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If you are a writer why don't you visit and take the subway? You can get cheap accommodations that are comfortable near LaGuardia or in Jersey - Secaucus and Lyndhurst - and take the bus into NYC. Or stay at a hotel in LIC or around Downtown Brooklyn.
I'm writing a fiction book. In a few specific scenes I'm looking to describe the subway stations of New York; smell, sight, feel, taste, sounds. If anyone can give me some firsthand info, I'd appreciate it. Feel free to be as descriptive as possible.
Come on up and ride them. Don't taste anything though. You can get some of the sight and sound by checking on Youtube, I have no idea why people make subway videos (without any interesting events) but they do. With the heat we're having now, the feel of the underground stations varies from stepping into a sauna to going into your attic on a hot day, until a train comes and you get a hot breeze which feels like it's blowing out of the depths of Hades. The smell... mildew, body odors, lubricants, sometimes a little ozone, and often the faint smell of urine. Sometimes not faint.
That's smell. Not taste. I'm happy to say that I haven't tasted the subway. Smelled. Yes. Absolutely. Tasted? Only the beverage I had with me at the time.
Fair enough, but I swear I can taste it! And after all, taste is linked to smell. Sometimes though something nasty happens and a commuter DOES have to taste the subway.
Oh and to all, I always have the memory of my first time on a NYC train: I had just sat down (probably a mistake) and I direct my eyes to the floor, low and behold is a huge pile of fresh, glistening-red blood that everyone had seemed to be avoiding, but here I am sitting right in front of it. LOL I said, "Oh yeah! THIS is New York City! This is the real deal! Everything I imagined it would be! Cool! Real NYC blood on the train!" LOL I was 14 and of course I was into all the big-city stories about NYC since I was a small child (mafia, subway battles between gangs), so I had a big imagination about where the blood could have come from! It was that childhood view of NYC that made my transition easier because I always prepared for the worst and it's what allows you to accept the bad with the good.
I'm writing a fiction book. In a few specific scenes I'm looking to describe the subway stations of New York; smell, sight, feel, taste, sounds. If anyone can give me some firsthand info, I'd appreciate it. Feel free to be as descriptive as possible.
If you want your writing to be authentic you should really come up to NYC for yourself and get the full experience. Someone could describe the look, smell and general feel of a subway station or the train car but it won't be the same as you being there and experiencing it.
That's smell. Not taste. I'm happy to say that I haven't tasted the subway. Smelled. Yes. Absolutely. Tasted? Only the beverage I had with me at the time.
If a smell is bad enough you can definitely taste it.
Well, they TASTE absolutely AWFUL, especially the black goo on the ceilings.
If you'll notice on those ceilings, there is usually a little thermometer sticker up there. That's actually a target for MTA workers to shine a laser beam on to get a temperature reading for that subway car
Fair enough, but I swear I can taste it! And after all, taste is linked to smell. Sometimes though something nasty happens and a commuter DOES have to taste the subway.
Oh and to all, I always have the memory of my first time on a NYC train: I had just sat down (probably a mistake) and I direct my eyes to the floor, low and behold is a huge pile of fresh, glistening-red blood that everyone had seemed to be avoiding, but here I am sitting right in front of it. LOL I said, "Oh yeah! THIS is New York City! This is the real deal! Everything I imagined it would be! Cool! Real NYC blood on the train!" LOL I was 14 and of course I was into all the big-city stories about NYC since I was a small child (mafia, subway battles between gangs), so I had a big imagination about where the blood could have come from! It was that childhood view of NYC that made my transition easier because I always prepared for the worst and it's what allows you to accept the bad with the good.
Was this experience last year when you were 14?
Don't write about NYC when you don't know anything about it. Write what you know.
Also judging by your writing, practice writing a lot and get a good editor...
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