From writing death notices, to grad school in Las Vegas, to a law firm in Cleveland, and eventually to a writer for American Greetings – Greg Vovos shares his “long day’s journey” into becoming a director, actor, playwright, and greeting card writer.
Hold up…you wrote death notices? Yes! {laughing} After my undergrad at Ohio State, I was working at the Plain Dealer taking death notices, and people would come in and give them in person, and I’d have to look at them face-to-face, which is probably why I like to write Sympathy cards.
So Sympathy cards are your favorite cards to write? Well, I guess Romantic and Sympathy. Sympathy is a good challenge, and to me, it’s such an important card. When my mom died
and I got cards, they meant so much to me. How good those cards made me feel in that moment changed the way I look at sympathy. Because at a time when no one can really say anything, people were sending me cards with words on them that were the right things. They were all different messages, but they were coming from a place of love from people, and support and caring, and that really means a lot.
So then how did you get to land a cool job as a greeting card writer? I left the Plain Dealer to pursue my MFA in playwriting, and after that, I was writing, directing, and acting in plays on the side here in Ohio, but for money I was working as a transcriptionist at a law firm, which wasn’t giving me any satisfaction. So, I finally just scoured the internet for writing jobs and I found the posting for the position. I was just really excited to get a writing job. To get a job where I’m going to write creatively, which is amazing. I’ve been a writer at American Greetings for 10 years now. Interestingly enough, I used to drive by American Greetings headquarters once a week when we’d go to my grandmother’s house, and I would look at that and think, “Man, that’s pretty cool; I wouldn’t mind working there one day.”
What’s the hardest part about being a greeting card writer? Many people think it’s easy, but we know that couldn’t be further from the truth. I think the hardest part is staying original; mixing originality with authenticity is probably the hardest part. It’s not dealing with rejection, or even the mechanics of writing. I would say just staying inspired and original and keeping things real. (Hint! If you need some help with adding personal messages to your cards, check out our ‘What to Write’ series where our writers, like Greg, will help you out.)
Do you have a favorite card that you’ve written? The first card my wife gave me after I started working here was one I initially wrote for her for the Wife caption, and it got adapted into a Husband card, so that’s probably one of my favorites.
Do you only give your wife cards you’ve written? Every time I give her one, she asks me if I wrote it. About 90% of the time I give her cards I’ve written, but every once in a while I won’t, just to keep her on her toes. Another favorite card I wrote for Daughter, because I was thinking about my daughter when I wrote it. She was a baby, and I wrote what I wanted to say to her for when she got older so I could give it to her, so that’s another one that means a lot.
Are you ever like, “I can’t write one more birthday card…I just can’t do it,” and yet it’s due the next day – what’s your S.O.S strategy? As many people have seen, I walk around a lot. And that’s really important. To get out of your cubicle as a writer and moving your body and having different visual stimulus, and talking to people is really important. I remember walking down the hall when I was in that kind of situation last time I was writing for Thanksgiving, and I met this woman from HR and she’s like, “Hey how was your Thanksgiving?” And I was like, “Oh, it was good.” And she said, “Good food, feeling grateful, what’s not to love?” And I’m like – whoa! And I took that and worked with that and created a piece of copy. Also, I search the internet, look at Pinterest, read poems, and try to make connections.
Speaking of connections, why do you feel it’s important for people to connect with one another? Since we’re living in such a digital time, cards mean even MORE now because face to face relationships aren’t as strong. People are in their phones and devices all the time, so any time you can find a way to get someone to look up and look around them into the face of someone they care about, or watching them read the card – you’re making connections stronger. As long as the world is going on, it will be important for people to connect with each other – it’s what it means to be human. And if we’re not connecting with each other, we’re not living and not experiencing the best thing that life can offer – each other.
How does being a greeting card writer align with playwriting and directing? This is where being a playwright is very helpful because they are very similar. Playwriting is about human relationships. Any good play you see, you’re watching a really strong relationship on the stage and true feelings. Plays expose emotion through action, but still that’s the residual — the emotion. And that’s what greeting cards do. It’s a different form, you come at it in a different way, but at the heart, you’re going towards what makes a person a person; how people connect with each other. So playwriting helps me in that sense and the way I look at people around me. As a playwright, when I came into this job I already had that way of looking at life. Being a greeting card writer makes me a better playwright; being a playwright makes me a better greeting card writer.
Filming the trailer for “How to Be a Respectable Junkie.” Nathan Motta Photography // The New York Times. Photography by Angelo Merendino
So as an expert of all things greeting cards, why do think they have stood the test of time? People you care about – you’re going to send them a card. And NOTHING is going to replace that. Because if someone’s giving someone a card, they care about them, and they’re willing to say more than they would say face to face. That’s the point of the card. And for the person receiving that card that you picked out for them, seeing your handwriting in there…nothing else compares.
FUN FACTS ABOUT GREG
Favorite word = rhinoceros
Least favorite word = stop
Favorite sound = laughter
Profession he’d like to attempt = standup comedian
