As time passed and I continued writing this early dig still gnawed at me. It was not until after I became a mother and the length of my free time shrinking forced me to watch my favorite shows like ‘Mad Men’ in marathon weekend sessions did it finally click with me as to what that reader really wanted from my essay. She wanted to know how I felt in that moment watching my father nursing a can of something that impaired his judgment while handling beautifully packaged explosives with his wife and children only inches away, cheering him on. How my young mind went about processing what I saw was the true area of interest. Take for instance the character Sally Draper portrayed by +Kiernan Shipka on ‘Mad Men.’
This character fascinates me because I love seeing how a young girl is internalizing this very adult world around her. For example this one scene during season five when she stumbles upon her step-grandmother performing a lewd act on her father’s business partner. She deduces that New York is a dirty place. I’ve learned that it is crucial for me to convey how key events in the lives of my characters are helping to mold them that the reader not only wants to see the world through their eyes for a time but to also slip under their skin, to know things about them they try so hard to keep hidden away. Don Draper played by +Jon Hamm is a great example. Once he has a dream in which he strangles a woman he had an affair with during his second marriage. The scene expresses to the viewer that Don is struggling with being faithful to wife number three and that she is unaware of this inner conflict. Those aforementioned episodes are why I, Tanya Yvonne, am mad about ‘Mad Men’.
Happy reading, writing, or whatever:!)