AFTER/WORDS by Jessy Easton | Substack

The Way I Want to Love You, the Way I Want to Be Loved

A poem, a confession, and the misalignment of love

6 hrs ago • Jessy Easton

Shame Made Me a Liar

Somatic Craft Letter—On Shame, the Nervous System, and Writing the Stories We've Kept Secret

Apr 22 • Jessy Easton

Everything I Have Ever Loved and Been Unable to Keep

On March, false springs, the spider, the mother, and trusting the impulse to keep going

Apr 16 • Jessy Easton

A Somatic Writing Practice for Hard Memories

Somatic Craft Letter—Using Breath and the Alphabet Form to Hold Memory

Mar 16 • Jessy Easton

Table of contents for my memoir, The One Who Leaves

Meth labs, home invasions, the Manson cult, and the way love shapes and breaks us

Nov 18, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Most Popular

Prologue: The Storm at the Door

Mar 6, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 1: The Desert Was A State of Mind

Mar 11, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 3: Infinity Times the Universe

Mar 18, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 2: The Settled

Mar 13, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Read My Memoir

Chapter 54: Counting the Days

The One Who Leaves—the final chapter

Mar 12 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 53: Happy Birthday

The One Who Leaves—trying to believe this time was different

Mar 5 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 52: The Emergency Room

The One Who Leaves—flashing red lights are never a good sign

Feb 26 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 51: Thirty-Five Days

The One Who Leaves—the place between recovery and relapse

Feb 19 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 50: The Doctor Called

The One Who Leaves—How do you mourn someone who is still alive?

Feb 12 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 49: Highlander

The One Who Leaves—a fleeting moment of joy

Feb 5 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 48: Dwindling Hope

The One Who Leaves—trying to find my place in Mom's universe

Jan 30 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 47: Open Your Eyes

The One Who Leaves—Waiting for Mom to wake up from a coma

Jan 22 • Jessy Easton

Write the Hard Thing

The Way I Want to Love You, the Way I Want to Be Loved

A poem, a confession, and the misalignment of love

6 hrs ago • Jessy Easton

On Writing the Hard Thing: The Burning Light of Two Stars

An excerpt from Laura Davis' memoir The Burning Light of Two Stars, followed by a conversation on process

Apr 6 • Jessy Easton and Laura Davis

See To It: What Octavia Butler Taught Me About Devotion

The writing life doesn’t begin with belief. It creates it.

Mar 30 • Jessy Easton

On Writing the Hard Thing: The Facts of Your Body

An Essay by Ava Robinson, followed by a conversation on process

Mar 26 • Jessy Easton

Notes from After

Everything I Have Ever Loved and Been Unable to Keep

On March, false springs, the spider, the mother, and trusting the impulse to keep going

Apr 16 • Jessy Easton

The Things We Avoid Don’t Go Away

On February, letting go of what if, and grieving the life I imagined

Mar 10 • Jessy Easton

The Art of Living Inside the Question

On January, marriage, money, and the strange work of not blowing up your life

Feb 10 • Jessy Easton

A Year-End Reckoning in Ritual, Memory, and Desire

On December, the quiet choreography of living, and the work of turning grief into magic

Jan 11 • Jessy Easton

LIVE Writing Prompts

29:56

We Wrote About Lying - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #29

Apr 25 • Jessy Easton

29:56

The Things We Tended - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #28

Apr 21 • Jessy Easton

27:46

The Things We Left Unsaid - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #26

Mar 31 • Jessy Easton

25:23

Write About What You Buried - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #25

Mar 25 • Jessy Easton

Recent posts

We Wrote About Lying - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #29

Apr 25 • Jessy Easton

29:56

The Things We Tended - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #28

Apr 21 • Jessy Easton

29:56

On Writing the Hard Thing: The Burning Light of Two Stars

An excerpt from Laura Davis' memoir The Burning Light of Two Stars, followed by a conversation on process

Apr 6 • Jessy Easton and Laura Davis

The Things We Left Unsaid - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #26

Mar 31 • Jessy Easton

27:46

See To It: What Octavia Butler Taught Me About Devotion

The writing life doesn’t begin with belief. It creates it.

Mar 30 • Jessy Easton

On Writing the Hard Thing: The Facts of Your Body

An Essay by Ava Robinson, followed by a conversation on process

Mar 26 • Jessy Easton

Write About What You Buried - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #25

Mar 25 • Jessy Easton

25:23

Invitations

Somatic writing community where we write the hard thing from a place of nervous-system safety

The Fear-to-Flow Framework

A Grounded Approach Writing *With* Fear and Getting Your Truth on the Page

AFTER/WORDS by Jessy Easton

AFTER/WORDS by Jessy Easton

Writing through the wreckage and the reckoning—the time I grew up in a meth lab and other uncomfortable truths. And teaching the somatic writing practices that make it possible to stay with the hard story.

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