Articles
The Danger of Writing a Character Who Is Too Much Like YouWriting often begins with material close at hand: a difficult conversation, a former love, an old embarrassment, or a private wish that refuses to disappear.…What my favorite earrings say about my writing processI have always believed accessories keep small records of a life. A favorite ring remembers a difficult season. A scarf carries the mood of a particular city.…The art of turning a fight into a chapterA fight rarely arrives in a tidy narrative. It interrupts dinner, stains an ordinary Tuesday with sharp words, and leaves behind a silence that feels larger…Why I Keep a List of Things I’d Never Tell Anyone (Except My Journal)There is a page in my journal that has no elegant title. It is simply a growing list of thoughts, memories, impulses, and private observations I cannot imagine…On the Pain of Editing a Love LetterA love letter begins as an act of surrender. The words arrive with their sleeves rolled up, carrying memories, private jokes, old wounds, and the small details…The Night I Wrote a Short Story Instead of Sleeping Next to YouAt 2:17 in the morning, your breathing had settled into its familiar rhythm. The room was dark except for the pale rectangle of my phone, and the space between…How to Dress for a Literary Event When You’re Feeling InvisibleThere is a particular kind of nerves that arrives before a literary event. You may have a ticket, a favorite author on the program, and a carefully chosen…What a Vintage Typewriter Taught Me About Love and PatienceThe typewriter arrived with a chipped green shell, a stubborn ribbon, and keys that sounded louder than my thoughts. It was hardly elegant when I first found…The best way to ruin a perfectly good relationship: write about itThere is a particular kind of danger in being a writer in love. A tender moment rarely remains only a tender moment. It becomes a sentence, then a paragraph,…On the silence between two people who used to talk for hoursThere is a particular kind of quiet that arrives after intimacy. It is different from the comfortable silence shared by people who feel secure together. This…