nanowrimo_lj | Weekly Plot Help - Week of November 10th

OK, this is a weird combination of questions, but I suppose it's a weird story. :P The book in question is set in Seattle, and features a young high-schooler who's a Seattle native and another high-school age character who's just transferred there who's from Los Angeles and is of biracial Japanese/Mexican descent (her dad's Mexican descent, mom Japanese).

1.) For people who've lived in Seattle a long time: I need to know more about the layout and "feel" of Seattle, little coffee shops and stuff that locals would know, info on one or more local high schools, that kind of thing. All I know right now is there's lots of good coffee places, it rains a lot, it snows in winter, and the teenagers wear a lot of hoodies. Not much to go on. :) Can anybody who lives or has lived there help me out on this?

2.) Same verse, same as the first except plug in "LA". The book may not be set there, but one of the main characters is from it, and I'm sure the transition for her will be noticeable! Also, if I finish this one, one of my next projects would be a prequel, which would be set in LA anyway. If you can help, please do?

3.) For those of either Japanese or Mexican descent, or both, from LA (or people very close to kids in those groups): What is like being raised by parents of that particular ethnic group - do they try to assimilate, or do the opposite, or a little of both? What are some of the things that make it awkward or make you feel "different"... or some of the advantages of it? And how would your family or friends react if you married (as this character's parents did) someone of that other ethnic group - would it be just "a little weird, but no big deal", or would it be somehow scandalous? Or is not something that would be a big deal now, but might have been 20 years ago?

Thanks for any help you guys can give. :)

1) I haven't lived in Seattle since I was little, but I live up in the northwest about 2-3 hours away from it and have spent a lot of time there. :) Seattle has a very strong feeling to it, particularly to someone- like me- who's somewhat of an outsider there. If you've ever seen Advent Children, the lighting of Seattle is very similar to the lighting of edge- very gray and bright, particularly in the autumn and winter, and tending towards cold. It tends to sprinkle a lot- wussy, drizzly rain-, with the occasional dump of rain, and less snow than you'd expect (in general, in the northwest, snow is actually a surprise).

It also varies a lot from area to area. Downtown and places like West Lake have a lot of sky-scrapers, big stores, and things like that (West Lake is, unless I'm getting my Seattle geography turned around, where the Gap, Nordstrom's, and Macy's are). But if you go over to the University District, everything has a much more quiet, local feel to it. I don't recall the name, but I've been to a tiny local coffee shop in a backalley in the U-district (and it was a very nice place, warm and comfy and with great food, even though you had to leave the place and go around to some stairs to get to their balcony seating). There are a lot of little local bookstores and thrift stores, as well as cafes and coffee shops.

In general, Seattle has a very... well, northwest feel that sort of hard to pin down (probably because I live here). It's often cold even if it's sunny, because you spend a lot of time in the shade, although every so often it's hot. A lot of people wear Converse and Doc Martens and knock-offs of both, despite them being pretty impractical for the usual weather. There tends to be a vaguely subdued feeling, as well, with gray skies being more common than blue ones.

Also, as a landmark, consider the Seattle Center- home of the Space Needle (http://www.spaceneedle.com/), Experience Music Project, Science Fiction Museum, and a lot of other attractions.

I hope the above rambling helps at least a bit... :D;

O.O

YES. That helps enormously! Especially since the native Seattle..ite? (What do you North-Westerners call someone from Seattle?)... is bookish and shy and such, and I think she'd be fond of hanging out in the University District, from the sounds of it. :D

And your description helps me get a MUCH better handle on how to capture the feel of it, both from the perspective of the girl who's lived there her whole life and the California girl who's probably not at all going to like the cold, damp chill. ;)

Ahaha... I almost want to move to Seattle now. Or at least visit the University District. It sounds so cozy in comparison to where I live (I'm probably weird for thinking a drizzly city sounds more pleasant than sunny Florida, but I hate the heat anyway, ha).

Oh, I'm glad! It's Seattleite, yeah. :D I'm sure she'd love the U-district, and there are a lot of buses in and out of the area. Also... I'm not 100% clear on what the policies for non-students checking out books are (it might not be allowed), but she would be able to visit the libraries on the University of Washintgon campus. Fun fact: the UW campus has a bigger collection of books (over six billion, I believe) than anywhere else in the United States. And the libraries are gigantic, beautiful structures (for example, see the Suzzallo library (http://www.lib.washington.edu/suzzallo/)). A lot of the architecture on the campus is like that as well- giant and gorgeous and full of fields, statues, and a lot of greenery.

From my experience, Seattle tends to seem fairly gloomy and gray to someone who thrives in or is coming from a much warmer environment (like your character from California), unless they're lucky enough to arrive on a sunny day, but actually has a pretty cozy feeling to it a lot of the time and isn't as depressing as people tend to paint it- the buildings tend to be very warm inside, especially cafes, and there's nothing like sitting inside a coffee shop with a cup of hot chocolate while it's rainy and gray outside. Although catching buses in the rain can occasionally be not so fun.

Glad to be of help. :) Seattle is a bit overwhelming to a small-towner like me, but in a lot of ways really nice (although it does, of course, have the same issues with violence and danger areas that any big city does). The University District has a really small, warm, local feel to it (and lots of good, cheap food). And man, I'm abusing parentheses today.

From my experience, Seattle tends to seem fairly gloomy and gray to someone who thrives in or is coming from a much warmer environment (like your character from California

iawtc!

My friend, who has actually lived in Seattle her whole life (until now) loooves the sun and the weather here tends to be a depressant to her. She's actually taking vitamin D now, in order to boost her state-of-mind/happiness, and such...

Yeah, there are some people who the environment can be a killer for. My brother, who's part Vietnamese, has had a lot of issues with living in the north-west (he recently moved to Hawaii). I tend to find that, even as a resident up here who can't handle a whole lot of sunlight, I tend to be vaguely depressed and lame for a few weeks at the end of summer until I get used to the really gray, rainy weather and have to take vitamin D.

It doesn't actually depress me but I get bummed when the warm weather starts going away. Once we're through the warm-to-cold transition I'm hyped up in the weather (I've loved rain my whole life X3). Its cozy and good movie-watching or novel-writing or baking & tea drinking weather. :D

Heh, sounds just like me. :) I actually enjoy the fall/winter weather a lot, but it does take some adjusting to.

I have lived in the Seattle area for decades, and the University District is a really facinating place... there's everything from Ice Cream parlours (Cold Stone Creamery and Haagan Daaz) to little east indian clothing stores, a footwear place that sells Birkenstocks and 'non leather' shoes for vegans, a lot of asian food places- tiny little shops, no more than fifteen or twenty feet wide, and a good 60 or more feet long! There's Bead shops, and 'alternative' clothing shops (doc martens, vinyl coats, tie-dye or vintage clothing, that kind of thing) and even a little shop that sells nothing BUT gargoyles. (think i'm kidding? heh! check out http://gargoylestatuary.com/!!)

Away from the U-district, but also of local fame among the UofW students, would be Archie McPhees: http://www.mcphee.com/ VERY fun to drop by- and it shows you the sense of humor and style that a lot of the little shops play on, in the U-district, even though Archie McPhee's is now located in Ballard- most of the bookshops and gift places will carry SOME of that kind of fun stuff. :)

"I don't recall the name, but I've been to a tiny local coffee shop in a backalley in the U-district (and it was a very nice place, warm and comfy and with great food, even though you had to leave the place and go around to some stairs to get to their balcony seating)."

I think that's Cafe Allegro. I didn't visit the coffee shops on the Ave much, though, since I'm not a coffee drinker. =p

Yes, that's the one! :) Thank you.

I live 30 minutes out of Seattle. I'm not sure how I'd describe the feel of it, though. There are different areas of Seattle that attract different crowds and that may affect where exactly you write about. If you mean the central downtown area, then that's the busy area where everyone is minding their own business (except for the few people that...don't) and yeah, every other person has a cup of coffee or something. There's the international district, which is laid out to attract people of asian heritages, which also goes to mean it will attract anyone who's into anime and manga, bubble tea and stuff. There's Capitol Hill where Broadway is. That place attracts a more eccentric crowd, its also known as (in a joking sort of way) "the place Washington puts its gays". It's where Cornish school of the arts is and thus will have a lot of artsy college students.

So yeah. Like I said, different areas attract different people. Like I would know some of a couple places in Capitol Hill or the University District (right out of Seattle) because those are the places that attract me. I rarely find myself going into central downtown Seattle just to hang. Though I have a few times.

As for coffee shops, I think it will depend on your character as to what kind of coffee shop she goes to. If she's a simpleton or lives for convenience in anyway, Starbucks is definitely the way to go. The original Starbucks is in Pike Place Market (Seattle) and you can find a Starbucks on just about any damn corner in Seattle! But if she's more of an independant thinker and likes to stray a little, she'd probably find her own cafe to fit her own feel.

As for high schools, I don't know too much about 'em. But I have a friend who attended the Center School (High school located in the Seattle Center, where the Space Needle is) and its a very small, private-like school. Probably about 20-30 people per class, very personal, a lot of the same classes. Being in Seattle, its also a very modern school. People bent on exterminating discrimination (unlike some of the suburban-Seattle schools that are much larger where people will make fun of someone for being gay. That would never happen in the Center School!)

And like hireadd said, snow is a surprise! It's been snowing a bit more in the winters lately, but we're lucky if its enough to last 3 days or so. It will melt quickly, and likely rain, which will make the snow melt even faster. Unless we're lucky and it freezes over night and makes it even more dangerous to go out driving and stuff. Mind you, a lot of the times school will be canceled if there's that lucky 3-day snow plow because nobody knows how to deal with the snow! That makes us a danger to ourselves.

Feel free to ask me anymore questions. I hope I was helpful to you, even though I wasn't very specific in some cases. But if you come up with more specific ideas then I'd be happy to help you out. :D Good luck on your novel~!

Mind you, a lot of the times school will be canceled if there's that lucky 3-day snow plow because nobody knows how to deal with the snow!

This. XD In my small town, whenever we have snow for more than a day or two, everything just shuts down because no one knows what to do and the stores instantly run out of tire chains and other equipment.

Haha. It's hilarious. Throw a little snow into the greater Seattle area and people panic. XB

What 'small town' are you from?

Haha, it's always about what you're used to, isn't it?

Here in Central Florida, we get hit by so many hurricanes (like one or two at least come close to us pretty much every year) that we didn't even raise a fuss at anything below Cat 4 until Charlie made a mess at Cat 3. But even now, if it's "only" Cat 1 or 2, we pretty much just sigh and MAYBE we'll drain the pool a little so it doesn't overflow and MAYBE we'll board up if it looks like it might increase in power before it hits and we have some extra time and wood to spare, but mostly we just expect a lot of rain and maybe the power will go out for a bit. Then again, we got sucker-punched by that Tropical Storm Fay this year... but that was mostly just flooding from the rain. :\ The biggest danger is actually flooding and tornadoes, and it's certain areas that really get hit by those (like Barefoot Bay. Every single year they hit by tornadoes, I swear. And yet, it's predominantly trailer parks! You'd think they'd learn...). I'm lucky in that I don't live in one of those areas. :)

Then again, you have idiots like the Darwin Award Honorable Mention who tried to kite-surf in a Tropical Storm (Fay, specifically) and went flying and crashed into a building. Sometimes paranoia wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. :P

Port Townsend. Washington's Own Victorian Seaport, as they say.

Oo, awesome. My dad owns a fishing boat and we've taken it on a few trips to Port Townsend. I hardly remember what the place is like, though. Would be neat to see it again.

No, you were very helpful. :D

Do you know of any University District cafes that are inexpensive but particularly homey, cozy places that are good to settle down and read in for hours on end? Especially close to the UW library or any good bookstores? From the sounds of it, my character (who is very much a bibliophile, but since she's still in high school, only has so much disposable income) would be the type to hang out mostly in the U-district, and her favorite cafe there would probably not be pricey but a good place to sit for a few hours with a book. Failing any specifics, know of any good streets to place a made-up cafe of that kind? :)

She might also hang out a little in the international district since at current, I have it so that she reads manga on occasion and has a soft spot for Japanese art and Lolita/Goth-loli fashion, if only to look at; that's partly how I'm thinking she gets to talking to the Californian girl, actually. :)

Speaking of which, are there many shops or cafes in the international district where the owners or employees speak a little Japanese? I was thinking of that being a potential conversation-starter, because the Californian girl speaks quite a bit of Japanese, but because she inherited her dad's slightly darker skin tone, she actually looks a little Hawaiian (to the point where she gets annoyed at how often people mistake her for one, heh. And yes, I do realize there's a lot of Japanese-speakers in Hawaii too, but there's a big difference between ethnic Hawaiian and ethnic Japanese, no? ~_^)

Here's another good question: do you refer to "down" in California, "up" in California or "over" in California? Because I know dialectically, those things can go a little weird. :) Here in Florida, most people I know will say "up north" but a lot them say "down in Georgia", even though GA is north of us.

The main attraction of the U-District will definitely be along the lines of University Way. It's the main street that has most of the shops/restaurants/cafes and is usually called "The Ave". Even just the next street over from The Ave won't have as much. I haven't been around to too many of the cafes in the area, but what stands out to me to tell you about is Trabant, on 45th St. (45th intersects with the Ave. The cafe is half a block off of the Ave...) It's a very cozy place. It's a chai lounge but of course it'll have coffees and teas and the usual. They support a lot of live musicans, they have performances in there pretty often. And it'd get loud/busy around those times, but besides then, it would be a good place to chill with a book.

There's a couple pictures of it here: http://www.yelp.com/biz/trabant-coffee-and-chai-seattle

Where you see the read curtain, the musicians perform infront of there.

I'm not sure how close to the UW library it would be. I've never been to that library (though I'm going this week, oddly enough). But there's a UW bookstore right on the Ave. There's a used bookstore called Twice Sold Tales on the Ave, it would take like a 1 minute to walk there from Trabant. (It wouldn't take longer than 10 minutes to walk from one end of the Ave to the other, if you didn't stop.) Just a few blocks down on 42nd there's another used bookstore called Magus Books. So yeah, there's good book-access. =)

If you made up a cafe, you could put it on the Ave or if you didn't, I'd probably say to place it on 45th or 50th or something. To stay in that area, it would probably be within 3 blocks of the Ave.

As for the international district, most any of the cafes you go to will have fluent-Japanese speaking employess. Uwajimaya is the grocery store there and then there's the Kinokuniya bookstore attached to it that has manga, and upstairs is the imported music selection.

There's a couple bubble tea places there, one's called Gossip and the other is Oasis Tea Zone. I'd personally recommend Oasis, they have baked goods in there, too, and a broader bubble tea section.

As for your down/up/over question, do you mean like how would we refer to California's placement? If that is what you mean, then we'd see "down in California". Is that what you meant?

Okay, pretty sure I covered all your questions. XD If I missed any, just let me know. I need to hurry off to my evening class right now. But still, if you have anymore questions, just ask.

Heeee. You are so helpful! XD Thanks especially for the Yelp link, the info on The Ave and the bookstores. That'll help a lot in getting setting details right.

And yeah, the "down in California", that's exactly what I was asking for. :)

*is totally going to print some of these comments tomorrow*

Awesome, glad I could be of help. :D

OK, sorry but this is my experience of London as opposed to LA. But still, big city, very ethnically diverse...

My brother is married to a Japanese woman and lives in Japan. He had to work a little hard to gain the respect of her Father, but I think that's just a son-in-law thing as opposed to him being a foreigner.

I think with my sister-in-law some of the things she found difficult about living abroad for a long time was expressing affection. Her family also had a tendency to 'drift' and not discuss things openly. Also, she was extremely shy and sometimes my slightly extroverted family were a little intimidating (in a very nice way).

This isn't meant to be a conclusion on Japanese culture but just my own experience. I hope it helps :)

Actually, it kind of does help a little, in a way. I mean, granted, with an LA-area Mexican/Japanese marriage, there might be other issues entirely added to the mix (part of why I'm asking around before writing the character!), but I'm studying Japanese right now under a teacher who's lived and taught in Japan before**... and what you've described makes perfect sense to me. :)

**I am actually pretty lucky in that, because I don't have to worry too much about writing any of the Japanese-including dialogue for my multilingual Californian transplant, since I can double-check it with her if I'm not sure on something. Which is fantastic, because the character is actually kind of a brat who likes to curse or insult in foreign languages - often with a cheery, deceptively pleasant smile - so that people don't know what she's really saying. XD Which is a lot more fun if I can actually write the dialogue like that in the actual languages (she speaks some Spanish as well, but other than having studied it a lot here and there throughout grade school and part of college, that's not nearly so hard to find resources for in Florida, for obvious reasons :P).

Doesn't surprise me. I knew an Japanese/Irish girl who despite living in England for her entire life spoke amazingly fluent Japanese. I can't envisage a lot of similarities (off the top of my head) between Mexico/Japan, though, which I guess makes it interesting.

I think my brother also said that older Japanese people tend to be a little more intolerant, but that could be said of a lot of countries. Anyway, the story sounds interesting, I hope to read it soon.

Yeah, I thought it would be interesting myself. :) Especially since right now in the US, there's a bit of tension (often almost unspoken) between Hispanic immigrants (especially from Mexico) and, well, people who didn't have to immigrate. I've heard it's even more uncomfortable at times in Cali, because they're much closer to Mexico to the point where they had to have Spanish-speaking schools in some areas... but that's just what I've "heard", which is why I'm doing a little research before I write her. ;) But yeah, my vision of her parents right now is that her mom was drawn to her dad partly because of the contrast between their cultures intrigued her a little.

"I think my brother also said that older Japanese people tend to be a little more intolerant, but that could be said of a lot of countries."

I've heard that as well; my Japanese teacher even mentioned that she knew a girl in one of the villages where she used to teach that was born with naturally reddish hair (weird but not impossible in the Japanese population), but when she got married, she was forced to dye it jet-black to please her mother-in-law who didn't want her looking like a "big city hussy"! I've heard it so much in fact, that it's to the point where I'm tempted to make the maternal grandparents really fussy and really not fond of their son in law (and hence constantly, coldly, ridiculously polite), but constantly showering the (reluctant) granddaughter with gifts and stuff just to get on her father's nerves, much to her and her mother's frustration.

"Anyway, the story sounds interesting, I hope to read it soon."

Aaah, thank you *^_^*

Weekly Plot Help - Week of November 10th

Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

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Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics

Re: Seattle and Los Angeles Help, Especially Japanese and Hispanics