CARRBORO -- You might have thought that Daniel Wallace would have been inclined to leave small-town life behind when he hit the big time.

You'd have been wrong.

After making a splash with his 1998 debut novel "Big Fish," which earned glowing reviews and was adapted into a major Hollywood movie, Wallace's latest project is ... a user's guide to Carrboro.

The Chapel Hill-Orange County Visitors Bureau commissioned Wallace, who has published two subsequent novels, to write the article, "Getting to Know Carrboro -- a Step-by-Step Guide." The bureau is hunting for national publications in which to run it.

"How do you describe an entire town in 2,000 words or less?" Wallace said, sipping coffee at the 3 Cups coffee shop on West Franklin Street.

Wallace says Carrboro-Chapel Hill is a "cultural oasis." He said he wrote the 16-step "guide" to help people "get an idea of Carrboro -- a flavor."

Commissioning Wallace's piece is the bureau's first step toward a new strategy: bringing in tourists via literature -- feature articles -- rather than advertisements. After all, several well-known writers live in Orange County, mostly in Hillsborough: Hal Crowther, Lee Smith, Allan Gurganus, David Payne, Michael Malone and writer-cartoonist Doug Marlette.

"We've found people respond more to stories than to advertisements," said Laurie Paolicelli, executive director for the visitors bureau. "The average consumer places more credibility in the written word than an advertisement. There's more intimacy there. It's a testimony, I think ... Feature stories go a long way into luring tourists to an area.

"Our thought process is: We're a tourism bureau in an area of artists and writers, and we'd like to partner with them -- using their talent to call attention to Orange County."

Tourism generates about $127 million a year in Orange County, Paolicelli said.

The bureau's aim is to promote all three main towns of the county: Chapel Hill, Hillsborough and Carrboro. Though Carrboro doesn't have a hotel, people can still come for the culture, the arts, the music and the food, she said. Then, she said, they can stay overnight in one of Chapel Hill's hotels.

"We needed a fresh perspective of Carrboro -- something that could sell its magic," she said.

"Our goal with this is to increase visitors [to Orange County]," Paolicelli added. "You have to sell the destination, and we believe this story sells Carrboro as a destination."

Wallace said he wanted to convey what sets Carrboro apart.

"I've always felt the general thought of Carrboro, at least to Chapel Hill, is that it's an appendage -- that Carrboro couldn't survive without Chapel Hill," he said. "But for the past quarter of a century, it [has] developed its own personality. That's what I wanted to celebrate in a piece like this."

All his article can do is hint to visitors what's all wrapped up in Carrboro, he said.

"The only way to know the town in all its variety is to live inside of it, to be a part of it," he said.

Wallace, 47, has lived in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area for the past 25 years. He moved here, he said, after visiting his sister, who lived here, and falling in love with the place.

So, before he'd ever actually seen the campus, he enrolled at UNC, transferring from Emory University in Atlanta.

He moved to Japan for two years after he graduated, but returned after deciding he wanted to be full-time writer. And he decided this area was the best place to do just that.

"You can see other professional writers at the grocery store, coffee shop, all around town," Wallace said. "It brought the whole process down to earth, and [it seemed] doable. I thought: 'If they can go shopping at Harris Teeter, I can do it, too.' Because writing full-time seemed impossible."

Paolicelli approached Wallace in May and convinced him to get on board with the visitors bureau's new method of attracting tourists.

"If that person is an award-winning author, then you have the advantage of their communicating the brilliance of the town in a very seasoned way," Paolicelli said. "In a way that is so engaging that it enraptures potential visitors that they just want to come check it out."

Staff writer Meiling Arounnarath can be reached at 932-2004 or marounna@nando.com.