A second job that doesn't pay and is very abusive,' she said. She also pronounced (no doubt to the dismay of many an L.A.-dwelling aspiring writer in the room) that 'a lot of my prolificness has come from living in the middle of nowhere - it's not a secret,' and that writing takes solitude and discipline. 'I generally write lying on my couch and watching 'Law and Order SVU,'' she said, adding that she's 'a fast writer because I'm a slow thinker,' often living with her characters for weeks before bringing them to the page. Gay was equally - and refreshingly - forthcoming about her work habits. You get to hold someone’s attention if you’re good… And I’m good. Writing is the ultimate control and the ultimate dominance. While working on 'Hunger,' a memoir coming up this June, Gay said she began to ask herself, 'Who would I have been if I had not experienced that trauma at 12 years old? … Would I be a writer? Would I be as good a writer?' 'What a privilege it is to be able to say it's hard to hear someone's story,' Gay said. 'And I was like, 'Yes, that's exactly what I'm going for.'' That the work is difficult is exactly the point. 'Publishers were like 'Oh, it's too dark. The audience agreed - applause rang out when Jarrar asked who had already read 'Difficult Women,' Gay's most recently published title, a collection of short fiction that she noted was the first book she tried to sell.
