Hey everyone,
So... due to the fact that I'm back in school (sorta) and I don't have as much time for writing... and my main novel is still lagging unfortunately due to an issue with my computer. It died and I am forced to use a laptop which is terribly uncomfortable to write on (I'm writing this from work), and in my typical fashion, I'm starting to feel the urge to flesh out that one single crime-filled city in an otherwise safe nation that I started a thread on a while back.
I intend to write at least two or maybe three short stories in this one city, all featuring a certain vigilante and his attempts to try to protect his community when the police are either unwilling or powerless to do anything about it. The main thing about him, however, is that he lives in a very run down and poor slum (most of the city is actually fairly poor and exploited by the elite), and I've been doing some reading about how poverty or 'poor' people are portrayed in Hollywood movies (I have not seen the Grapes of Wrath though) and how those portrayals are criticized as being extremely unrealistic. I really want to show how downtrodden a lot of people in his community are.
BUT... I do want to also show that they can be resourceful in making due a lot of their needs. So one aspect that they have is they tend to have some fairly mad jury-rigging skills in not creating their own stuff, but also fixing things. They have to deal with everything from mending old clothes to patching up bullet holes and shattered windows after bomb blasts from all the criminal activities that happen.
Does anyone have any resources or ideas on how to pull this off? I know it'll be difficult in practice (poor areas are often in shambles for a reason), but I think it's something that these people need to be able to do in order to survive.
So... due to the fact that I'm back in school (sorta) and I don't have as much time for writing... and my main novel is still lagging unfortunately due to an issue with my computer. It died and I am forced to use a laptop which is terribly uncomfortable to write on (I'm writing this from work), and in my typical fashion, I'm starting to feel the urge to flesh out that one single crime-filled city in an otherwise safe nation that I started a thread on a while back.
I intend to write at least two or maybe three short stories in this one city, all featuring a certain vigilante and his attempts to try to protect his community when the police are either unwilling or powerless to do anything about it. The main thing about him, however, is that he lives in a very run down and poor slum (most of the city is actually fairly poor and exploited by the elite), and I've been doing some reading about how poverty or 'poor' people are portrayed in Hollywood movies (I have not seen the Grapes of Wrath though) and how those portrayals are criticized as being extremely unrealistic. I really want to show how downtrodden a lot of people in his community are.
BUT... I do want to also show that they can be resourceful in making due a lot of their needs. So one aspect that they have is they tend to have some fairly mad jury-rigging skills in not creating their own stuff, but also fixing things. They have to deal with everything from mending old clothes to patching up bullet holes and shattered windows after bomb blasts from all the criminal activities that happen.
Does anyone have any resources or ideas on how to pull this off? I know it'll be difficult in practice (poor areas are often in shambles for a reason), but I think it's something that these people need to be able to do in order to survive.