# What is NYC like?



## Larry (Aug 4, 2010)

Can anyone tell me how New York City is like? I'm writing a story that is set in NYC, even though I've never been there. Please and thank you!


----------



## FancySkunk (Aug 4, 2010)

As the saying goes, "Write what you know." If you don't really know what NYC is like for yourself then you're going to have an extremely hard time trying to write about it.

You're likely better off to set it in a non-existent city that is similar to NYC, but isn't actually NYC. This way you have the freedom and flexibility to describe your setting without worrying about contradicting reality.


----------



## GatodeCafe (Aug 4, 2010)

Just BS it. You're a writer. That pretty much means as long as the story is engaging enough, it won't matter if you forget the subtleties of the subway system or which direction Stanton Island is from Broadway or whatever. I really have no idea. Do you think every cat who's written for spider man has been to Queens?

IMHO Following reality is overrated. If you've got the feeling down of a huge sprawling, bustling metropolis, you might as well call it NYC. If you have a unified vision and a well thought out style, the work will be interesting from an intuitive standpoint, not just from the point of view of accuracy.


----------



## FancySkunk (Aug 4, 2010)

GatodeCafe said:


> IMHO Following reality is overrated. If you've got the feeling down of a huge sprawling, bustling metropolis, you might as well call it NYC. If you have a unified vision and a well thought out style, the work will be interesting from an intuitive standpoint, not just from the point of view of accuracy.


It really depends on how it's going to be written. If the story just needs to take place in a big city, then picking New York is arbitrary and, yeah, you can get away with inaccuracies (as long as they aren't utterly ludicrous). However, if it's that arbitrary, you might as well make up your own city so that you can literally do whatever you want with it.


----------



## Acara (Aug 5, 2010)

Oh NYC <3. What Era are you looking to write. The City in the 80's was totally different from what it is now.


----------



## Kamau Husky (Aug 5, 2010)

There are lots of buildings and cars full of people who yell, "Out of the way asshole"!!!!!


----------



## black tiger (Aug 5, 2010)

no idea never been,would think alot of dumb people up there i would think


----------



## GatodeCafe (Aug 5, 2010)

black tiger said:


> no idea never been,would think alot of dumb people up there i would think


 
The only thing I actually know for 100% sure is that the weed is pretty shitty in NY, as it is in most big cities.


----------



## Fere (Aug 5, 2010)

New York City is an amazing place. Very eclectic, noisy, lively. But I agree with a lot of whats already been written here. If you're not really really familiar with a place, any place for that matter, it's best to go with a city based upon others rather than trying to mimick them exactly.

I use invented names for the cities in my stories, but all are _based _loosely off real places that I _do _actually know really well; for example, the central city in my long project is based off the city where I was born. 

I find it a lot more fun to create these places, than having to worry about someone picking out inaccuracies etc..


----------



## Usarise (Aug 5, 2010)

Just google NYC?  Not that hard to gather info on such a popular place! XD


----------



## Fere (Aug 5, 2010)

Usarise said:


> Just google NYC?  Not that hard to gather info on such a popular place! XD



Agreed... but can that ever replace _knowing_ such a hugely varied city. Google is a skin deep step. Walking the streets is down to the bone, as it were. Of course, the latter isn't always possible and is easier said than done. Depends how detailed and accurate one really wants to be.


----------



## Smelge (Aug 5, 2010)

Fere said:


> Agreed... but can that ever replace _knowing_ such a hugely varied city. Google is a skin deep step. Walking the streets is down to the bone, as it were. Of course, the latter isn't always possible and is easier said than done. Depends how detailed and accurate one really wants to be.



Streetview. Sorted.

Ages ago, I was thinking about writing a comic script based in New York, but on a citywide scale mostly. Idea was for some sort of natural faultline between realities opening up somewhere in the city, causing all kinds of smaller events before it tore open, followed by a big rift and creatures escaping into our world. The whole thing was a shitty idea from the start, but I did a lot of planning, mostly trying to work out how a full scale invasion from a central point in the city would pan out. You'd have people fleeing the epicentre, while military forces trying to enter the city to combat the threat. I worked out things like nearest military bases, response time, how long it would take to get troops and behicles on the ground and so on, ideal points in the city to form bottlenecks and defensible locations.

In the end, I worked out a timescale for how the operation would have gone, where advances and retreats would have occured and where they fell back to, resulting in the destruction of bridges and tunnels while maintaining a permanent fortified entry point at the Lincoln tunnel and a cordon along the north end of Manhattan Island.

Absolutely none of this was going to be in the comic. It was working out in my head exactly how the battle would have gone to figure out where buildings and structures would be damaged, ways the incursion would have reacted to work out what areas might have been carpetbombed and how the city would look months later for the people left inside the cordon.

There are millions of images of New York all over the place. Watch documentaries on it, streetview, every resource you can lay hands on. Plan how your story works, where, research the relevant areas, neighbourhoods, gangs and so on. Get every last detail you can locate. You really do need to visit it for proper reference, but with the internet at your disposal, you can blag it just as well.


----------



## AshleyAshes (Aug 6, 2010)

I'm writing a script for a comic book set in a 'Large American City'.  It's unnamed, but I'm actually using the Canadian city of Toronto as the basis since I know Toronto.  Even streets layouts and references are lifted out of Toronto.  Police chases the routes actually match real Toronto streets.  I just gloss over any name that's specifically canadian (Queens Park -> President's Park) so no American would know while the Canadians would go 'I401?  Right, that's totally an interstate highway. ;


----------



## M. LeRenard (Aug 7, 2010)

Funny you bring up Toronto.  Actually, the majority of Hollywood action movies that supposedly take place in New York end up being filmed in Toronto (similar architecture, I guess, but easier to stop traffic for a car chase sequence).  So I guess if they could get away with that, there's no reason you can't get away with writing about New York without ever having been there.  I mean, you won't get the ambiance, but if your story doesn't rely on it then it's no big deal.  You'll only offend New Yorkers, and hey, what doesn't offend them?
I've only been there once myself.  It's cool.  The streets are kind of dim even during the daytime from all the shadows of tall buildings, the architecture can be pretty cool and Gothic looking, you got your back alleys with the sewers steaming away, the thousands of yellow cabs, people with shopping bags, street vendors everywhere pestering you to buy watches and bootleg DVDs, the lights and big TVs on the main drags, Central Park in all its massiveness, homeless people, really creative and interesting graffiti.  Really being there, for me, felt pretty much like a less romanticized version of how it's always portrayed in movies and TV shows.  Granted, it's been quite a while, and I only spent a day.  I'm probably not the one to ask.  It's a big city.  A lot like other big cities, but still with its own unique feel to it.  And really... the people are much more friendly than their reputations would suggest.  At least, they were to me.


----------



## Larry (Aug 19, 2010)

Thank you everyone for posting. GatodeCafe's idea is good, but I already mentioned Z100 and Atlanta in my story, so I don't think I could turn back now. I'll see what I can do with the other posts. Thank you, again! ^^


----------



## jinxtigr (Aug 20, 2010)

This guy is very New York City: http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

The degree of passion and obsession, the way he talks, even the endless length of the page seem very NYC to me


----------



## nybx4life (Aug 25, 2010)

Well, just saying, NYC is a very busy place, with people driving and walking everywhere.
The subways is also crowded, with people taking it to every single one of the boroughs (minus one)
Also, crazy taxi drivers.


----------

