Dusty to Polished: GB Moynihan
What sparks your urge to write, is it always the same?
My urge to write comes from the recognition of the joy books have given me. Some of my best childhood memories involve a lazy Saturday with a story that I would lose myself in for hours. My dream is to write something that can provide the same joy for others.
However, I believe that writing, like anything else, can be made into a habit. There are certainly times where I lose track of my motivation, or am not feeling creative or clever enough for the task at hand. In those moments, I try to force myself to write anyway. Even if I am not satisfied with what I put on the page, any time put into a craft is well spent.
Do you follow a specific process or set of steps when editing?
Any edits I make begin by reading the first draft aloud to myself. I think if you pretend you are on stage to read for an event, any errors or lulls in the piece will become more evident. Afterwards, I take a look at my outline. I am a big fan of a detailed outline for longer projects. For novels, I like to have a chapter by chapter breakdown of what needs to happen for each plot line and character arc. I find it easier to edit when I have the end goal in mind, so reminding myself of where the plot or character needs to get to always influences any changes I make to the story.
How do you know when a piece is truly “done” and ready for publication?
To me, a piece is close to done when I enjoy reading it. If there are still glaring issues with something I’ve written, I won’t be able to enjoy the story until they are resolved. Once I can read a draft and my first thoughts aren’t about editing, I know I am getting somewhere. With that being said, after a submission, regardless of how many times I’ve looked over my work, I will always find something I could have done better. Sometimes, after submitting a piece I will purposefully avoid reading it until I hear back.
How would you describe your writing process with an image?
I mentioned in a previous answer that I love outlining. With that in mind, my writing process feels a lot like how I would draw maps in geography class as a kid. I would start with a poorly drawn shape of the land mass, and the major geographic features. In the analogy, this would be the vague plot, and major characters. Then I would start to place cities, rivers, roads, and other finer details within the map. As I would place these points, it would become evident whether or not they worked together. Maybe I would draw Texas too big to fit Oklahoma. Sometimes the details would work but not in the confines of the shape I drew at the beginning. I may have placed New York correctly, but don’t have enough room for Boston within my outline. Gradually, through placing and tweaking each detail, the map would better resemble the idea I had in my head.
What do you think makes the writing community at The New School unique?
The writing community at the New School is composed of people that, while all striving for a similar goal, are willing to drop anything to help each other. Everyone has been kind, yet willing to give honest feedback because it’s what they want in return. To highlight the Writing for Children and Young Adults program in particular, I think it is rare to find a community so universally supportive of all types of fiction. I have read fantasy, romance, mystery, and science fiction projects in my workshops and even if a submission is a genre that the other students are not familiar with, they still fully invest in understanding the story and work to improve it.
Bio: GB Moynihan is a second year student specializing in Writing for Children and Young Adults at the New School’s Creative Writing MFA program. From Chicago, Illinois, GB grew up the oldest of four siblings and went on to attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee before moving to New York. GB writes fantasy and science fiction for Young Adults and is currently working on a novel that he plans to pursue as a thesis project.
This interview series is produced by Hijab Ahmed