie Rearden at The Flying Cheetah

What do you think? Do you write about your hometown? Know any other amazing Ohio writers/bloggers I should check out?

-- Lisa