What a forgotten recipe taught me about loveI found the recipe behind a stack of takeout menus, folded in half and softened at the corners. It was written in my grandmother’s handwriting, though I could…On the pain of writing a character who deserves better than youThere is a particular ache in creating someone kinder, braver, or more emotionally honest than you have managed to be. The character begins as an invention,…Ending a chapter when the next page is unclearThere are moments when life refuses to provide a clean ending. A relationship changes shape without a final conversation. A job ends before the next…Why I Write About Strangers I’ll Never MeetI have always been interested in the lives unfolding just beyond my reach. A woman reading alone in a café, a man carrying flowers through a train station, a…The night I stayed up to write about a dream I had of youI woke before dawn with your name still moving through my mind like a line of poetry I had not finished. The room was dark, the sheets were cold on your side…What a mismatched sock taught me about imperfectionI noticed the sock while standing in the kitchen, one foot tucked beneath me and the other resting against the cold floor. One was black with tiny gray stars.…Dressing for a day of writing about heartbreakA day spent writing about heartbreak asks for a particular kind of wardrobe. You need clothes that let you sit with difficult memories, move between coffee…The art of describing a touch that lingersA touch can disappear in a second and remain in the body for years. A hand at the small of the back, fingers brushing while passing a glass, or a palm resting…Why I write about gardens when I’m feeling weeded outSome days, my mind feels like an overgrown garden. Thoughts tangle around one another, old disappointments push through the soil, and every small…The Beauty of a First Draft That’s a MessA first draft rarely arrives looking like literature. It comes in fragments, repetitions, false starts, dramatic declarations, abandoned scenes, and sentences…