I first met Julia Halprin Jackson in the spring of 2005 in Granada, Spain. We were both in college and enrolled in a study abroad program, and spent the next five months learning about this beautiful city and country, as explorers and writers. Julia has a very generous spirit, which I can see clearly in her writing (And she actually writes about Spain! Now I’m wondering why I never really did…). Though I haven’t seen her in many years, I’ve always felt a connection to her through our shared love of creative writing. We are so excited to have Julia as December’s featured Plume writer.
Plume: When did you know you were a writer?
Julia Halprin Jackson: I’ve loved writing ever since I could hold a pencil. I’ll always love Thursdays because in second grade, Mrs. Stroeve made them “creative writing” days. We would take turns writing stories on lined paper, illustrating them ourselves, stapling them and “binding” them with laminating paper. When the story was done, the writer would be invited to read his or her story to the whole class. I remember loving every part of the process—the freedom I felt knowing that I had a page to myself where I could make characters come to life, and the greater joy of knowing that I could share them with others.
I’m also incredibly lucky that my mother, Lyra Halprin, and her sister, April Halprin Wayland, are professional writers. This means that I’ve always had a steady stream of books and a healthy dialogue about reading, craft and process. I come from a family that values storytelling and the impact it can have on our world.
P: Where do you get your ideas?
JHJ: To write well, I believe you have to observe the world. Ideas don’t come to me so much as I am open to the stories that walk by, every day. It can be as simple as trying to guess someone’s name, occupation, or the meaning behind the expression on their face. I am also obsessed by place—how where we live, the places we inhabit, inform how we interact.
P: Where do you write?
JHJ: The answer I’d like to give: all the time, wherever, whenever. The honest truth: Sometimes I write in the margins of my notebooks on my lunch break. I write unsent emails to my characters all the time. More often than not, though, I write on a blue couch late at night, when everyone in our house is asleep and the air is full of possibility.
P: Do you have any writing rituals?
JHJ: I am an obsessive word-counter and rewriter. I love revision, perhaps too much. I write nonfiction daily for work, and many of the exercises I use to write profiles and narrative journalism have leaked over into fiction. Namely: summarizing key points and themes, isolating key quotes, and arranging an effective narrative arc.
P: How supportive is your local community for writers?
JHJ: I’ve been very lucky to find a community of writers in San Jose through Play On Words, a literary performing arts series that I helped found in 2013. My producing partner Melinda Marks and I curate shows a few times a year that pair emerging and established writers with professional actors for staged readings of their work. We’ve gotten to read the work of more than 50 writers, whose styles and approaches range and inform in many ways. Working with performing artists has also really shaped the way I approach my work because I have learned from their sense of drama and tension.
I also try to attend writing workshops and conferences to get more feedback on work in progress, absorb tips from experts, and meet fellow writers.
P: What are some of your self-care practices?
JHJ: I have often felt a pressure to finish my work on a scripted timeline, in a specific way, to please specific audiences. Over the years I’ve learned to accept that I do not write the same way that others do, and my story is on its own timeline. This was reinforced when I was pregnant with my daughter, and felt literal pressure to finish the manuscript I’m still working on before her birth. What I didn’t realize was that once I got pregnant, all I wanted to do was write to or about her. It was a special, meaningful time, and I’m glad that I gave myself permission to step away from fiction and write in a different way. I still write to her frequently, though I have eased my way back into the novel that won’t leave my brain.
Knowing that the story is there, that the characters are waiting, and that I’d rather do the story justice and give it the time and attention it needs—these are lessons that have taken time to absorb, but have helped me move forward.
Oh, and exercise and chocolate and hanging out with my two-year-old, who is full of stories, all day, every day. Those are my self-care practices.
P: What is your favorite book about writing?
JHJ: I’m currently reading Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel by Lisa Cron. While it’s not my favorite craft book, it has really helped me intellectualize some of the issues I’m facing in my work. When I taught writing, I found Alice LaPlante’s The Making of a Story to be incredibly helpful.
P: What are you currently working on?
JHJ: I’m at work on Foreigner, a novel-in-stories narrated by characters of different ages and nationalities whose lives intersect on the Spanish southern coast. On the airplane from England to Spain, Linda Jones reveals to her three children that they are moving and leaving their father behind. Kenny steals a digital camera from Youssef and photographs Diana without her consent, setting off a series of cultural miscommunications, some harmless, others of great consequence. The novel’s voices include Diana, a young American teacher; Kofi, a Ghanaian vendor who sells goods on the beach; the three Jones children and Geoffrey Jones, the father who journeys to Spain to try and win his family back. The story I have shared with Plume readers is an excerpt of this manuscript.
Julia Halprin Jackson‘s work has appeared in Oracle Fine Arts Review, West Branch Wired, California Northern, Fourteen Hills, and Flatmancrooked, as well as selected anthologies. A graduate of UC Davis’ masters in creative writing program, Julia is the co-founder and publicity director of Play On Words, San Jose’s collaborative literary arts series. She is a contributing writer to Washington Square, San Jose State University’s alumni magazine. To find out more, please visit her website.
If you’re not signed up already, we hope you’ll subscribe to get the December edition of Plume, featuring Julia’s work, as well as some special holiday goodies from The Land of Enchantment (a.k.a., our lovely state of New Mexico).