How did you get the idea for Fractured?

Q&A With Shay Each Sunday

Here for another week of Q&A fun with Shay? This blogging thing is actually not nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. I played with the idea of a blog for over a year before actually finally jumping in. Everyone was like, “You need an Internet presence as a writer. A blog is very important.” And I was like, “Who cares what I have to say?” Pretty much my approach to everyday life—riddled with doubt. But I don’t mind here.

 Q: How did you get the idea for your novel FRACTURED?

 A: This is actually kind of a funny story. On my 25th birthday (well a couple days before) I was out in the city with some friends to celebrate. At the end of the night we went back to my friend’s apartment and I was sliding in my socks on the super well-polished wood floors. Of course I fell, fracturing my wrist. I had to spend two months in a cast, then go to physical therapy for another three months, and it took almost a year for my wrist to stop aching when I turned it. It even still sometimes throbs when I put too much pressure on it or if it twists/turns too much.

I had actually been meeting with my thesis advisor earlier that afternoon before going out for my birthday. I was still working on my first novel, CRASHING WAVES, which served as my thesis in the graduate program at SLC. 

So, at some point during my wrist recovery process I decided that after finishing my first book that my next book was going to be about a football player who fractures his wrist, and that it was going to parallel the metaphorical emotional fracture of a girl he meets in the elevator of the doctor’s office. I had wanted my next book to be narrated by a male, particularly an unlikeable one, and I wanted to explore topics of depression. Plus, I had the perfect title—FRACTURED. Though as you know from my previous blog post about not outlining, I had no idea how this book would end. And the direction it did take really surprised me, but I think it’s an important one especially in today’s society. So, definitely keep an eye out on the update of publication of FRACTURED!

I would have never had this idea if I hadn’t broken my wrist on my birthday. And for that I am quite thankful that I got another year older and not wiser—well not so much about the older part. Suffering that fracture was clutch.