Interview: Jenny Meyerhoff – A Positive Journey

I’m so excited to share an interview with author Jenny Meyerhoff about creating and maintaining resilience on the writer’s journey.  If you struggle with holding on to your resilience, or simply need an occasional ‘lift’, notice how deliberate Jenny’s choices are about how she stays creative and productive. Note, as well, how important is her comfort with the process of moving through emotions and experiences.

Jenny is the author of the young adult novel QUEEN OF SECRETS which the Horn Book called “a powerful story.” She is also the author of the humorous chapter book THIRD GRADE BABY. Jenny lives in Riverwoods, Illinois with her husband and three children.

THE IRREPRESSIBLE WRITER: What are the specific difficulties you have struggled (continue to struggle) with as part of your writing journey?

Well, first there is simply getting myself to start writing. This is often a daily challenge and I think my biggest challenge. It’s so easy to procrastinate to the point where there isn’t enough time left in the day to get any actual writing done. After that, the thing I have the most trouble with is when a book is released and all the turbulent emotions that go along with that. I find the process (which I’ve only gone through twice) makes me feel extremely raw and vulnerable.

As for the stuff in between, the point I get to with each manuscript where I believe it cannot be fixed, or that I’m not good enough to fix it…well for today at least I feel as though I’m at a point in my writing journey where I can understand and recognize that as a stage in the process even while I’m in it. (Although I’m not in it right now, so that answer might be different if you ask me a few months from now.)

TIW: How have you handled these difficulties? What helps? What doesn’t help?

The getting started with writing is one that I am always looking for new ways to handle. At the moment, working with a timer has been extremely helpful. I set the timer to the amount of time, push go and write without break until it goes off. I used to do an hour but lately have tried the Pomodoro Technique which advocates repeat sessions of 25 minutes with varying breaks between and I think that works really well for me. But ultimately I think it’s about fostering the habit of writing for me. When I get into a groove writing everyday it’s much easier to stay in the groove. When life gets in the way for more than a few days it’s very hard to get back into my writing zone.

Alas, I haven’t solved this problem for myself yet. The best I can do is not beat myself up about it and do the best I can.

Now for the challenges of a book release: I don’t think I’m quite as far along in dealing with this one. The whole process really throws me for a loop, the extremes of ego inflation and deflation are exhausting and completely useless, actually. Neither can help me grow as a writer. I try as best I can to keep distance between my self and my work but other than repeating that as a mantra and turning off Google alerts, I’m not sure I’ve figured out to much about how to deal with the sense of exposure it provokes in me. Hopefully I’ll get a lot more chances to grow and learn about it in the future.

TIW: What is the single most important part of your life (this could be a phrase, a person, a group) that helps you reinforce your resilience as a writer?

I don’t know if I can point to one single thing. What helps me get through is always different depending on the day, the thought, the issue. But one thing I’ve learned in recent years that I do think has been extremely valuable has to do with the nature of thoughts and feelings.

First, thoughts are just thoughts, not truths and that they can be examined and disputed. This might sounds obvious, but it wasn’t until recently that I learned if I had the thought “this writing is terrible” that I didn’t just have to believe it. I could respond to my own thought. “This is a first draft, I’m just exploring the story right now not writing perfect sentences.”

Second, feelings are transient. When I feel low about a review I know that I’m only going to feel that way for an hour or so and then I will feel better. This again might seem obvious, but I truly used to think that if I felt bad about something, I would feel that way forever. Knowing that I won’t makes it much easier to get through it.

TIW: How do you see (or not see) your own beliefs about and/or experience with resilience figuring into your characters or stories? Do you want to highlight aspects of resilience deliberately? or do you find that resilience is simply part of how our characters have to evolve in order to create strong stories?

I don’t know that I’ve ever thought about it in terms of my characters. After the fact I can certainly look at my stories and see that some characters have more resilience than others, or how lack of resilience caused problems in characters lives, but I think this is something that just comes about naturally. Stories are about big moments in character’s lives, changes and conflicts, so how resilient a character is has to come in to play, but I’d prefer to let this evolve organically rather than try to demonstrate or teach.

TIW: Thanks for sharing so much with us, Jenny. You validate so many important points – that feelings are transient; that not beating yourself up is always Step One; that negative self-talk is often not true, and can and should be challenged; and that maintaining resilience is a journey. Best of luck with QUEEN OF SECRETS and your future work!