What do you think of using real places/pop culture/soft drinks/other real stuff in fics?
I'll give a partial list of real life elements in my fic and you can decide for yourself.
Quality Inn, Comfort Inn, Sleep Inn, Applebee's, TGI Fridays, Denny's, Sunoco, Target, Harris Teeter, Mercury Grand Marquis, Chevrolet Caprice Classic, Dodge Diplomat,... Need I go on?
Suppose you are writing a scene with a car crash, and your charter is in the car. How do you make the near death experience fell real to the reader? Do you use your own experiences, those of someone who has been in one, or do you simply guess at what it must fell like?
I try to make it seem real, but I do have to leave it partly to my imagination since I've never had a near death experience and it's not something I ask about.
DP479: (To some random guy on street) Yo, you ever have a near death experience, dawg?
Random guy (gives DP479 a roundhouse kick)
DP479: Ow! Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down! Never gonna run around and desert you! (gets punched in the face)