Mary Jane Grinstead
Writing Without an Ending
November 10, 2006 | by brett | Permalink
As we walked up to Scooter’s on a calm Tuesday evening in the Chicago neighborhood off Paulina, we met with Mary Jane Grinstead, who casually rode up on her bike. Mary Jane is from a small town in Missouri. Over the moderate hustle and bustle of the crowd entering and exiting Scooter’s for their highly acclaimed frozen custard, Mary Jane explained to us why someone would leave a highly paid executive career in technology to write.
“I always wanted to be a writer as a kid. I went to the University of Missouri and majored in journalism. My plan was to graduate and work for a newspaper or an ad agency.”
When she got out of school, she worked for a magazine for a couple of years, but after realizing how little beginning writers actually made, she decided to get her MBA. One afternoon while in her advisor’s office, she was asked to fill an interview slot with the computer giant IBM. Mary Jane agreed, not because she was looking for a job, but just because she wanted to help out. As it would turn out, she had a wonderful interview with IBM. At the time, IBM was looking to hire their first female marketing representatives. Mary Jane fit the role they were looking for.
IBM offered her the job, which she accepted. It sounded like fun and paid considerably more than copywriting. This would prove to be the start of a 15-year career with IBM. She would work in marketing, sales as well as general management. She soon completed her MBA from the University of Chicago. Seeing as how she absolutely loved working for IBM, she never once thought that she wasn’t doing what she had intended to do.
She experienced great success within IBM and advanced to executive management. Eventually she would leave the company however, to join a start-up. From there she moved onto the West Coast high technology company as a senior executive. She had aspirations of becoming President.
But one day it hit her that she wanted to write fiction. She started to attend a writing class on Wednesday nights at the University of Chicago and found herself changing her work and travel schedule, postponing dinners with board of directors and rearranging customer calls in order to attend. As a result, she completely lost interest in her job, forgetting all about her goal of becoming president of a company. She was able to rekindle her love for writing, which had been stored away since she was a child.
Arriving at home one night, she told her husband that she was thinking about quitting her job to write full-time. With his support and after an accumulation of events at work, that’s exactly what she did. It wasn’t that she hated her company or her job, but more that she would much rather write.
“I thought that when I quit that it would be an incredible adjustment. I thought I would miss the phone ringing, the emails, presenting to thousands of people, working with customers and business partners, making plans, running a P&L having an office, a title, and lots of people to delegate to. The amazing thing is that I never once missed any of those things that had been so important to me for so many years.”
Though having published newspaper and magazine articles years before, Mary Jane had never published any fiction before. So, she spent the first year writing poems and short stories. After placing a dozen or so pieces in literary magazines, she spent the second year writing a book without really knowing how to do so. She completed her first fiction book that year and was approached by four New York agents, who were all enthusiastic about her book. She signed with a well-respected agent, who worked hard, but wasn’t able to commit a publisher to the book. So Mary Jane wrote a second book and is even getting started on a third.
In Mary Jane’s words, she started to “get all twisted around her axle” with the publishing process. She had left her secure corporate job to pursue a passion and it was not working out as planned. She didn’t expect to become John Grisham overnight, but she figured that at least she could get her book published, especially when several agents expressed a willingness to represent it.
A friend suggested that she do a little business writing and referred her to a client who needed some marketing materials written. Figuring that it wouldn’t hurt, she decided to give it a try.
She bid on the job at forty dollars an hour, mostly for the experience. She got the assignment and although it wasn’t the fiction novel she had hoped for, it was still writing.
One free-lance job led to another and Mary Jane has turned her business writing into a career which allowed her to make the money she needs to earn while still leaving time for her to work on her fiction. Mary Jane hasn’t given up the goal of writing a novel and having it published. She is, however, enjoying her free-lance work and the comfort of writing. She says that her clients recognize unique benefits in hiring a writer who can combine her business experience in combination with her writing skills.
Here is what Mary Jane had to say looking back on the move she made:
“Leaving business to write full time was a personal thing. It was completely illogical and I certainly didn’t plan for the move financially. In fact it was the opposite of what we (her and her husband) had planned. But I am so happy! Happier than I have ever been.”
Pursue The Passion comments:
I loved this interview because it was one of our first and only interviews in which the person was in the process of realizing their dream, as opposed to have successfully made it to where they want to be. Mary Jane made a huge leap of faith by following her heart. It was fun to talk with her because like every good novel, the writer keeps the ending a secret. Much in the same way, Mary Jane’s ending is also unknown. I find it both exciting and inspiring to know that someone can leave a job paying thousands to follow something that they love doing. For everyone out there, young or otherwise, let this story be the inspiration that leads you to do what you want, and not what others want you to do.
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THERE ARE 2 RESPONSES TO THIS INTERVIEW
J. Curiel Says:
January 22nd, 2007
Mary Jane is an inspiration! There’s something to be said when a person leaves “the comfort zone” to pursue a dream with such passion!!!! I have a feeling we haven’t heard the last of Mary Jane!!!
Andrew J. Bosko Says:
April 28th, 2007
I used to work for Mary Jane. I am now a very successful corporate executive. I owe 100% of my success to having Mary Jane as a mentor. I would like to contact her and Phil, can you please provide me with her email address? Thank you.
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