Archive • Sarah Writes Too • Buttondown

Telling Myself Stories

Telling Myself Stories Right now I’m reading We Tell Ourselves Stories: Joan Didion and the American Dream Machine by Alissa Wilkinson. It’s as much about...

There Is Only Now

February 28, 2025

There Is Only Now Not to be an alarmist, but the other day I wrote a poem. This is not normal behavior for me. In fact, if I can be honest, I’ve written a...

Challenge Accepted

January 31, 2025

Challenge Accepted In my December newsletter, I mentioned my New Year’s theme for 2025 would be to be more discerning. To be honest, I wasn’t even entirely...

December 19, 2024

Home Stretch This will be my last newsletter of 2024, so as usual, I’m feeling introspective about the year that’s been and hopeful about the year to come....

How to Part Clouds

October 30, 2024

How to Part Clouds I don’t know about you, but it’s been hard to focus lately. Anxiety is coming at me at multiple angles these days, and I won’t pretend a...

September 17, 2024

Pull Shapes During the pandemic, my boyfriend and I bought an exercise bike. It was more for mental health than physical health at the time, but seeing my...

What’s Next A couple weeks ago, I saw a headline for a NYT op-ed that felt directed at me. It felt so targeted, in fact, that I did not click on it, at least...

Buzz Two years ago, I wrote about how much I dislike summer and how, despite my grumpiness by August, I repeat the cycle of anticipation and excitement every...

April, Come She Will

April, Come She Will April has been a strange month. I had a whole other essay nearly ready to send, but as I was putting my final edits on it I realized it...

Adulting Toward Bethlehem

Adulting Toward Bethlehem Yesterday I saw an article about Millennials who were born in 1990 feeling ready, finally, at 34, to buy their own home and “be an...

Not a Pretty Girl (reprise)

February 23, 2024

Not a Pretty Girl (reprise) This month I got to see Ani DiFranco perform in Hadestown on Broadway, and if you're in New York or will be soon, I highly...

January 26, 2024

So It Goes About a year ago I started writing short stories. I’d dabbled in short stories before, but last year is when an actual collection started to take...

November 16, 2023

Comedy Nerd When I was little, I was convinced I’d grow up and marry a stand-up comedian. Not any one comedian in particular. Just a comedian. (Well, not a...

Hello To All This

September 26, 2023

Hello To All This When I was in grad school, my advisor gave me a piece of advice that I don’t think she intended to stay with me for as long as it has. Like...

Arrivals and Departures

August 13, 2023

Arrivals and Departures Seventeen years ago, this month, I moved into my first apartment in New York City. August is a pretty common month to move somewhere...

The Life-Changing Magic of Digital Decluttering

The Life-Changing Magic of Digital Decluttering In April, I sent out a letter called “How To Disappear,” which was about my changing relationship with the...

My Brilliant Friends

My Brilliant Friends When I was younger, I was skeptical of the friendships I saw portrayed on TV. Very few felt similar to my own. Even as a child, I knew...

How To Disappear

How to Disappear I’m trying to be online less. It’s not going well. The way Millennials and Gen Xers talk about the internet is like hearing Baby Boomers...

To The Nines I’m turning thirty-nine in two weeks and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I’ve never been a fan of the nines, age-wise. No one who is nineteen,...

February 27, 2023

Splits One of my first attempts at writing YA fiction was a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age novel that was, and remains, pretty terrible. It was one of...

January 23, 2023

Resolution We’re a few weeks into January. How are you doing on your resolutions? If asked, I say I never make any even though I do. I always have a few:...

A Skeptic’s Guide to Bad Movies, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love, Actually

December 21, 2022

A Skeptic’s Guide to Bad Movies, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love, Actually I blame the podcast, How Did This Get Made, really. How Did This Get...

The Scary Things

November 13, 2022

The Scary Things I’ve been a writer for about twenty years. Not counting the occasional story or poem I may have written as a child, I started writing in...

October 3, 2022

Liner Notes Every so often I’ll see a tweet that says something like “Super excited about my new couch! If teenage-me could see me now she'd be so...

The Summer(s) of My Discontent

September 5, 2022

The Summer(s) of My Discontent A few weeks ago a meme was going around of a Joan Didion quote from her 1967 essay, American Summer. It begins with the...

Naked In 9th grade, I bought the book, Naked, by David Sedaris. Maybe it was 10th grade, or that summer between grades. I was around fifteen, anyway. I was a...

So Much To Say Today on Instagram I got an ad for something called the DMB Gorge Shop. Rotating graphics blinked at me, alternating images of peace signs,...

Retrospectives Last week, my boyfriend tested positive for Covid and, despite waking up next to each other that morning and sitting across from each other...

No One is OK and Everyone is Fine

Sometimes I am lucky enough to catch myself from falling. This happened a few weeks ago when my boyfriend hugged me and I instantly started to cry. Like most...

For a Minute There, I Lost Myself

February 14, 2022

For a Minute There, I Lost Myself I recently gave myself permission to take a break. The concept of “recent,” of course, is relative now. In this case, I'm...