Writers are, by nature, nosy. How else are you going to write about realistic characters unless you eavesdrop on real people's conversations? The couple at the next table in the restaurant. The person sitting behind you on the train.

For better or worse, I've always been nosy. As a child I used to creep to the top of stairs when I was supposed to be asleep so I could hear what the grown-ups downstairs were talking about. When visiting the bathroom in other people's houses I've been known to open the medicine cabinet just to see what medication they're talking.

Of course, in polite society it's not good thing to be nosy. We are told, from being very young, to mind our own business. This is a difficult thing for a writer. A writer's business is, by default, everyone else's. And you never know when that couple arguing on the train might provide inspiration for that essential dialogue your chapter is missing.

When I created my amateur sleuth Shara Summers (who appears in DEATH SCENE, released by LPI on 4 July), I decided that she had to have the failing of being nosy. She's going to spend a lot of her time poking her nose where it doesn't belong, and getting into a lot of trouble for it. But in the end, it helps her to work out who the bad guy is.

Writing about Shara allows me to explore that nosy side without guilt. She can go poking around through people's private files and rattling long-buried skeletons all she likes, and she can be the one getting into trouble for it.

These days, I try to resist the urge to open people's medicine cabinets when I'm using their bathroom. I still find myself ear-wigging on people's conversations on the train though. Every once in a while a snippet of overheard conversation finds its way into a novel. Other people's lives provide endless inspiration for plots and characters. At least as a writer I can offer an excuse for eavesdropping. " I'm not being nosy. I'm a writer. It's research. Honest."

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Sara Jayne Townsend's web page can be found at http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com and her blog at http://sayssara.wordpress.com.