Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. I can’t wait to share my new novelette with you all soon 😊

Even after decades as a wordsmith, I’ve always been on the finishing side of storytelling. Now that I’m telling my own stories, the romantic idea I had about writing has been turned upside down. I’m seeing it all so differently from this side of the creative process 💡

Sometimes it’s not even a scene, but a feeling that frames a part of your story―not necessarily the very beginning, but maybe the very middle or right at the ending 🤯

Instead, scenes pop up out of nowhere. They ambush you while you’re listening to music, watching a movie, reading a book, talking with friends… 💭

Here it is: You don’t get to write an entire story in order! Not really. Not the way I once imagined—starting with “Chapter 1” and sailing straight through to “The End.” 🫣

In the meantime, feel free to read chapters 1-15 available on my Substack. I guess I'll go back to S1E1 of "The Handmaid's Tale" to occupy my mind... I can justify feeling anxious and tearing up about those fictional women. If I think about us, real women in the real world, I'll have a breakdown 😢

His father would have *loved* this picture... Wasn't that his brother's dream, to be a pilot? 🧐