Sunday, February 10, 2013

Weekend Writing Warriors 2/10/13


Street Glass is my novel-in-progress. My tagline: Underprivileged Latino 18-yr-old leaves street gang and befriends white, over-privileged musicians.

While some of the plot is subject to change (draft two is a pretty early draft, after all) the basic elements will stay, as will the character "voices". So these excerpts will still give you a good idea of how the plot plays out and what the characters are like. Note: There is swearing in English and Spanish!

The year is 1986, in Los Angeles, California. I've skipped introducing the main character who goes by the street name of Razor. He's part of a street gang. I'm collecting all the snippets here so you can easily see what's going on.

For this snippet, I've skipped the description of Coyote catching Razor eyeing Trist. He gave Razor a thrashing but then told him to “go do something useful.” Razor then sat on the rooftop of the apartment building across the street to think. He was joined by his pal Chino, another gang member, who tried to convince him that he’s got everything he needs right there in the barrio (neighborhood). MF is short for the gang's name, Mi Familia.
Razor’s fingers closed around a stone; he pitched it out into the night. “You got an apartment, I live in the fucking half-burned joint that MF uses for HQ.” He pointed between the houses at headlights flashing by. “I wanna fly like them cars. Up here I’m almost free.”

 Cállate before somebody else hears you,” Chino snapped then added quieter, “Go get Licha, you’ll feel better.”

For a while, sure . . . Razor jumped up, shook both fists at the barrio, and shouted as loud as he could. “I fuckin’ hate you!”
For more excerpts from a wide and wonderful variety of stories, visit Weekend Writing Warriors . We have fun blog hopping all over the world, and we hope you'll come along!

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Comments gratefully accepted :-D

26 comments:

  1. Excellent portrayal of an angry young man. You've captured the futility of his existence so well, Marcia. :-) Looking forward to the next instalment.

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  2. I could really feel his frustration and anger about his situation. Quick question–what/who is Licha?

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    1. Licha is one of Razor's girlfriends. In this sort of culture, lots of women means bragging rights. Licha's his favorite. Thanks for asking & for visiting.

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  3. His frustration comes over really well in this - congrats!

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  4. is the genre YA? love stories like this (I have an old WIP with similar plotting but it's buried in the depths of my computer)

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    1. Hey Sue. This is definitely an adult story. Razor's 18 at the start here, and the themes are adult.

      BTW, this story idea is some 30 years old - just because something's old doesn't mean it's worthless :-D

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  5. So much emotion packed into the excerpt and your character - very well done snippet!

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    1. The hard part is keeping that strong emotion going, but as long as necessary. Thanks for the compliment.

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  6. Poor kid, I really feel his frustration.

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    1. Awesome, Elin - that's what I like to hear! Thx!

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  7. Well done, I'm in that world right away.

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    1. Nice of you to say that, A.J. I appreciate it.

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  8. very emotionally charged post!! :-)

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    1. You can bet there's more where that came from! Thanks.

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  9. Powerful! I can feel his frustration.

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    1. Nice of you to stop by. Glad that emotion came through loud & clear.

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  10. This is a very interesting premise. Loved the excerpt! But aside from all that, let's talk about the fabulous musical notes in the background of your blog. I can't stop staring! They make me so happy and I just wanna dance! :D

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    1. Thanks Evelyn. I looked at other things for the background but kept coming back to this one. It is pretty neat!

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  11. So fluent, and I'm getting more and more impressed with your dialogue each week. So natural and vivid! Awesome!

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    1. Thanks bunches! Razor's dialogue isn't too hard for me, it's the other MC I have some trouble with. But we'll how how he comes across to readers in a few weeks :)

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  12. Excellent, Marcia. Razor's voice comes through loud and clear. Nice snippet. :-)

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