Fiction writing & scenarios

How a particular location inspired me to write my mini novella

Setting the stage for my heroine

Recently, I started a short story while reminiscing about a particular New York City neighborhood I could not get out of my mind. For years, I’d been exploring a small off-center Chinatown area located between Canal and Worth Streets, the Bowery to the east and Lafayette Street to the west.

I started to get obsessed with this neighborhood’s old buildings, the joyfully packed shop windows, the undecipherable business signs, the community’s hurried residents and the languid tourists looking for dim sum, the beautifully arranged rows of orchids on window sills, and the tiny, abused baby turtles barely kicking their legs in puddles of water in white plastic buckets.

I decided to make this place the setting for my story, the haunt for my lead character, Aurore.

In this neighborhood, Aurore will be strolling past the time-honored beauty shops Toy Apple Beauty and Barber Salon, Hong Kong Barber Shop and New Hong Kong Barber Shop nestled next to Joe’s Ginger, Joes’ Cash-Only Ginger Soup Dumplings, and the House of Joy Restaurant.

She’ll hear ancient Chinese opera sounds harmonizing with crackling scooter blasts and wailing police sirens. She’ll observe hordes of afternoon tourists ambling forlornly along the rush hour crowd. She’ll discover the same streets nearly deserted in the late…