The irreverent and frank N. Griffin, author behind The Whole Stupid Way We Are, shares some surprisingly intimate thoughts on inspiration and writing. The Whole Stupid Way We Are is out on February 5th from Atheneum.
It’s Maine. It’s winter. And it’s FREEZING STINKIN’ COLD! Dinah is wildly worried about her best friend, Skint. He won’t wear a coat. Refuses to wear a coat. It’s twelve degrees out, and he won’t wear a coat. So Dinah’s going to figure out how to help. That’s what Dinah does—she helps. But she’s too busy trying to help to notice that sometimes, she’s doing more harm than good. Seeing the trees instead of the forest? That’s Dinah.
And Skint isn’t going to be the one to tell her. He’s got his own problems. He’s worried about a little boy whose dad won’t let him visit his mom. He’s worried about an elderly couple in a too-cold house down the street.
But the wedge between what drives Dinah and what concerns Skint is wide enough for a big old slab of ice. Because Skint’s own father is in trouble. Because Skint’s mother refuses to ask for help even though she’s at her breaking point. And because Dinah might just decide to…help. She thinks she’s cracking through a sheet of ice, but what’s actually there is an entire iceberg.
YOUNG ADULT: What made you decide to start writing?
N. Griffin: Writing has always been my best and most important thing, even when I was a tiny kid. I did go through a long horrid period where it was hard to give myself permission to write, though. But even then, I wrote constantly in my mind, whole pages and chapters. I just couldn’t let myself write them down. Who knows why? I finally woke up about this and realized that my denial served no purpose, and as hard as it might be, I had to start letting those words live outside of my head and on paper. It was that or burst like a cartoon character who swallowed a firecracker.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about The Whole Stupid Way We Are?
NG: Hmm! Well, it is not a fantasy book 🙂 It’s a pretty character-driven novel about the relationship between two funny, quirky teens, Dinah and Skint, and the unusual intensity of their friendship. It’s also about the ways that friendship is threatened by the secrets Skint keeps, and horribly, by the ways Dinah thinks she is helping him.
YA: What about Maine made you decide to set the novel there?
NG: I love winter. I love cold, I love snow, I love quiet, darkish days. I love the way winter air feels in the lungs and the way winter sounds fall away from the ear. I knew that I wanted to make The Whole Stupid Way We Are feel like winter, too, and Maine to me has always been a place of snow. Also, my beau and I once went to a concert on a cold February evening in Maine, and the setting and feel of that night very much informs a concert I put in the book. The real concert was nothing like the one I invented for Dinah and Skint to be involved in, but the evening it takes place on is just the same. So between that and winter, where else could I have set the book?
YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.
NG: Ugh! I don’t think I have one! Or at least one that other people should emulate. I try hard to make myself write when my mind is fresh, before I get sucked into internet diddling around and email and all that. I do my best to tell myself that writing should come first, before little must-do life-tasks, but it is all too easy for me to procrastinate by doing must-do life-tasks. Like loading the dishwasher and throwing small stuffed toys for the dogs. We have a lot of dogs. Anyway, I set a terrible example. I am also a pretty anxious writer, so I have to spend some time talking myself into writing before I actually can get going. This gets easier if I’ve been writing regularly, but if I’ve had to be away from writing for any length of time at all, even a few days, it’s hard again. I am kind of the worst.
YA: Besides the classic ‘never give up’, what advice would you give to aspiring young writers today?
NG: Just plough through the first without thinking too hard about whether what you’re writing is okay. Anything written can be fixed later. Getting it out on the page is the first stop, so don’t worry too much about things in that stage of your work.
YA: If you hadn’t become an author, what path would your career have perhaps taken?
NG: I always loved acting and dance, so maybe I’d have been an actor or dancer, had it been feasible? Or had I felt it were feasible? Or had I found a buried treasure to support me while I pursued those things? As it is, I was a teacher for a while, and really loved it. So that was great career path for me.