MO: I don’t have the same bitterness towards it that I did at the end of my time at Christian college, certainly; and there’s such a difference between that culture and faith in general that I’ve been able to tease them apart over time. 

 

It’s where I come from, you know? I spent the years where I was becoming a person reading Kierkegaard and going to youth group pancake breakfasts and praying in circles with some really lovely people, and that’s part of what made me who I am. I don’t regret any of it. 

 

SA: I’m so impressed by writers such as yourself and Roxane who are so prolific. In your case especially, you’re prolific and extremely funny. Are you naturally good at generating a lot of good ideas, or is that something you have to work at?

 

MO: Thank you! It is something that comes naturally to me. I would have a really hard time trying to write a novel, I think, because sustaining a narrative or thinking of plot ideas feels really difficult to me. But coming up with a lot of jokes and then spending 400­–800 words on each one of them, then moving on, that feels like fun to me, not like work. I get to make jokes, then move on to the next joke. 

 

What Roxane does is so different (and to my mind, more difficult and impressive) from what I do — I write about one thoughtful essay a year and it exhausts me; I have to nap for days afterwards.

 

SA: What’s your process like? Do you write several drafts of these pieces, or are you publishing first drafts? Is anyone reading before you publish?

 

MO: I have a couple of really good buddies — Nicole Cliffe, Christian Brown, and @ShrillCosby are probably the three I go to most often — who I will gchat incessantly with ideas. They’re endlessly patient with me. I’ll bug them all the time for help with a title or helping me figure out whether a concept is worth pursuing.