Articles
What a bad review taught me about bad relationshipsA bad review can arrive with the force of a slammed door. The words may occupy only a few lines, yet they linger through the next draft, the next outfit, and…The Best Way to Start a Story When You’re Out of WordsSometimes the blank page feels less like an invitation and more like a locked door. You may have a character, a memory, or one beautiful sentence waiting…A forgotten notebook can still tell a new storyA forgotten notebook is rarely empty in the creative sense. Even when its pages contain unfinished lists, abandoned scenes, or a single sentence written during…On the beauty of a failed chapter that led to a better oneSome stories begin with a clean premise and end exactly where the writer expected. Others arrive as tangled drafts, unfinished relationships, abandoned plans,…Why I wear my grandfather’s watch when I write about the pastWhen I sit down to write about the years before I understood them, I fasten my grandfather’s watch around my wrist. It is a small, mechanical thing with a…The Art of Writing a Love Poem That Isn’t About AnyoneA love poem does not require a beloved with a name, a face, or a place in your phone. Sometimes affection begins as an atmosphere: the hush after rain, the…How to Turn a Friendship Into a Story Without Ruining the FriendshipA close friend can give a writer everything fiction needs: familiar gestures, private jokes, complicated history, and the emotional tension of two people who…What my bookshelf says about my relationship historyI used to think a bookshelf was a record of taste: a tidy arrangement of novels, essays, poetry collections, and books I had promised myself I would finish.…The Manuscript I Keep Behind Closed DoorsThere is one story in my files that has never appeared on this blog, in a literary journal, or even in a private reading shared with friends. I wrote it years…The Joy of Discovering a New Word When You’re HeartbrokenHeartbreak makes ordinary language feel strangely insufficient. “Sad” is too small for the ache that arrives in the grocery aisle, the silence after midnight,…