Trying to write in the aftermath of grief is harder than I ever imagined it would be. Good stories demand emotional resonance. Writing something worth reading requires tapping into the same well of memories and feelings where the grief resides, raw and ready to spill over.
Tag Archives: Anecdotes
Holding on to Happiness – Part Two
I’d like to say that I had some sort of epiphany that changed my life, but it wasn’t that specific. It was a gradual shift, a dawning awareness. . .
Holding on to Happiness – Part One
I turned back to see Dad, fallen, the waves pounding his back, pushing him over even as Mom struggled to pull him up. The next few minutes were a panicked blur of unrelenting surf that sent us staggering every time we thought we were gaining ground.
September 2023 Editing Update
As I sat in the delicious air-conditioning, reading through a draft I hadn’t opened in nearly two years, I was struck by something I had not been expecting: It was good. It was actually pretty darn good, and I was getting excited about the story again.
A General Feeling of Vague Writerly Dissatisfaction
Perhaps that is just what the increasingly heavy state of the world does to us. It seems an insurmountable challenge to be joyfully creative when there are much weightier issues to be concerned with.
When the Singing’s Done
Through the boredom in the quiet
He’d start to softly sing.
A boldly honest manual on the finer points of ice-fishing
You’re on the ice. On a lake. In a car. Imagine the ice cracking and the car sinking into the deep, dark, deathly cold water. Try to breathe. Stop imagining. Try to breathe.
Please Don’t Sign the Guestbook
The Airbnb was quaint and quirky and we blew in with the wind, strewing makeup bags and wine coolers across the place like our signature: four best friends, there to whoop it up.
A Nightmare Thankfully Unfulfilled
On a 20 hour bus ride through jungle and desert, the bathroom will be vile. But don’t let that stop you.
Aly Writes 