Interview with Elle Griffin

Novelist | Editor-in-chief at The Post | Journalist

Dear Reader,

It’s another community day! Wednesday is quickly becoming my favorite day of the week. I had the pleasure of interviewing Elle Griffin, and I’m excited to share that with you today. If you’ve followed Elle for any length of time, you’ll know that she’s covered a lot of topics regarding her life, her passions, and where she gets her ideas. I tried to ask unconventional questions in an attempt to reveal another layer of Elle we might not get to see on her own Substack. Elle Griffin has been such an inspiration to me not only as a writer but as a creator and an artist. I hope you enjoy the interview!

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Welcome, Elle. I appreciate your time. You’re doing amazing things for independent writers and the Substack community, so I know that The Storyletter audience will be thrilled to hear what you have to say, myself included.

First off, we both live in the Beehive State. Do you feel creatively inspired living in Utah?

Yes, I love Utah. My husband and I moved here from the Bay Area because I wanted city life (I'm very into the arts) and he wanted mountain life (he's very into mountain biking). We visited every city in the west that fit that bill, and Salt Lake City was our favorite!

As I have previously researched, 84.5 percent of our state attends performing arts performances in a given year, far more than any other state. As a result we have a world-class Broadway theater I can walk to (the Eccles Theater is magical—I'm a season ticket holder) and an incredible community theater circuit (Hale Theatre is a must see!). This in addition to ballet, symphony, opera, and a stellar music scene, etc.

When I used to live in the Bay Area, I would commute an hour into the city, pay $40 in parking, and spend $200 in tickets to see a show once a quarter. Now I go to the theater a couple times a month, and I walk there! It's a dream.

I struggle with the winter though, so I'm always plotting my escape around then...

Were you always driven to pursue your passions growing up?

Yes, I wanted to be a Broadway actress from a young age—I took voice lessons and acting lessons in middle school, I took tap dancing lessons in high school and was in all the plays and choirs, I even started college as a dance major thinking I might still have a hope in the performing arts. But ultimately I wasn't very good (at singing, acting, or dancing).

I think if I had known the kind of work I would have had to put in to make it happen, I would have done it. I would have gone to a performing arts high school, I would have gotten the coaching and the training I needed. I would have gone on auditions. But I wasn't exposed to any professional performers, and I didn't know that all existed! In college, I decided to pivot.

I knew I wanted to be an artist. Specifically, I wanted to have one craft I could spend my life working on, but I didn't know what that was in the absence of theater. It took me a while to realize it was writing, and then a while more for me to realize writing could be my job. I am so grateful to work as a writer and editor now! And to get to spend my life doing it!

I still dabble in the other things: I currently take voice lessons, and occasionally ballet. I was an extra in a Hallmark Christmas movie once (they are all filmed in Salt Lake City!), but writing is my craft, the thing I have chosen to devote myself to. And now that I know what goes into it, I'm more than happy to put in the work to truly master my craft!

I’m curious about your connection-making process. Do you cold contact people that interest you in order to establish that initial link? If so, is there a technique that will increase people’s chances of landing that desired connection?

Yes, I cold email people all the time. Using LinkedIn InMail seems to work best because cold emails often get sent to Google's spam folder (as a journalist, this is the bane of my existence—I'm trying to get sources so almost everyone I email is cold!).

People always ask me how I make my connections, but it really is very simple: I just reach out to a lot of people. Some people won't answer you, but others will. It's worth mentioning that I'm usually reaching out to people I'm really interested in and genuinely want to learn more about, and I usually want to feature them in something I'm writing which is an easy ask.

Now that people pitch me I've realized most people do the opposite: they just want to get something out of me. There's a difference between, "Wow, I really loved this article you wrote and was especially influenced when you said xyz. Could I interview you about that for an article I'm working on?" and "you have a lot of followers and I have zero. I think I'm awesome, will you feature me?"

When we met at Cryptopia, you mentioned that you were an introvert. I find it fascinating when people can overcome their own inclinations for a particular event or reason. What allows you to embrace your extroverted side? Do you have a typical timeframe set aside for recharging?

I love being social and extroverted—but I don't have to do it often. I speak at probably two events each month, record one podcast. The rest of the time I'm writing, reading, hanging out with friends (we all live on the same street), going out to dinner with my husband, heading out for adventures, traveling. In other words, most of my life is being introverted. So I can easily handle the few occasions when it's not. And I find it fun! 🥰

(When I do speak at an event though, I basically can't do anything else the rest of the day except read 🫠)

You completed your graduate studies in Mariology, the study of the Virgin Mary, from the University of Dayton. I'm very interested in that choice. What pulled you in that direction, and how do you think it enhanced your worldview? Do you have a favorite mystery of the rosary?

Well I used to be Catholic, so it seemed like a good idea at the time 😆. Plus, I was jealous that Dan Brown got to study in the Vatican Library when he was writing The Da Vinci Code. I, too, wanted access to those secret libraries where all the oldest books are held and to do research there—and only students have access to The Marian Library. Ultimately, if you've read my gothic novel Obscurity to the end, you'll know my studies influenced the entire book right down to the very last chapter.

I always went rogue when I prayed the rosary and came up with my own things to contemplate. I also removed the word "sinner" from my Hail Marys. I was the very worst Catholic 😆

You’re writing a utopian novel called “Oblivion”. Are you able to share any elements of the plot or themes from the book? Why did you choose to go the utopian route after publishing your gothic novel, “Obscurity”?

Yes! It begins when our main character steals a famous painting and escapes into the future. She wakes up in a canoe, lulling against some tropical shore, with no memory of her past or how she came to be there—and that painting in her arms. What she finds is a beautiful world, and perhaps some people who are onto her...

I wanted to write a utopian novel because I'm very tired of dystopian novels. If even the artists can't imagine a better future for humanity, how can we create it?

What is your core driver for writing fiction?

There's nothing more fun than imagination. And nothing more enjoyable to explore....

When writing essays, how do you overcome the fear of backlash from public opinion on topics where you may have a controversial take? Or just public scrutiny in general?

I've received very horrible backlash a couple of times now, but it always came from Twitter, so I deleted it. Life's too short to have to constantly be facing backlash from people who don't know me, followed by hours or even days trying to get over it. I wouldn't tolerate that kind of abuse in my life, why should I tolerate it online?

Substack and TikTok are my only social media now and on Substack I lock comments to paying subscribers. As a result, I can write without fear—important when you're writing a utopian novel! When I sit down to write a chapter, I don't want to be writing from a place of insecurity, I want to be writing from a place of beauty—it's just going to result in a better book.

Plus, if you boil any real discussion down to 280 characters, it's going to come out a hot take. And to try to boil our response down to 280 characters means we're responding with a hot take. As a result, we're missing all the words in the middle—the place where we might agree—and our whole country is suffering as a result.

You’ve hosted some Think Tanks on the future of publishing which I find really insightful. What do you think about the viability of immersive audio platforms such as Realm, and stories like “Batman Unburied” which reached number #1 on Spotify?

I think they're very cool! But I'll never listen to them personally because I'm not a podcast person. I'm a reader.

Do you have a favorite comfort food or drink while writing?

Almond croissants! (On the weekends. Avocado toast on the weekdays).

What is something you know now that you wish your younger self knew?

You have to work really hard to get what you want. (And it's worth wanting something!)

Also: Pick a creative path, then create a platform for it on the internet. So much is possible with just that one thing!

Has writing affected how you see the world? Please explain.

Yes! It's the ONLY way I can see the world. I would have no idea what was going on inside my head if I didn't attempt to organize it in words.

What have you learned about yourself over the course of your career?

I always thought I was multi-passionate, that there wasn't one thing I loved to do. But it turns out that's what is fun about being a writer! I can fully immerse myself in one story, then I'm done with it and can move on to the next one. As a writer, I get to live every single one of my passions, and then write about it!

Do you have any advice for early or independent writers?

Get on Substack!!!!!! Everything else isn't worth your time. (Seriously, I've been published in Esquire and Insider and Forbes and those articles didn't get near the readers my Substack articles get!)

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