Jacob Reecher
ORP: What inspired you to begin writing or creating? Has that source of inspiration changed throughout your life?
Jacob Reecher: My first creative projects were adaptations and reimaginings of art that I loved. I wrote a short-story version of Black Sabbath's "Iron Man," for example, and later a spec script of The Office. Creation allowed me to interact with these beautiful things that filled my head. It still does. Except that now my head is filled with different beautiful things, like the end of John Cheever's "Torch Song" or the narrator of Marilyn Robinson's Housekeeping.
ORP: Do you write or create with an audience in mind? If so, how do you consider the relationship between that audience and your work throughout your creative process?
JR: I assume my reader is reading carefully, not skimming. For her, my sentences must scan clearly and smoothly, and say exactly what I mean, not merely suggest my drift. This reader also deserves rewards: humor, drama, and ideas are some. To reward her attention is the only way I feel I can earn it.
ORP: What does success as a writer or artist mean to you?
JR: The first success is a starting place--a character or a setting or a first line. The next success is to string to that start a few thousand words. And with those words to convey a palpable mood, be it bitterness, joy, melancholy, et cetera, is another success. And for that mood to overwhelm the reader, and to crowd out all else from her mind, is the final, highest success.
ORP: What do you hope readers (or your audience) will take away from your creative work?
JR: I hope that my work is crafted with enough care for my reader to surrender to it. For the few thousand words I have written and call a story, the reader should have to think about nothing but those words. I want him to put his consciousness in my care, and to trust that I will give back pleasant oblivion.
