Meet Maureen Joyce Connolly

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maureen Joyce Connolly. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maureen Joyce below.

Maureen Joyce, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?

Creativity is a tricky thing. It can grow rusty if we don’t nurture it. I spent most of my adult life working in science working for a major pharmaceutical company and then my own business where I consulted with pharmaceutical start-ups. Needless to say, I had a hugely overdeveloped left brain from the analytical thinking that was required for my job.
When I decide to write I knew that I would need to develop the right side of my brain and felt it had been woefully neglected out of necessity. I also understood intuitively that the only way to nurture my creative side, I would need to proceed slowly and with a certain whimsical attitude. I scheduled time to daydream for at least twenty minutes a day. I engaged in painting and photography; two pursuits I knew I would not excel in and therefore I could relax while doing. The same with the culinary arts. I could experiment and the outcome whether edible or not was really not that important. In a sense I relaxed into what my creativity was craving which was a sense of freedom.
Now as a professional writer, I take time to literally smell the crayons, from a box I keep on my desk to remind me of childhood pursuits. It never mattered if I colored inside the lines, I was just happy to get color onto paper. I often include silly little sidebars in my story that I know will be excluded from the final draft but I love that they are there, hiding, and fun to encounter when I do revisions.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I am a professional fiction writer. This came late for me – I was fifty-nine when my debut novel was published! Prior to that I spent over twenty years in the pharmaceutical industry from discovery to development and then launched my own business to help with pharmaceutical start-ups. I loved my career but was looking forward to something a bit more fulfilling as I got older. A little voice in my head nagged me about trying to write – it was something that I always wanted to pursue but found too intimidating. Never one to back away from a challenge, I worked tirelessly to learn the ins and outs of novel writing and was thrilled to sign with an agent and have my work published. I can happily say I never looked back. My debut novel is called LITTLE LOVELY THINGS, published in 2019 by Sourcebooks and my current novel, called THE MALIBU WIFE will hopefully be published in 2025.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I often think in starting a new pursuit that it might be a bit better to be ignorant in an innocent way rather than too sophisticated. If I knew the level of commitment required to be a professional writer and the start, I never would’ve taken the first step. They key is to be relentless yet steady. It’s okay to plod along, it prevents burnout. As long as you understand your goal, you will find the correct pacing if you listen to your internal voice. Too often, when I pushed myself too hard the results were disappointing, and I ended up losing time, which is a very precious commodity. Listen to the wisdom of others but find your own path. Just keep placing one foot in front of the idea, building one idea onto the one before. Keep your head down and plow and before you know it you will have a field to sow.

Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?

A book that impacted the way I conducted myself early on in the writing process is If You Want to Write, by Brenda Ueland. Her approach is to eschew technicalities which can be dealt with later, such as proper grammar and story structure, and to just get down to the business of writing and write your heart out. It’s truly the only way to determine whether writing really is the pursuit for you and it keeps your vision pure as you move through the process.

On of the things Ueland espouses is that writing is not magic – anyone can do it if they put their heart and soul to it. it’s all about focus – if you love something you will be successful. I think this is incredibly helpful and wise and makes one feel included rather than chasing a dream that might feel impossible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://maureenjconnolly.com
• Instagram: maureenjconnollyauthor
• Facebook: maureenjconnollyauthor
• Other: email: [email protected]

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