I have a question: is it hard to write about a foreign country/place?
I know that Dostoevsky was Russian, his themes and settings were inspired or entirely based by Russia/the Russian culture.
But I also know Howard Philips Lovecraft who wrote in unfamiliar settings (foreign and imagined) and thus 'created' them. Because they were 'created', he wasn't as pressured to verifying details, unlike someone adopting a foreign setting, he invented them!
And here is the paradox: although Lovecraft was a great writer, his imagery and scene/feel/place/culture suggestion power wasn't enough, because he couldn't write about foreign countries (in features/troubles/traditions) in the real world. I suppose because of the amount of required research, or he didn't feel like it.
So, how should a beginner go about writing about unfamiliar places/settings in the real world? Min you the beginner doesn't yet know where to look because they haven't tried and got it wrong before. What's the first step to avoid that 'going wrong' from the get-go?
Answer
The first step is to hold back your urge to write. First do your homework, thoroughly.
Learn. Learn a whole lot about the place.
Start with Google StreetView and Panoramio. Proceed through Wikipedia to learn not just about the place but about landmarks, anything in the area. Find movies, amateur videos, anything to take place around there. Read blogs of people who live there. Maybe get in touch with them, ask them to tell you about their daily lives. Listen to their daily worries. Make sure to see the place in all seasons and weathers. Read a local newspaper (online) even if through Google Translate. Find historical maps of the area, learn how it changed alegiances through ages. Learn basics of the language. Get a feel of how it sounds. Watch any artwork created around there. Try something of the local cuisine. If a given activity, sport, hobby, leisure is typical to the area, go and try it locally, feel it on your own skin. Find little details of the country culture. Find little details that make given country what it is. It's not the towers of Kremlin that create the feel of Russia, it's a podstakannik on your tea glass.
If you can afford, go there. If you can't, live by proxy.
Eat your heart out, Lovecraft! World got much smaller since your times!
...I could find my way from Dityatki to Chernobyl blindfolded. And if I had to, I'd stop and sit to have a lunch on the brick fence of the communal farm in Cherevach without ever taking the blindfold off. And I wouldn't even step into the nettles.
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