always on the clock

Last night I went to a wedding. The man sitting next to me was someone who I used to work with back at the day job. He asked me how life had changed for me since I became a writer, whether it changed how I looked at the world. He then also asked the common question of whether all my fiction was based on my life. I said that one of the big differences was that everyone I spoke to, every experience I had, every movie I saw, every news program I saw, all went into the story idea bank. I was always thinking about how I could incorporate the experience into a story, so in a way, yes, everything in my books was based on my life, in that it was something I'd been exposed to, but not lived myself.

Then, later on the in the night, the band came on stage and started to play, I nearly fell over myself. Why? Because the wip that's due in a week is about a teen girl who plays piano and then starts playing keyboard for the band! So I rushed up to the stage and stood behind it, watching the keyboard player play, listening to how the band members talked to each other during the songs, watched the drummer, etc etc. I was up there for probably an hour, absorbing it. When I finally came back to me seat, my dh was like "Where were you?" I explained where I'd been, and he just nodded in understanding.

And after the wedding was over, I stalked the keyboard player, asked him some questions and got his email address for further inquiries.

And to think I used to be shy!

So, there you go. Being a writer turns a wedding into a research project, and turns a formerly shy woman into someone who will march up to strangers, ask personal questions and wrangle an email address.

I love my job!

posted by Stephanie Rowe @ 12:21 PM