Meeting Candace Bushnell: The Woman Behind Carrie Bradshaw

Candace Bushnell and Amancay Tapia -The Lady of the World

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a book with a bright pink cover is not something I usually end up liking. Not even something any intellectual girl who dares to call herself that wants to be seen with, especially after I spent my teenage years voraciously reading the classics and eventually graduated with a distinction in English Literature.

Well, Candace Bushnell has changed all that.

Her latest novel “Killing Monica” -with pink bright cover to go with it- was a very enjoyable read. Light, fast paced, slightly goofy and with a nice little message in the end. It was perfect for my beach vacation where I was looking for something simple and fun. “Killing Monica” is a story about fame, love, and foolishness that will keep you enthralled to the very last scene. It also has Candace trademark humor and style. I’m a Sex and The City big time fan, I loved watching again and again the ladies and their constant break ups and make ups. When the chance came to meet Candace Bushnell herself , the creator of Sex and The city, and the inspiration behind Carrie Bradshaw, I was just as excited as when Charlotte got engaged.

Candace Bushnell, creator of Sex and The City, holding a copy of latest novel “Killing Monica” Image: Rex Features

I arrived to Hampton Court, London, where The Radio Times Festival was taking place, and Candace was there making her first UK festival appearance while promoting her latest work.

Not only was she genuinely warm, she was also smiley, extremely funny and, yes, effortlessly glamorous and timeless. It was pretty clear that there is a lot of Candace Bushnell in her most famous character, Carrie Bradshaw.

Who are your literary influences, Candace?

I mentioned the lovely writer Jackie Collins, who had recently passed away, and she sadly acknowledged this but said, “She was great, but she was not an influence.” She added that she didn’t think she was an influence on anyone either. Her biggest influences, she said, were writers such as Evelyn Waugh and Graham Greene.

What’s your writing process like?

“If I’m lucky, I’m struck by inspiration, so I would sit down and write 30 or 40 pages! This, of course, hardly ever happens. I usually don’t know what the plot will be like when I sit down to write a new novel.

“For me, writing is a one-of-a-kind performance where nothing is mapped out. That is how I like it. I like writing without knowing what is about to happen.”

Does writing feel like a lonely process to you?

“Not at all. I spend a lot of time by myself and I am happy to spend two or three days by myself without seeing anybody and just be working. I never feel lonely. I always feel like I’ve got these characters with me.”

 

Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw in “Sex and The City” Image: Rex Features

After the success of Sex and the City, did you consider a career in television?

“Not really. Being a producer, for example, is a very unglamorous job. You are on set 13, 14 hours a day, deciding for hours whether a flower pot should stay in the shot or not,” she said, laughing.

“I also don’t enjoy being on set. There is a hierarchy that I dislike. You get all these people looking after you, asking whether you would like a soup or a tea, and I look at them and say, ‘I can make it myself, thanks!’ But they will ask me again and again.

“I’m very glad I was part of a very successful show, but I won’t be writing a series about the ladies in their 50s or 60s.”

What is being a novelist to you?

“For me, being a novelist is like imagining your wedding before you even had a date. It sounds crazy, but it is.”

Could you explain that?

“Some of us women, when we go on a date for the first time, are kind of hoping he is the one. So when we meet him, even if we don’t know much about him yet, we already imagine the wedding, the honeymoon and how the children will look, when in reality nothing has happened at all and we may not even connect.

“Writing a novel for me is similar. When I sit down to write, I have no idea what the ending will be or where the characters will take me, but somehow I know that there will be a novel at the end of the process, even if the page is still blank.

“It’s the same as a relationship on the first date. It could be nothing but a date, or it could lead to a relationship, marriage, children and a happy-ever-after life together.”

How does it feel writing for television and switching from being a novelist to a scriptwriter?

“Scriptwriting is very different from writing a novel. When you write a script, you do it for someone else. It’s up to them to decide where the emphasis goes, whereas when you write a novel, you have full control.

“I just don’t get all these out-of-university script consultants or television execs who, for all I know, have only read manuals on ‘how to write a screenplay’, saying, ‘I can’t see the arc of your character. The character doesn’t change. She doesn’t go from A to B to Z. I can’t see the structure clearly.’

“As I said, I don’t like the hierarchy of television. I like to be the one in control of my writing, my characters and my plots. I’m my own boss.”

I left the event feeling like I had just met a kick-ass, smart woman full of life, spark and feminine charm. One of those people with an innate je ne sais quoi. Whatever that is, she has it.

Maybe that is what I liked most about meeting Candace Bushnell. Here I was, the English Literature graduate who had judged a book by its bright pink cover, and there she was, talking about Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Jackie Collins and writing without knowing where the story was going to take her.

Perhaps a bright pink cover isn’t such a bad thing after all.