Creativity Over Coffee: Melissa Schorr

It’s time for our next installment of Creativity Over Coffee, a series which focusing on creativity and how to find it in your own lives.  Today, I’m sipping coffee and chatting with my friend and author, Melissa Schorr.  I first met Melissa through our newcomers club and we were quite active in book club together and our kids also had many playdates.  Melissa is a YA author and a widely published freelance journalist. Her first novel was the interfaith romantic comedy Goy Crazy inspired by an essay she wrote for GQ magazine, and she also contributed to the YA anthology Dear Bully. Her new novel, Identity Crisis, is about catfishing and cyberbullying.  She is currently contributing editor at the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and edits the popular “Dinner with Cupid” column.   I’m so glad she’s here to share her writing genius with us!

Can you tell us a little about yourself and your creative journey?

Melissa: Maybe it’s the Gemini in me, but I always dabbled across the arts — writing, drama, music. But unlike many creatives featured here, I’m completely deficient in the “visual” gene. I’ve never have that natural aesthetic sense to design websites, craft images, or choose paint colors. For me, it’s all about text on a page. As a child, I tore through books and always dreamed of being a novelist. In fourth grade, I started writing little stories and by high school, I was writing original musicals and taking creative writing. To their credit, my parents never discouraged me or told me to do something more pragmatic with my life. Still, I was on the school paper and for college, I went to journalism school at Northwestern, thinking that would be the most practical way to start a career in writing. I love interviewing people and hearing their stories. Eventually, it worked — a personal essay I wrote for GQ magazine led to the publication of my first novel.

Your new novel Identity Crisis is about cyberbullying and your first novel Goy Crazy was about young love and possibly falling for someone out of your “tribe”. Did you draw on real life for these books?  If not, how did you come up with the subject matter?

Melissa: Goy Crazy was incredibly personal; it was basically my own life story. My Jewish grandmother did tell me to only date Jewish boys and I had huge angst sneaking around with Christian boys I thought my parents wouldn’t approve of. My new book, Identity Crisis, looks forward instead of backwards — it’s my angst about the environment my own two daughters will be experiencing any day now, when they become tweens and begin to navigate dating and friendship in the scary new age of social media. Even when a book is a “light” read, when you’re an author taking on a project, I think there has to be an underlying theme that matters deeply to you, something that drives you to complete the project.

When do you feel most creative or happy?

Melissa: The summer I was awarded a weeklong stay at a writer’s retreat on Martha’s Vineyard. That was pure nirvana: a beautiful seaside setting, a room to myself, time to write without daily distractions, and nightly chat with other writers.

Who or what inspires you?

Melissa: The world. Story ideas come from everywhere. Little moments in our personal history. Reading a chance news article and wondering, what if?…With Identity Crisis, I’d read sad and even tragic news reports about adults and teens getting catfished, and kept wondering what would motivate someone to do that.

Do you ever get in a funk?

Melissa: Yes, of course. Who hasn’t? Usually, for a writer, it’s from getting a bad review. Or, worse, in a way, no reviews at all — feeling like you’re sending your work out into the void. Booze and chocolate work in the short term. The best way to break out of it is receiving a fan letter, someone telling you your words made all the difference to them.

What do you enjoy more creative writing or writing columns? And why?

Melissa: Both, really. I’m one of those writer cliches who dreads writing — but loves having written. So getting my “butt in the chair” and into the mindset is hard, I really need to clear my head from my daily chatter and figure out what I want to say. But once I manage to do that, things generally flow and the hours fly by.

What is your favorite color? Do you have a color you don’t like at all?

Melissa: I love certain color combos, like my daughter’s room of lilac/light green, or my living room of soft tan and turquoise. I’d have to say I don’t like maroon. Just the sound of it is such a turnoff. That’s why I always despised my kitchen cabinets, which were a deep cherry red wood. One of my happiest decisions was when I finally summoned up the nerve to have them repainted white. (See the before and after pics?) Now, I adore the space. I just need to figure out what to use as a backsplash — I’m agonizing between a classic white subway and this gorgeous mother of pearl white tile. Please help me decide!

Oooh, your kitchen looks fabulous and I love all the white!  Hmmm, that’s a hard one with the tiles.  I love white subway tiles as they are classic but those mother of pearl look lovely too.  Perhaps, my readers would like to give you an opinion. What do you guys think? Should Melissa go with subway or mother of pearl?

How has social media impacted your work and the art you create?

Melissa: As in everything, it’s good and bad. Social media has let me connect with other authors and feel a part of a writing community that you don’t always find in your own neck of the woods. But the constant twitch to keep up can be so distracting when you’re trying to immerse yourself in the world of your book. Also, it’s still not natural to me to tweet or post off the cuff — maybe because I came up during the time of print, when everything had to be honed to perfection. Within the world of novel writing for teens, social media has made things so tough, because the technology teens use connect is constantly evolving, so it’s become tricky to not date your story.

How do you balance creativity with the need to make money?

Melissa: I always knew going into this profession that I’d never make much money, but as a journalist I’ve had unique life experiences I never would have otherwise — I’ve danced at a Governor’s Ball, interviewed celebrities, and um, once visited a nudist colony. So it’s paid off in other ways. Luckily I also have a partner that doesn’t mind being my “patron.”

Can you give us a snip it of what a day in the life of Melissa is like?

Melissa: Nowadays, very humdrum. Wake up, mad dash getting kids off to school, return home to pile of chores (laundry, dishes, often, dog vomit to wipe up — yes, so glamorous). Then, carve out time to research/edit/write straight through until 2:30, when after school chaos descends. Dinner, reading, bedtime and collapse. (Oh, and pray no one gets sick or there’s another snow day!) Rinse, repeat.

How do you balance it all?

Melissa: Poorly. I’m sure my daughter’s teachers wonder if we ever brush her mop top head of curls. (I do try). Most days, it feels like we are barely treading water. I’d love to crank out novels at a faster pace, but it seems that life is always getting in the way with some crisis or other. I’ve grown to accept it and just do what I can.

Book Cookies from the Identity Crisis Launch Party

What advice would you give to someone who is interested becoming more creative or would like to go into writing?

Melissa: Don’t become a writer because you want to do it, do it because you have to do it. It can be such a heartbreaking existence, I’d only want someone to pursue this if they felt compelled, that no other path in life would make them truly happy. If so, don’t listen to the naysayers. Full speed ahead!

Growing up I was a huge follower of INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO. At the end of the program, they would ask the interviewee these questions:

1 What is your favorite word? reconnoiter

2 What is your least favorite word? boogers

3 What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally? Water views

4 What turns you off? haters

5 What is your favorite curse word? I’m trying to bring back baloney, as a G-rated substitute for bullshit.

6 What sound or noise do you love? The ice cream truck jingle.

7 What sound or noise do you hate? The 7 a.m. iPhone alarm.

8 What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Broadway musical director/producer/playwright.

9 What profession would you not like to do? Theater critic. I tried that, but it completely ruined the pleasure of watching shows.

10 If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates? Dad’s been waiting.

A huge thank you to Melissa for joining me today! Please be sure to follow along with her:

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Amazon Profile

Hope you call join us again soon for another serving of Creativity Over Coffee.