12 or 20 (second series) questions with Jess Taylor
Jess Taylor [photo credit: Angela Lewis] is a Tkaronto (Toronto) writer and poet. She is theauthor of Pauls, the title story of which won the 2013 Gold FictionNational Magazine Award, and Just Pervs, a finalist for the 2020 LambdaLiterary Award in Bisexual Fiction. Her story, “Two Sex Addicts Fall in Love,”was longlisted for the 2018 Journey Prize. Play is her debut novel.
1 -How did your first book change your life? How does your most recent workcompare to your previous? How does it feel different?
Pauls, aninterconnected book of short stories, changed my life in a lot of ways. Havinga book out gave me legitimacy that hadn’t been there before, especially beingso young. I’d struggled financially before the book came out, and I stronglybelieve that having a published book helped me get more courses to teach, whichgave me some financial stability that I needed.
Play, mydebut novel that’s coming out in April [ed. note: this interview wasconducted in March 2024], was extremely difficult to write in comparison to Pauls.Structurally, it’s a lot more complex and a bit darker. This time around,though, it’s my third book, so I feel a lot more self-assured and less nervousabout its publication.
2 -How did you come to fiction first, as opposed to, say, poetry or non-fiction?
Iactually write all three and had a couple of poetry chapbooks published (AndThen Everyone… by Picture Window Press in 2013 and Never Stop byAnstruther Press in 2014) before my first story collection came out. I alwayssay that I’ve been writing seriously since I was a kid, as I started to submitto local contests at the age of 12. Although I was writing stacks of poetry atthe time, one of the first prizes I won was for a short story. I feel like thathelped fuel my confidence in writing stories. Over the years, I’ve gravitatedtoward fiction a little more.
Oneof my favourite things about writing fiction is that it allows me to slip intoother perspectives and characters. While occasionally I’ll write poetry as acharacter, my poetry more typically has a confessional, lyrical element whereif the speaker is not myself, they are at least close to how I see the world.With fiction, it’s easier for me to invent complete people who think, feel, andperceive differently than I do.
3 -How long does it take to start any particular writing project? Does yourwriting initially come quickly, or is it a slow process? Do first drafts appearlooking close to their final shape, or does your work come out of copiousnotes?
Usually,I’ll have an idea or line first that gives me the sense of a character. Next, Ineed to have some idea of a structure. If the voice is really strong, I mightstart to follow the voice of the character and see where it takes me, or if thestory is based on an idea, I might need to let its energy and shape sit withinme before I approach an actual draft. During that time, I might write bits andpieces, but I’m not approaching it with a strong sense of direction. Instead,it’s exploratory. For me, along with character, feeling is central to my work.So I need to also be chasing a feeling or have a particular vibe for a writingproject.
Thelength of time a piece of writing takes depends on the project. My debut novel,Play, took me close to 10 years from the idea to publication, but it wasa very difficult project structurally. The book has taken many different formsover the years before I finally got it into the shape it is now. I also workedwith a developmental editor, Meg Storey, as I was struggling with finding theright structure. Play also has really heavy subject matter and I wantedto make sure that I was getting it right, not over-sensationalizing trauma. Ithink for me to do it well, I needed to give myself time to mature. I felt thatwhile writing and trusted myself. I’m happy I didn’t push it out into the worldwithout giving the book time to develop the way that it needed to so that itcould be sensitive and thoughtful.
Ijust finished writing a solid draft of my second novel, and that book came tome while I was struggling with post-partum anxiety after the birth of mydaughter. All of a sudden I had the voice of a character and with the charactercame this whole family, and I understood the family deeply without doing anyexploratory work. It felt like I’d plucked them from the air. I started towrite the book with naps and after about six months I plotted out Act 1 andthen after another month, the remaining acts. From start to finish, that booktook me two and half years, and that was with working full time and parentingin between. Probably it’ll be another year before it's ready for a publisherand then the process from there will be up to a publisher, but I think fouryears instead of 10 is awesome!
Iknow the next book could take another ten years though, and I’m okay with that,as it’s about putting the best work possible into the world and serving boththe book and my audience in the best way I can. That can take time.
4 -Where does a work of prose usually begin for you? Are you an author of shortpieces that end up combining into a larger project, or are you working on a"book" from the very beginning?
Alot of the time I begin with a character. For my themed collections, I findthat I’ll work on stories for a bit and then start to see if there is acohesive pattern after about four stories or so. If I can find a pattern, thenI know what the project is and I’ll only include stories that fit the projectso that I can have a book of stories that feels like a cohesive book. I likehaving my collections feel like the stories work together – It’s interesting tome.
Fornovels, sometimes the grain might begin in a short story and sometimes, justfrom the scope, I can tell it’ll be a novel. That was the case with the novel Irecently wrote, where as soon as I knew about this family, I was like, “Okaythis is a novel and also there will be UFOs in it.” Haha.
For Play,it came out of the stories in Pauls. Paul (Paulina) is a character inthree stories in the collection, and in “We Want Impossible Things,” she hintsat a troubled past that she will not talk about. She was an interestingcharacter for me because I’m an oversharer and am a little too straightforward,whereas Paul side-steps a lot in conversations and has a hard time trusting. Icould relate to her pain, her shame, and her distrust, but our communicationstyles are different. I wondered, what would healing look like for this person?Would that type of communication, of hiding through communication, would itever get blown open? Would she ever talk about her past? So I wrote into that,and it became Play.
5 -Are public readings part of or counter to your creative process? Are you thesort of writer who enjoys doing readings?
I doenjoy readings and see it as part of the work of being a writer. For me, it’sanother art form, and although it’s nerve-wracking, I like performing. Forshort stories, I find doing readings extremely helpful for a creative project,as when you’re halfway to three-quarters of the way through a reading,sometimes you can feel a real click moment where you feel in sync with theaudience and you know they are listening; you have their attention. Then youknow it’s a good story and one to keep in a collection. Other times, you canfeel where you lose them or where their attention wavers. You might also havemoments where you’re reading something and are like, Wow this is awful, butI didn’t know until I read this embarrassing line in front of someone else.That can help with cuts and edits.
Ihaven’t read too many novel excerpts aloud and find I usually default toreading a piece at the beginning. I think when I do my readings for Play,I am going to try to experiment with excerpts from different parts and see howit goes!
6 -Do you have any theoretical concerns behind your writing? What kinds ofquestions are you trying to answer with your work? What do you even think thecurrent questions are?
Ithink a lot of the questions I have are about the ways people relate to eachother. Throughout my life, I have often been perplexed by human behaviour: Whyare people not truthful? Why do people hurt each other? Why do peoplecommunicate in different ways? So I write to try to make sense of thesequestions.
I’malso interested in how different people perceive the world. My favourite booksare ones where a character’s perception of the world colours the entire book. Iam trying to add books into the world that do that as well.
Ialso want to know why do we consider some things taboo and not others. Wheredoes shame come from and how can we undo it? I think over time, I’ve come tobelieve that shame comes from feeling that your experiences are unspeakable, soI see writing as a way to unravel shame.
7 –What do you see the current role of the writer being in larger culture? Do theyeven have one? What do you think the role of the writer should be?
Ithink it’s the writer’s job to shine a light on society and to give words tothe things that are hard to articulate.
8 -Do you find the process of working with an outside editor difficult oressential (or both)?
Ireally love it! I think it can feel a little vulnerable, especially if you havedoubts about the project. Still, one thing I tell people when I give themfeedback is that I wouldn’t spend time or go in-depth on something unless Irespected the writer, so I try to receive feedback with that attitude as well.I think having someone who doesn’t live inside my head give me feedback on aproject is essential. Both the developmental editor I worked with Meg Storey,and Bookhug’s editor Linda Pruessen gave so much to Play. It reallywouldn’t have managed to be the book it is without them.
9 -What is the best piece of advice you've heard (not necessarily given to you directly)?
WhenI became a parent, someone once told me that everything is a phase so that whenyou’re experiencing a particular challenge, you might feel like you need tofight fight fight to fix whatever the issue is at the time, and then two weekslater, everything is different. There are new problems, but that old problemhas blown over. I think that can be extended to life in general. I tend tosweat every little thing and expect things to get to an objective level of“good”, but really with art, parenting, work, and everything, the hard stuffpasses, the good stuff passes, and you just have to go with it and ride it out.
10 -How easy has it been for you to move between genres (short stories to the novelto picture books)? What do you see as the appeal?
Ilove moving between genres. I get bored easily, so one of my procrastinationhacks is to always have a bunch of projects on the go so that when I get boredor stuck on one, I can work on something else. Multiple genres keep things evenmore fresh,
11 -What kind of writing routine do you tend to keep, or do you even have one? Howdoes a typical day (for you) begin?
I’mtrying to be a little more consistent this year, as typically I work more inbinges since working full-time. Parenting definitely throws a wrench in theworks (a cute, joy-inducing wrench), so I have very few slivers of time:Tuesday and Thursday mornings between 8 and 9 a.m., time on work lunches, andafter toddler bedtime. So that’s my time for writing, crafts, reading, andcleaning (yeah right). So basically whatever my priorities are, I use thosescraps of time toward that. Lately, I’ve been trying to write daily pages,whether they are reflections or snippets of books so that I’m writing eachday.
12 -When your writing gets stalled, where do you turn or return for (for lack of abetter word) inspiration?
Whenthings get stalled, I now see it as a sign to rest and fill my experience bank.You can’t write without any experiences, so it’s important to find ways to bepresent and recharge. I craft a lot and find doing things with my hands is agood balance for my writing. I also think that it allows me to still takecreative risks, which then builds creative confidence.
13 -What fragrance reminds you of home?
Afterit rains and you’re in a forest and kick leaves and you can smell the wet soilunderneath in the air.
14 -David W. McFadden once said that books come from books, but are there any otherforms that influence your work, whether nature, music, science or visual art?
Ithink every art form I come across influences my work. Even watching a showlike Chef’s Table, I’ll be inspired by how the chefs see the world and theircraft. Visual art is a big one, as visual art has always been a big part of mylife.
15 -What other writers or writings are important for your work, or simply your lifeoutside of your work?
Ihave some writers that I collaborate with and who read my work. Sofia Mostaghimi has been a big one. In recent years, Catriona Wright has become oneof my main beta readers, and I love her work so much. I find her a reallyinteresting writer as she publishes in both fiction and poetry.
Thework of Elif Batuman is also really important to me, as I think it opened upsome stylistic possibilities that I hadn’t thought about before.
16 -What would you like to do that you haven't yet done?
Inlife or in writing? In writing, putting out a book of non-fiction or a book ofpoetry.
Inlife, um, EVERYTHING. My biggest hurdle is that I want to do too much. I haveso many dreams.
17 -If you could pick any other occupation to attempt, what would it be? Or,alternately, what do you think you would have ended up doing had you not been awriter?
Iactually want to go back to school to be an occupational therapist but willcontinue to write books.
Ifwriting had not been part of my life, I would have focused on the sciences andgone into wildlife biology and conservation.
18 -What made you write, as opposed to doing something else?
That’sa really interesting question, especially since I’m drawn to so many art forms.In my youth, I saw other art forms (like songwriting and art) as a way to buildon my writing. I went to an arts high school, and even in the audition forvisual arts, I told them, “I want to be a writer and I think visual arts willhelp me describe the world.” I’m not sure what made writing capture me. Ireally loved books and stories, and, like many, found friendship and escapewithin them. I also was drawn to the stories of my family: tales my parentswould tell me about their lives and the people they knew. In some ways, Ibecame the storykeeper of the family as a child, which is funny now because Ihave no interest in family lore and my brother is meticulously cataloguing itand is now the family historian.
Mybrother also gave me a lot of encouragement to focus on writing as my art formas well. We were six and seven and working on comic books in the backyard, andI moaned about how much better his cartoons were. He told me, “But what you’regreat at is the stories.” He gave me the same feedback as a songwriter when wewere in a band together. He always saw my writing ability as my biggeststrength, and as my first artistic collaborator, I took his opinion veryseriously.
19 -What was the last great book you read? What was the last great film?
Thelast book that wowed me was probably Ripe by Sarah Rose Etter. I’m stillthinking about that book, and it did so many interesting things stylistically.For film, I really loved Everything Everywhere All At Once.
20 -What are you currently working on?
Ijust finished a good draft of my second novel, Experiencer. I also havea story about my obsession with beads gathering in fragments and thoughts. I’malways working on way too many projects until I focus, so I also have anon-fiction manuscript about my abdomen; a long poem about the month of July;and a weird book of stories coming into existence slowly.
