Realizing a lot of my real life experiences in the 80's would not work in the 90's. In real life in 1986 I worked at Pearl Paint & lived in my rent stabilized apt. w/o a roommate. Couldn't happen in the 90's. In real life I changed jobs a lot. I found them through the Village Voice. I had my character finding a certain job in 1999, but I couldn't imagine how. I couldn't find a job in 1999, and neither could anyone else I knew. Realized she has to have a roommate, and she has to keep the job she gets after getting kicked out of grad school.

Real life is so complicated. The trick is to streamline it to make a good story, but still keep it real, keep it believable. Of course, there's no reason why the complications of being me have to be in it. It's not me. It's Debra.