Bonus Interview: Novelist Lynne Griffin

By Jennifer H. McInerney

The North River Arts Society Writers Workshop recently welcomed Scituate novelist Lynne Griffin to its Author Series. Griffin, who teaches family studies at the graduate level at Wheelock College, and writing at Grub Street in Boston, is the author of two issue-driven novels, Life Without Summer and Sea Escape, and a nonfiction parenting guide, Negotiation Generation. Her third novel, The Day We Drowned, will be published by Simon & Schuster in the spring of 2012.

Thank you so much for your enlightening discussion, “Fact Collides with Fiction: The Rise of Issue-Driven Stories and How Fiction Can Teach.” For those who missed this wonderful presentation, can you talk a little bit about how each of your novels--Life Without Summer and Sea Escape--addresses a particular issue?

Sure. Life Without Summer grew out of my experiences as a family life counselor. As a professional who’s taught classes and counseled parents and children about healthy grieving, I’ve always been struck by the choices people make related to the loss of a loved one—the healthy and unhealthy ways grief work gets done. Though the novel’s main plotline is the story of a woman who loses her child in a hit and run accident and her quest to find who’s responsible, it’s really about so much more than that. It’s about the choices people make when faced with unbelievable pain. It’s about what really holds a marriage together when it’s tested. What I tried to do was examine what tragedy does to all kinds of relationships. If they start off strong—or don’t—what happens? Why do some people thrive after a loss, finding true purpose, while others don’t come out of it stronger?

My second novel, Sea Escape, is a very personal novel. I’ve created a fictional story around a woman struggling with prolonged grief disorder—a condition my own mother struggled with after the death of my father.

Can you provide us with some examples of well-known authors who write issue-driven fiction?

There are a number of renowned writers who were considered issue-driven novelists in their day: Walt Whitman, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway. Some of my favorite contemporary novelists writing issue-driven fiction are Anna Quinlan, Lionel Shriver, Wally Lamb, Ian McEwan—the list is long.

What are the advantages and pitfalls of writing this type of fiction?

Since I’ve written prescriptive nonfiction in the areas of health, education, and parenting, for me the main advantage to exploring issues in fiction is being able to write from a variety of characters’ perspectives. In writing an issue-driven novel, the goal is to take readers on a journey, to let them learn and grow by virtue of a contrived experience. Without stating the right or wrong way to navigate a weighty topic, nuances are presented and readers allowed to form their own opinions about the state of the affair.

Of course, this requires an authentic handling of the subject. No heavy handed platitudes. No neon signs pointing to the author’s opinions or the novel’s overarching theme and premise. I work hard to get out of the way of the narrative. Let the characters tell their own stories.

Another pitfall is that the issues most worthy of exploration are multi-faceted, and in writing about such things, you run the risk of creating controversy. Although the publicity and marketing departments at major publishing houses will likely see that as an asset.

In what ways is your upcoming novel, The Day We Drowned, considered controversial?

The Day We Drowned is the story of seventeen-year-old Ava Sedgwick and her father Toby. Eight years after the 2004 tsunami shattered their family during a vacation in Thailand, Toby sends Ava to a wilderness behavioral camp for troubled teens. There, brutal treatment and repressed memories threaten her precarious mental health.

While some of these camps swear by such treatment modalities, claiming they save teens, many take advantage of desperate parents. And few are equipped to provide appropriate psychiatric healthcare for teens in trouble. The state of adolescent mental health is abysmal today; I’m passionate about bringing this topic to readers’ attention.

Why do you think you’re compelled to write issue-driven stories?

I imagine it’s because of my education and professional experiences in the healthcare and education arenas. And I’m endlessly fascinated by family life and the behavioral psychology involved in relationships.

How helpful have your previous careers as a nurse and family counselor been on your journey to becoming a novelist?

I’ve been a family life expert for more than twenty years, and there’s so much about my work counseling parents, observing children, and teaching educators about families that I use in writing fiction. In many ways, my knowledge of human behavior is the vital ingredient I bring to writing my stories.

Given my work with families and my desire to capture family life in authentic ways, there’s no shortage of seeds from my work that I can use to inform my fiction. Anton Chekhov called them little particulars. Right there in my everyday life are the organic details that give genuineness to the stories I’m creating.

What do you consider to be the most challenging aspects of writing a novel? And how do you overcome them?

I used to say time management. It’s never easy to juggle work and family responsibilities with writing a novel. But I’ve managed to balance things by appreciating my writing process and making it a top priority. So for me, now, I’d say the biggest challenge is how deep I have to go to dig to the heart of a story. It’s emotionally exhausting to inhabit the hearts and minds of my characters. When I’m writing a first draft, it’s all I can do to pull myself out of the fictional world to live in my own. I think about my characters’ lives morning, noon, and night. Even in my sleep!

When you spoke about your own writing process, many members of the audience seemed surprised that you don’t use a handheld recorder for all of the ideas that come to you while you’re in your car, for example.

While I do keep a journal for each novel, jotting down things I’d like to incorporate into the story—plotlines, scene notes—I don’t write all my ideas down. Still, I rarely forget the ideas that come to me. As crazy as it may sound, my characters talk to me. It’s like they’re telling me good gossip; there’s no way I’m going to forget the juicy tidbits.

Your approach of keeping individual journals for each of your novels while you’re working on one is very interesting. Can you please tell us more about that? And how useful are these journals to your writing process and final draft?

Very helpful to my first draft. I keep research notes in it. Character sketches, too. Some scene notes. As I write, I also keep track of chapter lengths, word counts, logistical kinds of things, like names used and setting details. I see it as an indulgence, too: using a beautiful external tool to layer my story. Though it’s a reference point, and I’m not tied to anything I put in it. And I don’t write any of the story in it per se.

What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Learn craft. Do some close reading each week. As you read, really look at the intent behind the authors’ choices. Every bit of dialogue, each setting, even the most minor character has the ability to move the plot forward, add layers to the story, deepen the theme of the story. Learn to write with intent.

What's the most valuable advice you’ve ever received with respect to your own writing?

Be bold. I’ve been blessed with trusted readers who believe in me and my stories. These dear friends are always there to remind me. Though it’s a challenging time in publishing, this is the only career you’ll have. Make decisions based on what works for you. Dream big, then work hard.

You recently helped extend the reach of Grub Street, the Boston-based writing center, to the South Shore as the instructor of a course called “Solving Novel Problems,” which is being taught at Buttonwood Books and Toys in Cohasset. How’s that class going, and what does it cover?

I think the students could probably answer that best! I love to teach. I’m very passionate about writing, urging writers to get better with each project they tackle. My greatest hope is that the students taking the course become energized. Certainly it’s hard work to write a good novel, daunting really, but it’s also rewarding. Every paragraph, every page counts—whether it lands in the finished manuscript or not.

Will there be a follow-up to this class?

Starting January 24, 2011, and running for eight weeks, I’ll be teaching the popular Grub Street course, Novel-in-Progress. In each session, I’ll include some close reading of effective fiction, a mini-lecture on one of the more subtle elements of craft, and then writers will receive feedback on portions of their novel. It’s designed as a facilitated writers’ workshop. Writers can sign-up online via the Grub Street Website.