SIX MINUTES WITH MIMI O'CONNOR:

Author Mimi O’Connor joins LitPick today for Six Minutes with an Author! Mimi’s books include Reel Culture: 50 Classic Movies You Should Know About (So You Can Impress Your Friends) and The Dictionary of High School B.S.

In addition to having worked in book, magazine, and online publishing as both a writer and editor, Mimi has some exciting highlights from her time working at MTV Networks. These include witnessing Justin and Britney in matching denim ensembles, meeting Barbara Feldman AKA Get Smart's Agent 99 (she is lovely), and using a photo of her and Mr. T for her holiday card. 

How did you get started writing?

There was no grand event. Like most writers, I was always doing it in one form or another, in varying degrees of seriousness, commitment, direction, etc. I wrote plays in high school, short stories in my first years of college, and then non-fiction/long-form journalism in the later years. I also did a one-woman show for my senior thesis, which was sort of the ultimate combination of my previous acting training at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and later writing work at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.

The truth is, it took a long, long time — and lots of paid work in various forms — before I even felt comfortable calling myself a “writer.” But I actually don’t necessarily think this is a good way to think or feel — you shouldn’t need someone else to legitimize your work: either you write or you don’t.

Who influenced you?

I’ve always loved anyone who could tell a great story.

The late, great monologist and writer Spalding Gray has always been a huge inspiration to me. He was a master of detail, humor, vulnerability and intelligence — and of course, narrative. I’ve always loved Laurie Anderson for her combination of stories, music and wry observations on modern life. 

But I wrote a book about movies. In my mind, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick are masters, and “Superman: The Movie,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” are masterpieces. (Gene Wilder’s performance? Oscar-worthy.)

Writers I love:  Joan Didion, Alison Bechdel, George Saunders, Michael Chabon, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Do you have a favorite book/subject/character/setting?

Since I write non-fiction, not really, but I’m always interested in pop culture and people in transition or questioning things.

What advice do you have for someone who wants to be an author?

I will say the first thing that anyone else will tell you: you should write. If you can write and get published, great. But you should write even if you are not being published. Seek out people and groups where you can share your work and get feedback. You will learn things — like what’s clear and what’s not, which sounds simple, but is actually huge. Write for free — for a while — and when you have experience and a track record (and have learned how to be better) pitch people, publications, etc.

Of course now, you don’t need anyone’s permission to put your work out there. Go for it. Start an online magazine. But be open to feedback and criticism. And check for typos — they detract from your credibility. 

Also: Go see other art. Go to movies, museums, theater. They will all inform what you do and fuel your creative engine.

Last thing: Have interests outside of writing that bring you joy and stimulate other parts of your brain. I sell vintage on etsy http://etsy.com/shop/zelda110?ref=si_shop and garden.

Where is your favorite place to write?

I write at my desk, in my apartment in Brooklyn. I bought the table that functions as my desk in Chicago when I dropped out of college and have carried it with me all over the country.  It’s sort of industrial, sort of art and crafts, and I think it has gum on the underside that more than a few people stuck there decades ago.  I love it, and I’ll never give it up.

What else would you like to tell us?

If you like this book, you may also want to check out another one I wrote, The Dictionary of High School B.S., about all the insane and funny things in high school. (It's under the pseudonym of Lois Beckwith, but I swear it's me!) 

http://zestbooks.net/news-the-dictionary-of-high-school-b-s/

Mimi, thank you for spending six minutes with LitPick! That’s great advice to authors to have interest outside of writing. Your etsy shop is fun!