Alumni Voices with Molly Beth Griffin (MFAC '09): What Real Writers Do

If you’re like most of us, you waste a whole lot of energy wondering if you’re a real writer or not. Usually you lean toward the negative. Unless you’re in the blissful state of drafting the first 50 pages of a brand new exciting novel, or you’re actually receiving an acceptance or a good review at this exact moment, you’re probably wallowing in self-doubt. So I don’t know why speakers at conferences—amazing writers I respect and admire—feel the need to tell lecture halls full of us that if we don’t write every single day, we’re not writers.

Real writers commit to their craft, they tell us. They put their butts in their chairs and their words on the page. Every day. If you can’t do that, you’re not a real writer. You should find another job. This writing thing is not for you.

I’m getting good at turning my ears off when the advice starts to go down that road. Because I’ve never written every day. I’m 34 years old. I have one published novel, two in the drawer, and one in progress. I’ve published two picture books and my agent has eighteen (yes, you read that right) picture book manuscripts out on submission. Two of those eighteen manuscripts have recently found homes. I have one chapbook of poems coming out next year and I’m submitting a second one. I’ve got an MFA and other people pay me to teach them writing and critique their stories. But by that write-every-day standard? I’m not a writer.

I know it’s hard to give writing advice, and people are always demanding it, so you just tend to tell people they should do what you do. Some people may well benefit from this so often repeated recipe for creative success. But what works for one person is not necessarily going to work for another, and in my opinion this one-size-fits-all approach is doing more harm than good. It’s making good writers suffer, and sometimes even quit. The fact is, we don’t need another reason to believe we’re not enough.

Instead, I think we need to tell writers who are struggling to get the work done that they need a balance of consistency and flexibility in their writing lives. Real writers, in my experience, commit to doing whatever they can realistically do as consistently as possible. If that’s 500 words a day for you, great. But maybe it’s a couple of evening writing sprints per week and then two hours of revision on Sundays. Maybe it’s a poem dictated into your phone every morning on your walk to the train. Maybe it’s a two-week writing retreat every summer and winter break. There is no recipe for success. You just have to try some things and figure out what’s realistic for you. What can you do consistently? Keep the bar low so that you can succeed.

Let’s stop shaming writers and instead encourage each other to do whatever works, and when that stops working—because your life circumstances change, or the project suddenly requires something else of you—throw that plan out the window and try something different. Be flexible.

When my babies were small, I set aside novels and wrote only picture books. I liked bite-sized stories because I could work on the ideas for them in my head while I was doing dishes, get out a draft during that precious hour or two of childcare, and revise during nap without being too angry about interruptions. Now that my youngest is in preschool, I’m able to dig into larger projects. But I still don’t write every day. I write when I have childcare, which is Tuesdays and Thursdays, and I set up #1kTuesday on Facebook as a support system to make sure I carve out time for my own writing at least one day a week. I meet with my writing group at least once a month, and I try to have something to share with them. And what do you know? The work gets done.

Because if you’re a real writer, you’ll find a way to get the work done. It won’t look like everyone else’s way, because you’re not everyone else. You will set the writing aside and go for a walk sometimes. You will come back to it. You will bribe yourself with chocolate. You will give yourself deadlines and surround yourself with people who support you in meeting them. 

You will write. On your own terms, and at your own pace.

Because you’re a real writer and that’s what real writers do.

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Molly Beth Griffin is the author of the YA novel SILHOUETTE OF A SPARROW (Milkweed Editions 2012) and the picture books LOON BABY (Houghton Mifflin 2011) and RHODA’S ROCK HUNT (Minnesota Historical Society Press 2014). Her first poetry chapbook, UNDER OUR FEET, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in 2018. She is a Hamline MFAC grad from 2009 and a teaching artist at The Loft Literary Center, where she critiques manuscripts and hosts a monthly Picture Book Salon. Her writing has been awarded two Minnesota Arts Board Artist Initiative grants and a McKnight Fellowship. She lives in Minneapolis with her partner and their two young children. Find her at www.mollybethgriffin.com or on Facebook, where she facilitates an online writing support group called #1kTuesday.

Publication Interview with Molly Beth Griffin: Rhoda's Rock Hunt

Please describe the book.

Minnesota Historical Society Press
Jennifer A. Bell, illustrator

Rhoda’s Rock Hunt is a picture book about a kid on a camping trip with her aunt and uncle on the north shore of Lake Superior. Hiking is hard work, it turns out, but Rhoda loves collecting rocks along the way. In fact, she loves rock collecting so much that her pack gets heavier and heavier as she hikes and by the time they get to the big lake, she can’t lift it at all. In the end she makes cairns from her collection and brings just a few precious rocks back to the cabin.

As the story progressed from inception to copy-edited version, what were the major changes? How did those changes come about? When did you first begin work on it? When did you finish?

I’ve been trying to write a rock-hunting book for many years. The original story was called “A Perfect Rock for Lena,” which I started in 2007 while at Hamline. That manuscript went through lots of revision and I submitted it many times, and racked up the rejections. Eventually I decided it was flawed, and put it away. Years later a new story emerged, just chicken scratches in a notebook while on vacation. That one never even made it onto the computer. Then in 2012 I went car camping up north with my son (2 ½ at the time) and my partner and some friends. I combed the beaches for rocks, as I do, and Jasper wanted to do nothing but throw rocks in the water. One day while he was napping in the car, I sat in the driver’s seat with a notebook and wrote the draft of this NEW rock-hunting story. It wasn’t until much later that I realized it was a retelling of a story I’d tried to write twice before.  But now, it had a real problem for its character to solve, an element of tension that had been a glaring hole in the previous versions. The character was essentially the same, and obviously the setting was the same, and it was still about the love of rocks (and a kid connecting to the beauty of the natural world), but this time it had a plot! It went through a couple of revisions, mainly to the ending and to some of the language, but after years of simmering it came out pretty fully formed. Once I sent it to the editor (Shannon Pennefeather) it only needed very minor polishing. She was amazed that it was in as good of shape as it was—but she didn’t know about the three versions and the stack of rejections and the years and years in the drawer!

What research was involved before and while writing the book?

This was not a research-heavy book, but it came out of 20-some years of trips to the north shore, camping in the boundary waters, and rock hunting. Most of my writing is inspired by setting, and this book is no different in that way.

Loon Baby, your first book, was published in 2011. What have you learned about the business of writing since then?

Oh, wow. My career has grown and changed a lot since then. At that point I was just doing the writing, and a little teaching. Now I teach a lot, in person and online, and work one-on-one with critique clients. I host a monthly Picture Book Writer’s Salon. I put out a monthly e-newsletter. I try to keep my website relatively up to date. I blog a little. I do Facebook more than a little. I apply for grants and fellowships. I do events and read to kids and speak at conferences. I connect with the fantastic community of writers in Minnesota, and their support makes this work so much more satisfying and enjoyable. And although all that leaves less time for writing, it also makes for a richer work life. It’s all about balance, which is a daily struggle, but I’m gradually learning how to manage it.

Where do you do most of your writing?

I work in cafes, primarily. My son just started kindergarten, and thanks to the McKnight Fellowship I am able to afford a part-time nanny for my daughter (in our home), so I get to leave the house and “go to work” a few mornings a week. I love the ambient noise and the people watching. And the donuts.

Do you remember the first book you loved?

No, unfortunately. I have a terrible memory. But I grew up with Golden Books, especially the ones with Sesame Street characters, and I have some serious nostalgia for the feel of those little cardboard-and-paper books. Of course I prefer beautiful glossy hardcover picture books, but anything that makes stories accessible to kids is a good thing in my opinion. And I still love Super Grover!

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Molly Beth Griffin is a January 2009 graduate of the MFAC program. She lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. For more about Molly and her writing, please visit her website.

 

Alumni Voices: Molly Beth Griffin

Writing with Kids, Inspired by Kids,
In Spite of Kids 

It is not at all true anymore that writing is a man’s profession. Thankfully women have broken into the world of literature despite centuries of exclusion, and in our chosen field—children’s and young adult literature—women actually make up a majority of today’s voices. And many, maybe even most, of these women writers are moms. Motherhood is considered a valuable part of the human experience, useful to the story spinner in a hundred ways. But what isn’t immediately obvious is that most of these WriterMoms are moms of older kids. Their kids are in school full time, at college, or even grown up with kids of their own.

What is more rare is the WriterMom who writes with a baby on the breast or a toddler underfoot. Or, heaven forbid, both. It’s not rocket science to figure out why this is the case. It’s hard to write in the snippets of time you (might) get to yourself, in space carved out from blocks and bananas and burp rags, in a brain that is foggy from sleep deprivation and a body that is charged with wacky hormones.

But it is possible. Sometimes.

My son is going on five. And I have a 9-month old daughter. And I just can’t imagine trying to wait until my kids are six and ten to get back down to business. So I have to believe that writing with young kids is possible. Sometimes.

And as with everything Mom-related, I think the key is flexibility. I don’t have eight or even four hour stretches, but that’s ok. I write when I have a couple hours of childcare, or when I can keep my eyes open during nap. My “office” is a sunroom off the living room and it’s right in the middle of things, but that’s ok. I can escape to the bedroom in the basement with my laptop, or to a café when I really need the kids to leave me alone. The situation isn’t perfectly conducive to creative productivity. But what do you know, the writing can happen anyway. Plenty of writers work around a day job—my day job just happens to cling to my knees when I mention I might take out the garbage.

The work itself, of course, changes. Although I’ve worked on novels since my son was born, they now move forward at a glacial pace. I have written lots of picture books. And poetry. And flash fiction. And blog posts! I need projects that I can pick up and work on and put down again in short stints of writing time. I need projects I can play with in my head while I do dishes or take a shower. My writing shifts accordingly. And although I’m eager to publish another novel, I have to believe that changing gears is also okay. That it’s preferable, even, to let my life influence my work like this. When my baby is learning to walk I write a learning-to-walk board book manuscript. When my son sleds his first hill solo, I write a sledding picture book manuscript. When my belly grows or shrinks or grows again I write poetry about it, because, after all, these things inspire poetry. And vomiting. (More vomiting than poetry, by far. But still.)

So it’s not like I have a magic formula for WriterMomming with young kids. But here is what I do know: it can be done. Because it has to be done. For my sanity’s sake, and for the wellbeing of my children who need to see their mother fulfilled—not later, not someday, but right now.  While the mac and cheese is bubbling and the diapers are on rinse cycle. I am writing, right now.

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Molly Beth Griffin graduated from the MFAC program in 2009. Her newest book, Rhoda’s Rock Hunt, will be published later this year by the Minnesota Historical Society Press. To learn more about Molly and her writing, please visit her website.