Local freelance writer Shay Nyren has been doing a lot of creative work lately, just not the type of work that pays the bills: Amid the reopening frenzy of dating, Shay has found herself spending most of her creative energy on writing elaborate text drafts for her friends to send to their new beaus.
“It started when my friend Kelsie texted the group chat a screenshot of a dry conversation with a guy she just had a first date with,” Shay says. “I drafted something that helps her learn about him and flatters him based on the near-zero amount of information she had. I had her text him, ‘There’s just something about you I can’t really put my finger on… what is it?’ And he opened up like a book after that.”
Reports indicate that at the time of writing this ingeniously concise yet flirty text, Shay was procrastinating on three looming deadlines at once. Despite having to juggle these obligations, Shay’s service to her friends has not been hindered.
“Just the other day I was trying to see if this girl I was talking to would like to go out sometime, and I didn’t know how to do it while making it clear it would be a date but not in an awkward formal way,” Shay’s friend, Megan recalled. “There’s like nothing good online for this, trust me I checked.”
Shay adeptly texted for Megan, “Have you gone to see a movie yet? I was thinking we could catch one. I would love to do the classic yawn move on you’.”
This forward yet cutesy text scored Megan a life-changing movie date in less than 15 minutes. However, at the time, Shay was still struggling to think of any ideas for the spec script she really needed to write five months ago.
“There simply isn’t enough creative energy in me to do all these things at once,” Shay admitted. “I have to narrow my focus.”
And narrow her focus she did. Shay pivoted fully to drafting texts for her friends and even gave up the morning pages practice she had developed for three years to squeeze in some time to critique flirty Snapchats as well.
At press time, Shay was expanding her services to write funny bios for Instagram and left her column at the local newspaper to do so. Give it up for Shay: a saint for the people!
