Five Craft Questions with Meghan Riordan Jarvis, Presented by Moleskine
Writers + journals: Name a better combination. Zibby Books has teamed up with iconic stationery and accessory brand Moleskine to produce exclusive interviews with our authors. Here, Meghan Riordan Jarvis—author of the debut memoir End of the Hour—discusses her creative process, the importance of capturing emotions in the moment, and more.
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How do you begin writing projects?
I write most mornings for at least 15 minutes. I can tell pretty quickly if something is going to turn into a larger piece. Because I write memoir, fiction, clinical articles, and op-eds, I almost always have something spinning in my head. When my mind is really digging in on it, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with words that need to be written on paper.
Are there other parts of your writing process that you prefer to execute by putting pen to paper?
My husband and I walk the dog together in the evening. I will often talk out what I am working on or thinking about. His questions, and sometimes his silence, honestly, help me get clarity what I'm trying to say and need to get down on paper.
Can you speak to the importance of capturing moods, feelings, and ideas on the fly?
I have learned the hard way that emotional clarity in writing, much like laughter over something funny, cannot be saved for later. Things change when you are trying to write from the memory of the feeling or thought rather than the moment itself. Carry a pen and paper. Write it immediately or it is lost.
Where’s the most unlikely or unusual place you’ve written something memorable?
I started my memoir during Covid when my family and I were traveling across the country in our SUV with just backpacks. I've written at a picnic table at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, the Algarve in Portugal, in a diner in Anchorage, Alaska—all over!
When or where do you feel your most creative? Do you have any tips on re-igniting creativity when you’re feeling stuck?
I’m an early bird and write best in my living room chair at 5:00 a.m. There is something about that liminal early hour that gives me access to my creative mind in a different way. This is going to seem untrue, but I've never really been stuck. I haven’t been writing that long, and I feel like I still have so much to say!
My challenge is that sometimes I don't have the energy. It makes me think of a friend of mine who had a Jeep and on sunny days we would go through what felt like a lot of effort to switch out the cover and doors to ride around in the sun. Writing can feel like that sometimes—a lot of preparatory movements to write 1,500 words. But in the end, it’s always worth the ride.
Meghan Riordan Jarvis is a podcast host (Grief Is My Side Hustle), two-time TEDx Speaker, and psychotherapist specializing in trauma, grief, and loss. After experiencing PTSD following the deaths of both of her parents, Jarvis founded Talking Point Partners to help employers address complex emotions such as grief in the workplace. Jarvis is currently at work on Can Anyone Tell Me Why: 25 Essential Questions About Grief and Loss, which publishes with Sounds True Media in 2024. Originally from New England, Jarvis currently lives in Maryland with her husband and their three children, where competing piles of LEGO bricks and books cover most surfaces of their house. End of the Hour is her debut memoir.
