I’m Jess, and I’m a writer (“Hi Jess,” responds a lethargic chorus.)
I wrote my first short story when I was in second grade. It was a blatant rip-off of a story from my older brother’s sixth grade reading book. My version was much better, or so I thought at the time. I puttered around with writing until I was a junior in High school, and became editor of the school paper. My motto could well have been, “All the news that might have happened if Nevis was a more interesting place.” Any actual reporting was produced by others.
Fast forward through college (where I majored in Music and Theater) and a decade of trying to find my place in the world through a series of wildly varied but uniformly unsatisfying jobs. On the bright side, I can fix anything in a house, I will never pay full price for a car again, and I know way more than anyone should about where turkeys come from. While none of these jobs became a career, they provided a lifetime’s worth of scenes, situations and characters.
In a moment of desperation, I joined the Army, which turned into the career I’d been searching for. I expect that I will be writing full time in about five more years, supplemented by my Army pension.
My three-point advice to writers: Read, write, and submit.
When you collect rejection slips, use every one to reaffirm your determination to get published. That first sale is an incredible rush — extremely addictive. I highly recommend it.
Here’s to “all the mad musicians” — and writers — “I hope somehow you sell to someone, sometime.”
–Jess Harris
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