Why I write about my mother’s dressesSome memories arrive as photographs, voices, or familiar recipes. Mine often return as fabric. A pressed collar, a row of pearl buttons, or the soft lining of…The art of releasing a story that no longer worksEvery writer eventually meets a draft that once felt urgent but now seems strangely airless. The characters repeat themselves, the plot moves without meaning,…How a fictional villain can break your heartThere is a peculiar intimacy in creating a character who makes terrible choices. You invent their childhood, give them the wound they refuse to name, and place…The lipstick I wore when I read my first story aloudI remember the lipstick before I remember the audience. It was a deep berry shade, almost red but softened by a little brown, the kind of color that made my…What a cabin notebook taught me about being aloneI arrived at the cabin with an overnight bag, two sweaters, a grocery tote, and the slightly dramatic belief that solitude would reveal something important by…On the joy of writing a happy ending when you don’t believe in themI have always been suspicious of happy endings. They can feel too polished, too generous, too certain about a world that regularly leaves people with…The smallest details that make a relationship worth writing aboutSome relationships become memorable through grand gestures: a surprise trip, a dramatic reunion, a handwritten letter left on a doorstep. Yet the moments that…A Guide to Turning Your Ex’s Voicemail Into PoetryAn ex’s voicemail can feel like a small time capsule: a voice, a pause, a familiar phrase, and all the emotional weather surrounding them. Long after the…When Fiction Becomes More Real Than Your Own LifeThere are seasons when ordinary life feels strangely underwritten. The days arrive with their errands, messages, and familiar obligations, yet none of them…The one outfit that made me feel like a writerFor a long time, I thought looking like a writer required a certain kind of mystery. I imagined ink-stained fingers, oversized glasses, a desk covered in…