Jessica Hertz
Oyster River Pages: We often think of ourselves as writing or making art, but the process often changes or makes us as well. How do you feel like your writing or art makes you?
Jessica Hertz: The act of writing helps me to process things. Only about half of what I write gets reworked and shaped into something I want other people to see, but the other half is just as important because every time I write something I’m working through an emotion or thought or experience.
ORP: How has the COVID-19 pandemic changed your relationship to art and writing, either in the creation of it or the consumption of it?
JH: At the start of quarantine/lock-down, I decided to gather some friends to start an online writing group. Everyone was feeling isolated, and I think it’s hard to feel creative when everything feels so uncertain. The writing group gave me a sense of structure and community, which has been so crucial. There are four of us in the group, spread out across the United States, and it’s been amazing to get to work on writing by and get feedback from such smart, thoughtful, and creative people. It’s something we want to try to continue after the pandemic ends because it’s been so wonderful. Writing can be a lonely process, but it doesn’t have to be. It’s counterintuitive, but the isolation of a pandemic helped me to really appreciate that art is about connection.
ORP: Do you believe that hope is a luxury, a responsibility, a danger, or something else? Why?
JH: Hope is a responsibility for those who are able to be hopeful, but it’s also a luxury in some ways. Not everyone has space to hope, either because of their life’s circumstances or their brain chemistry or both, and that is valid. But believing that the world can be improved is an act of hope, so hope is necessary if humans are going to have a chance to make our world better. The most important thing about hope, though, is that we recognize it’s a wonderful motivator but not particularly useful without actions.
ORP: If you could choose one writer or artist, living or dead, as a best friend or mentor, who would it be? Why?
JH: I would love to take a writing class with N.K. Jemisin. Her work manages to be simultaneously timeless and timely, fantastical and realistic, truthful and hopeful. There are so many books and stories that are beautiful and important, and I love to read those and try to examine how the story was told, look at how it was put together, and imagine what the writer’s process might have been. But with Jemisin, I can’t even see the seams, if that makes sense – her work just feels so complete and true to me. It would be amazing to learn from someone who can write like that. Anyway, if you haven’t read The Broken Earth Trilogy, you might want to go ahead and add it to your queue.
ORP: What do you think is the most essential advice that most writers and artists ignore?
JH: I hate the advice to “write every day” because that isn’t feasible for many people. However, there is an adjacent piece of advice that is really important, which is to get into a routine with your writing. If your routine is write every day, great! But it might also be, write on Saturday morning, or participate in NaNoWriMo every year, or write on your subway ride to work. Whatever your routine is, I think it’s valid, just make sure you’re writing in a way that is consistent for you. I haven’t always been great at following this advice, but I’m trying to do a better job with it and cultivate better writing habits.
