American Housewife creator Sarah Dunn on how the 'small stuff' in marriage inspires her work

Sarah Dunn recognizes that she draws a lot of inspiration for her work from her marriage. Thankfully, her husband is OK with that even though Dunn admits, "If he were writing about me the way I was writing about him, I don't think I'd be happy!"

These influences show up on her TV show, American Housewife and, most recently, her new novel called The Arrangement (out now). The book explores the idea of an open marriage, something that she doesn't actually partake in with her husband, but instead was a "fun way to play with the idea of marriage and almost dating inside of a marriage." 

In general, Dunn likes to write about marriages but also zero in more on specifics. 

When talking about one of her favourite shows, Mad About You, she says: "So much of marriage is just about the small stuff; it's not actually that interesting but most of us are living in the middle of it. That show took small ideas and played around with them." 

American Housewife airs on Tuesday on ABC.

— Produced by Elaine Chau