An Interview with Jessica Folk
You’ve created and participated in a large number of interesting and diverse works, but what was the strangest or most interesting part you played in creating something new?
One of the most interesting creative projects I’ve ever been a part of was the short film, “Five.” I wrote the script during my MFA program in screenwriting. I was paired with Kali Baker-Johnson, an African American student in my program who directed the film. The producer of the film was also African American, as was much of the production team and the entire lead cast. “Five” was a script I wrote based loosely on the experience of losing a friend of mine, and Kali asked me how I imagined the family in the story. I paused and asked him how he pictured them and he said that he always thought they were a black family, right from the first moment he read the script. We decided that we’d cast the film that way and adjust a few details in the story. It was the first time I had written lead characters in a story who are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). The film was later featured in Badami Productions’ African American Short Films Series, and putting that credit on my CV was definitely a strange moment for me as a white woman. I strive to write stories that are reflective of things I know. I don’t know what it’s like to be BIPOC, but I learned, via working with a team composed mostly of BIPOC individuals, that sometimes working outside of my comfort zone can be really valuable. It was a fantastic learning experience, and I have since written more characters of different races into my work.
How do you find the motivation and desire to branch out into different mediums of storytelling? Why are those new mediums compelling?
I have always been a “dabbler.” As a kid, I wrote a lot of fiction and poetry, but I soon learned that I really enjoyed nonfiction and screenwriting as well. I’ve always been a person who has a million ideas floating around in my head, and sometimes those stories call for different mediums of writing. I don’t like to feel pigeon-holed. Sure, my MFA is in screenwriting and I’ve definitely written a number of script projects over the years, but I have also published nonfiction and poetry since I graduated from that program. I’m also currently seeking representation for my first young adult fiction novel. I try not to limit myself. Call it creative ADD, call it a highly unusual means of procrastination, call it whatever you like — I enjoy various genres because not all of my ideas are screenplays. There are a variety of ways to tell any story, so I try to leave the medium up to the piece I’m writing. I wait and see how it wants to come to life. If anything, I think it would take more work for me to stick to one genre. For me, there’s freedom in branching out in this way.
What is a medium you have not explored yet but would like to?
True confession? I have written very limitedly in the playwriting genre. I have not produced any plays as of yet, but I am not opposed to doing so. In fact, I have an idea in the research stage that I’m considering moving forward in the next couple of years. I was a big theater kid growing up, but I never really tried to write a play. I came to playwriting because I was asked to teach it. A university I used to teach for part-time needed a full-time one-year instructor to teach playwriting courses. It was the first time I was offered the chance to teach full-time, and I figured that if the “powers that be” thought I could teach playwriting then I could probably figure out how to teach playwriting. It’s such a fantastic genre and I am far from mastering the ins and outs of playwriting — but learning about it, reading about the genre, and being a continual lover of live theater has served me well. It’s a genre I hope to continue to get to know better.
What do you return to when you struggle to pull together inspiration? What brings the desire to create back?
I am a champion procrastinator, like many writers. It’s not necessarily a lack of inspiration for me though. I have the ideas. The issue for me, personally, is that I refuse to act on them. I think it’s about some sort of deep-seated fear of failing. If I don’t write it down, then it can’t be bad. When I was working on the first draft of my novel manuscript, I had to set myself a firm daily word count. If I didn’t do that, I knew it wouldn’t get done. In fact, the piece I’m discussing with you all is one I’ve been avoiding working on. I think it has the potential to be something interesting, and that means I’m probably going to avoid writing it at all costs.
When I am truly lacking in inspiration though, I find that hearing from other writers/creators is really helpful to me. I get inspired by other people’s creativity. I have a romantic view of the art of writing, so seeing writers write is often enough to get those creative juices flowing.
How do you find the bravery and the confidence to face your own past experiences and write them down?
Gah, that’s a tough one. I have taken to nonfiction more and more as I’ve gotten older. I think there is something therapeutic about taking your experiences, good, bad, and ugly, and committing them to the page. Before I dove more fully into nonfiction, I found that my past experiences tended to pop up in my writing even when I didn’t intend for them to. My thesis script for my MFA degree was a historical fiction feature length screenplay about Rosie the Riveter. I sent it to my sister to read and she said, “You know this is about our parents’ divorce, right?” I had no idea. I had written what I thought was a story about a person who was nothing like me — who had lived a life long before I came along. I had no idea that I’d put my family’s history into the narrative — not in that way, at least. So it’s less about bravery for me and more about happy accidents.
When I do write about things intentionally, it’s about a need to write it down. The best things I’ve written were things that made me cry because seeing the words on the page hurt in some way. I suppose I try to put those things out into the world because there is a chance that someone else might resonate with what I’ve written. We all think our experiences — our traumas — are our own, but chances are that someone else has been through what you’ve been through and they just might like what you’ve written.
What do you tie your sense of identity to, and how does it impact or show in your writing?
I feel very strongly as a queer person and a feminist that those two things should appear in my writing whenever possible. I try to write stories about people who I would have liked to read about myself when I was younger. It’s really important for people, especially young people, to see themselves reflected in the characters in the books, films, and tv shows that they consume. So those aspects of my identity are really important to me in my writing. I tend to have a strong emphasis on family in my writing as well. My family is enormously important to me, and I see that come through in my characters, as well. The other thing I would say is that no one is perfect. People are messy. I’m messy, my characters are messy — and I hope my writing reflects just how complex we are.
What piece of advice do you have for your younger writing self?
Finish something! Please. Anything. I had a tendency, and still do sometimes, to start a project and never finish it. Sure, there are projects that will begin and fizzle out naturally, but sometimes I didn’t finish something because I got distracted by the next thing or I was too afraid to write it. Distraction and fear are bad reasons for not writing.
What is something you’re excited to show at In Process? Why is it exciting?
I’m excited to talk about my current project, a tv pilot script that I am still currently drafting. There is a deadline for a big screenwriting contest a few days after I come for In Process, so I really should quit procrastinating and write the darn thing. See? I still procrastinate, even now.
It’s a project that has held my attention for a while now. During grad school I asked myself how the story of Oedipus Rex might be modernized for the screen. At the time, I don’t think I thought about whether it would be a show or a film, but currently I’m writing it as a tv script. It will likely work best as a limited series. I really enjoy adapting public domain work. This is a great example of work we’ve seen various versions of, but not as often in contemporary settings, with contemporary characters, dealing with contemporary issues. I hope that’s what this script will be.
Sophia Maas is a third year MTSU student double majoring in English and Global Studies. She enjoys helping new writers find confidence in their work, creating her own stories, and marveling at the skills of experienced storytellers.
