Author and critic Joanne McNeil on creating your own opportunities
"I keep reminding myself that I'm doing what I can do with with the tools that I have."
Joanne McNeil has a fantastic origin story as a writer.
She grew up in in a working-class town in Massachusetts, didn’t really fit in at school, so she spent a lot of time online during the early days of the internet, “putting a lot of time and effort into crafting posts for message boards.” (Oh, remember those days? RIP, sweet, thoughtful Internet.)
That grew into writing for blogs and webzines where editors found her work and invited her to start writing for pay.
I adore this story because it’s the writing equivalent of the supermodel being discovered while at the supermarket.
Now, Joanne is columnist for Filmmaker magazine, her pieces on technology have appeared in the New York Times, New York magazine, The Guardian, and The Nation, and is a two-time author who is already at work on her third book.
Her first book Lurking, is a first-person non-fiction history of the internet told from a user’s perspective. Her second book, Wrong Way, is a sci-fi novel set in the near future that takes a look at the intersection of the gig economy and big tech and is both satirical and touching–it was also named one of the best books of 2023 by The New Yorker.
I loved this conversation about finding loopholes you can use to get onto a path that maybe wasn’t pre-carved out for you and creating your own opportunities.
Listen to Joanne’s episodes:
Joanne McNeil, practical matters: On finding your ambition and building your own opportunities + a Trader Joe’s shopping list for fueling your writing
Find her other two episodes here when they drop later this week
Things we covered:
Getting strategic about your career, especially when you don’t come from the traditional path of Ivy League undergraduate degree and top-tier MFA
How residencies are like gift cards–and how to create your own residency if need be
Joanne’s list of must-have supplies for a writing residency: bulletin board, push pins, Post-It notes, and a detailed list of what to get at Trader Joe’s
Reckoning with the fact that since her novel, Wrong Way, happens at work and the main character is female, she’d need to include scenes of sexual harassment in order for it be authentic–and really not wanting to go there (“I kind of wrote them in a flurry”)
Resisting the urge to overcompensate for the fact that she doesn’t have the ‘right’ writer’s resume
Why she still considers herself to be an emerging writer
“A lot of my nonfiction work comes from the asshole in me who loves to be right.”
How having writers who come from outside the traditional writing pipeline is so important for the future of writing…
…and how those writers will naturally take longer to develop (so please don’t tell yourself it’s ‘too late’ or ‘taking too long’!)
How avant garde sci fi novels used to sell hundreds of thousands of copies–and how this hunger for challenging work is still present, even if you’re not a fancy city elite
A tiny sneak peek at the new book she’s working on. OK, not really, but she does share how she’s trying to write this one differently and push back on the ideas she’s created about how she writes best
Joanne’s answers to the fast 5 questions–a book she was stunned by, where she gets her coffee beans, the Kate Bush song she finds so meaningful that she only listens to it a couple of times a year so it doesn’t lose its power, her favorite season, and the perfect wrap sandwich she would ask for if someone offered to make or buy absolutely anything she wanted.
Lightbulb moments:
Joanne used the term “de-growth” as something that might be a priority as an author, meaning, the goal of reaching a bigger and bigger audience may not be the end-all, be-all, and it really has my wheels turning.
“Maybe what literary success looks like in a traditional way isn't your idea of success.”
Specific things we discussed:
The Lodgers by Holly Pester
Joanna Walsh’s piece in The Guardian about why we need writing prizes with no age limits
Joanne’s column for Filmmaker Magazine about Allison Parrish, an artist who seeks to use AI in her work without “taking the last 20 years of the internet and chewing it up”
A laundry list of Joanne’s sci-fi inspirations: J. G. Ballard, Philip K. Dick, Ursula Le Guin, Samuel Delany, and Octavia Butler
The Female Man by Joanna Russ
I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore
Connect with Joanne:
Joanne’s website
Joanne’s newsletter, “All my stars”
Joanne’s Instagram
Listen to past episodes:
Hayley Krischer, practical matters: The power of just keeping going + how to capture those great ideas that come when you’re not at your desk
Hayley Krischer, inner stuff: True confessions about how “horrible” writing can feel + why–and how–she wrote her next novel in longhand
Hayley Krischer, what’s next: What she’s recently learned about understanding her character’s psyches + the incredible allure of hot tubs
Jennifer Fink, practical matters: Writing what you know + the book she found at the library that launched her writing career
Jennifer Fink, inner stuff: Dealing with internalized trolls + aqua aerobics!
Jennifer Fink, what’s next: The lure of leaving it all behind and becoming a flight attendant + the Post-It note sayings that light the path
Antonia Angress, practical matters: “The self-doubt that never goes away, and how to keep writing despite it”
Antonia Angress, inner stuff: Throwing away the work that isn’t working + adapting to the public speaking side of being a writer
Antonia Angress, what’s next: “I aspire to get to a place where I can be a hermit and let my work stand on its own”