Processing: An artist's life with Marlowe Granados 💗

Musings, tea, and advice from our valentine.

“I always say that before I was a writer, I was myself first.” - Marlowe Granados

You can glean a lot about

Marlowe Granados

from her online presence. She’s a girl’s girl, utterly glamorous, with a penchant for romance. As a writer, she’s sharp, precise, and honest. Her essays make me want to immediately meet friends for a drink at Singer’s. And her novel, Happy Hour, feels like a brown girl’s Sex and the City if it critiqued capitalism. And annoying men.

We asked Marlowe a few questions about her writing process before her workshop this Saturday (sign up here). As usual, she made us laugh.

WC: You write both fiction and non-fiction, in a variety of forms. Then there’s your advice column, Designs for Living. How do you approach each genre or medium differently?

MG: There are definitely similarities in my approach but, also, there are things that only suit fiction or more journalistic essays. For everything though, I really strap myself in during the research phase. This is my favorite and most fruitful time and it's when I start to recognize patterns and start to do a little free associating. It's important to spread yourself beyond only looking at other writing. I like to think about film, nature, paintings and the way they can connect to what I'm interested in writing about. 

WC: How did your advice column, originally on The Baffler, originate?

MG: Honestly I wrote an essay for them called Trivial Pursuits, and I felt like the tone of it could work well in an advice column. It pretty much formed organically from there as they were looking for columnists and I had always wanted to do advice. I'm a real life agony aunt! 

WC: You recently wrote in your Substack, “I always say that before I was a writer, I was myself first.” How did you develop your voice?

MG: Exactly that! I have always had a strong personality and pushing yourself against life's circumstances can solidify a definite point of view. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact I've known who I am for many years and I just do things a certain way. This translates to the way I write. The only downside is, I have very little versatility. 

WC: Did you always know you would be a writer? What were the steps you took to make that happen?

MG: I guess I had a sense, but I was actually a visual artist first. I liked how quick I could make something and put it out there, whereas writing takes so much patience. I finally figured I should take it seriously and did my BA at Goldsmiths for Creative Writing. I wanted to leave school with a body of work, and that was like 45,000 words of Happy Hour. 

WC: Last year, you wrote a newsletter about receiving acclaim as a writer without the compensation to match. Any ideas how to force this industry to change its ways? Asking for a friend. LOL.

MG: It's interesting how very few people in media or publishing are very good at business. They splurge on the wrong things and everyone thinks they're a tech start-up. Everyone should be paid a living wage from the assistants, interns and up— with actual increases in wage to keep up with inflation. More unions! Even for freelancers and authors! 

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💗 Welcome to the very first edition of PROCESSING, our new series of interviews with artists and authors we admire. Want us to interview your fav? Leave a comment and let us know who. 💗

News!

• We’re meeting IRL again. Can't make it this month? Come to the next one!

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