'Nothin' better to do' than write

In 16 months he wrote it down, transferred it to his computer, added a bit, and finished it. Three months later he had a published copy of “His Failed Mistakes” and gained the title of youngest published black author in Los Angeles. In 10 months, he plans for his second book to be in stores.

He likes to work on Friday nights. That’s when you’re likely to find Cal Poly earth science freshman Vincent Grigsby in his cluttered triple dorm room, penning his latest story in the margins of a spiral notebook because, as he put it, “There’s nothin’ better to do.”

With a published book on his résumé, it should be no surprise that Grigsby plans to switch his major to English next quarter.

“I’m switching because earth science and that chemistry class isn’t really feelin’ me right now,” he said.

Sitting at his half of the desk he shares with his roommate, Grigsby smiled as he talked about writing – his passion for it is apparent.

Grigsby grew up in Los Angeles in what he describes as “the middle-low class part of L.A.”

“You know, every night we had the helicopter thing, buzzin’ the house. You just got used to it after a while,” he said.

He holds that living in this area wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t hard either.

“My direct neighbors, like the house next to mine, they were cool. But once you went down the street, it was like a whole new ball game ’cause almost every night it was gunshots – it was pretty wild,” Grigsby said.

He added, “I had friends on the street and everything, but you just knew at a certain time, it’s time to go back home.”

Grigsby said his inspiration to pen fiction began in third grade, when his teacher told him his writing stood out. “I was very descriptive and I knew how to set up situations for emphasis,” he said.

He got serious about his newfound talent but pushed it aside to pursue football, becoming a first-team all-American. While playing quarterback, however, he was tackled and suffered a knee injury that eventually sidelined his football career.

“I wish I could’ve played longer, but flag football, it’s gonna hold it down for now ’cause I get to play quarterback and don’t have to worry about getting jacked up or anything,” he said.

When Grigsby couldn’t play football, he said he got back into writing, and a book was the result.

His publisher, Outskirts Press, contacted him a day after he sent his manuscript.

“They said that the characters in my book were somethin’ that were new,” Grigsby said. “That’s really what made them come to the rash decision to publish it so quick.”

He later added, “It was pretty amazing ’cause you go from being a high school graduate to ‘now I’m a published author.'”

Released in October and sold on Barnesandnoble.com, Amazon.com and Target.com, “His Failed Mistakes” was highly influenced by his high school experience and his close friends.

“I just took their character and made ’em all crazy and elaborated them,” he said.

Asked if his friends know that they are characters in his book, Grigsby responded “Nah,” and began laughing. He then added that he doesn’t plan on letting them know because “they won’t see it from my point of view. They’re gonna be like, ‘Oh, so you think I’m some crazy deranged person,’ but they’re not gonna understand what I was saying.”

The only completely fictional character in the book is the main character, James Thomas, who Grigsby said isn’t him.

“He starts off as a cool character. You’re like, “OK, I can get into this guy,’ but by about part five, part six, this dude like totally went psycho,” he said.

Since being published, Grigsby said that he’s made more than $1,000 from “His Failed Mistakes.”

However, he said, “I don’t want that to be my flagship book because it could be written better.”

So, Grigsby said he intends to maintain some momentum with his next project, “Love’s Lost Lyrics,” a novel based on the story of his great-great-grandmother’s home in Los Angeles.

“From my perspective, it seems like she wanted that house to be here for all generations that followed her,” Grigsby said. “The house is still standing there, but the people who occupy the house aren’t treating it the way that I feel my great-great-grandmother would have wanted it to be treated.”

He said he’s good at multitasking, both getting his homework done and writing his novel, even if he has to wake up early to finish a math assignment. Holding up his spiral notebook, he said, “If I didn’t have any homework or somethin’, I would just sit down and write in here all night.”

But Grigsby isn’t always hard at work on his story.

“I don’t write every day; I have to be in the mood. If you force yourself to write, it’s not gonna be good writing,” he said.

Asked what kind of mood he has to be in, Grigsby replied, “There’s an overall writing mood because I’m not one of those psycho writers who say the characters speak to me when they try to write their book.”

He then added, “I control what I write.”

Asked what he would call this mood, he said, “The creation mood,” adding, “Every word has to come from my hand, so I have to create it.”

To Grigsby, the peak of success for any of his creations would be a big-screen adaptation.

“That’s when I know that I’ve arrived, and it’s gonna be all peaches and cream for the rest of my life,” he said.

He added, “(The movie) would be like a funny drama, ’cause straight dramas have the tendency to be kinda sad sometimes and funny movies aren’t deep enough for me, so I would have a mix of the two.”

Movie aside, Grigsby wants his point of view heard because he feels it’s fresh and needed in America.

“There aren’t any young black authors that are really mainstream, and that’s where I’m trying to get to,” he said.

Grigsby also said he is in the process of writing a screenplay with a high school friend.

It may seem like he has a lot on his plate, but given his life’s motto – “If you strive to be the best, then you will be the best” – he’s doing the right thing.

“The best doesn’t just happen to anybody, you need to work for it,” he said.