Street Life

Stacia Kane · Oct 13, 2006

Scarlett_156 said:
If you ever want to get a great slice of skeezoid life a la mode, follow on tour with an underground rock band for a couple of weeks-- I mean the kind of band whose members beg for money at the door so they can buy beer. It's like a crash course in streetness. I recommend it highly if you are keen on learning about urban weirdness. Then when you return home that roof over your head and that pile of bills laying on the desk will seem all the more precious.

LOL try living with one!

SpookyWriter · Oct 13, 2006

Shadow_Ferret said:
I write by observation and research. This whole idea of you must walk a mile in your character's moccasins is, well, I believe overkill.

Maybe, maybe not. But this thread isn't about homeless people when I started thinking about my present (living) arrangements. I happen to have now and have in the past run into down times where I either have no job (contract), permanent address, bank account, and/or funds to last more than a couple weeks. I use these times to get out and meet people who are in similar situations and learn more about everyday life than I would get by living in a $1200 a month apartment overlooking the pool.

I think I'm qualified to talk about being homeless because I am currently in that situation and was homeless in 2003 while in London looking for work. I seem to fall into this situation every three or four years when the market dries up and I have to live on my savings (which also goes to support family members). However, I do have the potential to get out of my current situation in a couple weeks and within a few months have the same lifestyle I did three months ago.

Needless to say, I'm using this time to walk around and get to know people here. I need to practice dialogue and write down phrases that I hear for later use. I am also taking photos of locations that I might need later on when I'm not around this part of the U.S.

Anyway, I don't know where my next job will be or in which city but wherever it is I'm sure there will be plenty to learn from the locals.

DeniseK · Oct 13, 2006

By choice, my husband and I live in a part of Dallas that has mansions on the street in front of my apartment building and homeless people, bars, liquor stores-a bad neighborhood, in other words-on the side. He found the apartment without me, it was after my son died and I was nuts with grief and we needed out of the house where he died, so I didn't care. At first I was a little bewildered, I had never even lived in a big city. I was raised in the suburbs. But I do go in these bars and stores, I walk wherever I want, and no one has ever bothered me. I have made some friends that are homeless, or really poor. I'm with James, in my younger days I liked the small, rougher, down-home bars and I still enjoy going into those kinds of bars, and I also agree with Anthony. I have had a few poems and some ideas for stories pop into my head, but I have never thought of the people I meet as specimens or my interactions as research. It sounds as if you are trying to claim both sides of the fence. You are either homeless or you aren't, you can't be both.

And if you are, nice laptop.

Cassiopeia · Oct 13, 2006

Shadow_Ferret said:
I write fiction and think my observations and imagination are enough.

There is a good reason they call it fiction isn't there

And you are right...if you have imagination and keen eye for observation that is enough.

The rest is melodrama

SpookyWriter · Oct 13, 2006

Casiopeia said:
There is a good reason they call it fiction isn't there And you are right...if you have imagination and keen eye for observation that is enough.

The rest is melodrama

But you must leave the house once in a while and really experience life. Or it's stilted writing and not realistic. Can't sit behind the computer all day and dream up reality or believable diction if you don't know what or how people live.

I do believe Stephen King took a couple road trips to write, as had other writers like Hemingway. Of course, I ain't none of the above so mine or others experience with writing from the trenches is just so much horse pucky.

Cassiopeia · Oct 13, 2006

SpookyWriter said:
But you must leave the house once in a while and really experience life. Or it's stilted writing and not realistic. Can't sit behind the computer all day and dream up reality or believable diction if you don't know what or how people live. I do believe Stephen King took a couple road trips to write, as had other writers like Hemingway. Of course, I ain't none of the above so mine or others experience with writing from the trenches is just so much horse pucky.

Hehe...I am not saying that you have to stay home and pretend to understand either. However, this whole...lets go be homeless for a month won't help either. Because in reality...one is not homeless...if they can return to their home. One is not financially destitute if they have a bank account with regular pay checks coming in...though they might be in debt up to the ying yang.

I could go on but I think you understand.

As for Hemingway, he wrote away from home because he really couldn't write in his own environment. Stephen King..well with what he writes..I don't want to contemplate what he does on the road...I would have nightmares wondering when he hit my neighborhood.

SpookyWriter · Oct 13, 2006

Casiopeia said:
Hehe...I am not saying that you have to stay home and pretend to understand either. However, this whole...lets go be homeless for a month won't help either. Because in reality...one is not homeless...if they can return to their home. One is not financially destitute if they have a bank account with regular pay checks coming in...though they might be in debt up to the ying yang. I could go on but I think you understand.

As for Hemingway, he wrote away from home because he really couldn't write in his own environment. Stephen King..well with what he writes..I don't want to contemplate what he does on the road...I would have nightmares wondering when he hit my neighborhood.

Granted, but I have no home to return to, so what's the deal here? Ha! I'm not advocating experiencing poverty to learn about people and so my message continues to get muddled in the homeless thread. I am saying that it's not a bad idea to live in environments where there's life (real life) and not the artificial kind you read about on the internet. I don't write good stories living in an expensive apartment, but that's just me. Maybe I like to live on the edge because I find the stories coming to life much easier when life isn't so wonderful.

I've written better short stories and completed a novel when I was destitute. I didn't write anything of value earlier this year when the money flowed and I was trapped inside an world I didn't feel comfortable with at the time.

I personally like to travel to where the story begins and ends. But that again is just me.

badducky · Oct 13, 2006

Lots of interesting Urban Anthropology people do much of the fieldwork for me, but on occassion I'll put on my worst and slum it a little just to remind myself of what it really smells like, tastes like, etc.

Seriously, though, and do listen to me carefully and thoroughly:

You can find numerous well-researched and thorough articles and books, as well as word-for-word personal accounts, of life on the streets through Urban Anthropology researchers. Let them risk their life so you don't have to, okay?

Novels are wonderful. They're worth risking alcoholism and poverty, but they aren't worth your life.

Kate Thornton · Oct 13, 2006

I had a varied background - I like to think of it as rich and colorful instead of poor and deprived. I think happy children don't always know they are poor - and as adults we can be remarkably resilient. I've been poor - I hope it's never my lot again, it was so grindingly hopeless for a while. I enjoy being comfortable and know how to take pleasure in the small things in life. I am disabled now, so I know what it's like to not be able to walk in your - or anyone's - shoes. I am also invisible - so many people just dismiss a middle aged woman of unremarkable looks. I can be quite visible when I choose, though, so it's a gift.

I do talk to people - especially in line at the store - writers, you need to talk to people. Don't get so caught up in playing your scene that you neglect to converse and gain insight & information, take verbal notes.

Cassiopeia · Oct 13, 2006

SpookyWriter said:
Granted, but I have no home to return to, so what's the deal here? Ha! I'm not advocating experiencing poverty to learn about people and so my message continues to get muddled in the homeless thread. I am saying that it's not a bad idea to live in environments where there's life (real life) and not the artificial kind you read about on the internet. I don't write good stories living in an expensive apartment, but that's just me. Maybe I like to live on the edge because I find the stories coming to life much easier when life isn't so wonderful.

I've written better short stories and completed a novel when I was destitute. I didn't write anything of value earlier this year when the money flowed and I was trapped inside an world I didn't feel comfortable with at the time.

I personally like to travel to where the story begins and ends. But that again is just me.

Okay ...but there is a difference between homeless and destitute. Are you sleeping on the street? how do you manage to be online? Are you in a hotel? You have me worried now

SpookyWriter · Oct 13, 2006

Casiopeia said:
Okay ...but there is a difference between homeless and destitute. Are you sleeping on the street? how do you manage to be online? Are you in a hotel? You have me worried now

I have secured temporary living arrangements with a friend who has a dial up connection. Don't worry about me because this life is wonderful and I am experiencing another chapter toward a book of living on the edge. I have a small amount of money to last for a couple weeks, but a few potential job interviews next week so I should be fine come November.

Hmmm...wasn't that a song?

P.S. This thread has actually given me a great story idea that I already begun to write. Horror of course.

Street Life

Stacia Kane

Girl Detective

SpookyWriter

DeniseK

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied

SpookyWriter

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied

SpookyWriter

badducky

No Time For Chitchat, Kemosabe.

Kate Thornton

Still Happy to be Here. Or Anywhere

Cassiopeia

Otherwise Occupied

SpookyWriter