We all have these feelings inside us—anxiety, fear, trepidation, hope, desire—and our every effort becomes getting these things out. Writing that letter to you and publishing it was how I felt connected and compassionate.
Two and a half years ago, Rumpus Funny Women editor Elissa Bassist wrote a letter seeking advice from our Sugar. In response, Sugar told her to write “not like a girl. Not like a boy. Write like a motherfucker.”
Recently, Bassist and Cheryl Strayed reconvened at Creative Nonfiction to discuss advice giving, the emotional entrapments of writing, and “heartbreak torture machines.”
