Thursday, May 26, 2011

Kathy Shay's Blog Post

Being a writer is both a blessing and a curse. Some things a writer does are a little of both. Whenever I’m in a situation, invariably I think about how I can use it in my writing. I’m in a grocery store line and I see a really pretty woman or a cute guy and think—they could be in my book. I’ll have to remember her haircut. Or I’m watching TV and a police procedural will have an interesting twist, and I write it down to remember it for a suspense I’m plotting. Right now, being mother-of-the-bride-to-be is consuming a great deal of my time. I savored each step of getting the dress, finding flowers and the myriad of other details that lead up to a wedding. But I couldn’t help myself make mental notes about the feeling a bride’s mom has about her child taking such a big step, how the gown shimmered on my daughter, how fun and bridesmaids’ dresses are, each a different color.

This was no clearer to me than when I was in New York City about two weeks ago. My friend and I went down to see THE CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON starring Chris Noth (THE GOOD WIFE) and Kieffer Sutherland (24). While we were there, we also saw a musical, ate in wonderful restaurants and had a lot of girl-time. For the first play, we were waiting in a roped off area where the stars come out to sign autographs. Two bouncers stood inside the ropes looking big and beefy, and a NYC cop was trying to keep the women out of the streets so cars and busses could go by. He was very gracious saying, “All you beautiful women have to go up on the sidewalk.” My friend waited in anticipation for autographs. At one point she was making her way to the front of the crowd and said, “Come on, don’t you want to be up close?” I shook my head thinking, “No, I want to talk to the cop.” I wondered if he liked being on this duty or did it get old? What shift did he prefer? Did he have someone to go home to?

For most writers, everything’s material. Good or bad, we can always use it in a book!
Thanks!
Kathy Shay

No comments:

Post a Comment