Molly Ringwald Got Advice From Bret Easton Ellis About Her Novel

Given that whole recent Maeve Binchy shitstorm, the following timely question was asked: Do you think being a mother is an important precursor to writing about it?

I don’t think being a mother is essential to being able to write believable mothers, but I can’t deny it can give the writer an edge in terms of the more prosaic details of life with children. I also think it can be tempting to idealise or mythologise parenthood in a way you can’t when you are in the middle of it. But I think it is ludicrous to suggest that only mothers can write credibly of motherhood. It’s like arguing [Fyodor] Dostoyevsky needed to commit murder in order to write Crime and Punishment. Stephen Crane wrote one of the most well-known war novels of all time, despite having never experienced combat.

Before the book came out, Ringwald also requested advice from another icon circa John Hughes:

Recently, I wrote an email to an old friend, the writer Bret Easton Ellis, regarding my trepidation at giving the galley [final copy] to my parents. He wrote back a very stern email telling me – I’m paraphrasing – that if I hesitate writing prose based on other people’s reaction, then I shouldn’t write prose. I framed it and put it on my desk.

‘Molly’s Novel Approach’ [The Age]