Author RJ Jacobs Discusses His Writing Process

RJ Jacobs is known for his ability to write compelling mystery books. In his most recent novel, This Is How We End Things, Jacobs tells the story of a group of college students who are studying the psychology of lying. One of the students is found dead, and the rest of the students find out that they are not all who they say they are. It is a psychological thriller filled with deception. 

Jacobs resides in Tennessee where he works privately as a psychologist. Jacobs enjoys reading many different books; he often shares what he is reading on his Instagram. One of his favorite authors is Sally Roony. Jacobs takes some inspiration from many things when it comes to naming his characters. “I’m the worst at it,” Jacobs said. He even admitted to using all Marvel character names in one of his novels to avoid coming up with his own.

 The writing process is incredibly fascinating: do they just sit down and write? Or do they write when inspiration strikes? Jacobs says that he prefers to block off time during the day to sit down and write. He says that he likes to do most of his writing in the evening after work. 

In college, Jacobs studied psychology, but he still enjoyed writing even back then. In an interview given to The Nashville Voyager (Life & Work with RJ Jacobs – NashvilleVoyager Magazine | Nashville’s Most Inspiring Stories) Jacobs mentioned he did some short story writing while in college. I asked him if he still has some of the stuff he did in college and if he has ever considered re-writing them and publishing them now that he has more experience. Without even a slight pause, Jacobs laughed and replied, “Sophia, they are awful.” He then went on to joke about how he was very young at the time of writing those stories and how “none of it made any sense.”