AFTER/WORDS by Jessy Easton | Substack

On Writing the Hard Thing: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life

An Excerpt from Katherine Standefer's book Lightning Flowers, followed by a conversation on process

43 mins ago • Jessy Easton and Katherine E. Standefer

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

I Thought I Had to Do This Alone

What writing the hard thing in community taught me

Jan 26 • Jessy Easton

When You Stop Hovering Over Your Own Life

On the Holding Patterns That Shape Our Stories and Our Lives

Jan 20 • Jessy Easton

Meeting the Self Who Can Hold the Story You Need To Write

The inner shift required to step into the story that’s been waiting

Dec 13, 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

After five years of rejections, I’m publishing my memoir

Feb 13, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 2: The Settled

Mar 13, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Read My Memoir

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

Chapter 46: Visits from The Settled

The One Who Leaves—the desperation of leaning on strangers

Jan 15 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 45: Arrival

The One Who Leaves—A midnight drive to the ICU after my mother’s heart stopped

Jan 8 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 44: Wake Up

The One Who Leaves—the time when Mom died

Jan 1 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 43: Home

The One Who Leaves—the goodbye I’d rehearsed all my life, and searching for home

Dec 18, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Write the Hard Thing

On Writing the Hard Thing: My Journey to Uncover the Cost of Saving a Life

An Excerpt from Katherine Standefer's book Lightning Flowers, followed by a conversation on process

43 mins ago • Jessy Easton and Katherine E. Standefer

On Writing the Hard Thing: Religion Is an Ex I’m Still Trying to Leave Behind

An Essay by Michelle Dowd, followed by a conversation on process

Jan 28 • Jessy Easton and Michelle Dowd

I Thought I Had to Do This Alone

What writing the hard thing in community taught me

Jan 26 • Jessy Easton

When You Stop Hovering Over Your Own Life

On the Holding Patterns That Shape Our Stories and Our Lives

Jan 20 • Jessy Easton

Notes from After

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

Taking One Small Step Toward the Thing You Love. And Then Another

On November, thresholds, tides, and the soft rewiring of a month made of water

Dec 5, 2025 • Jessy Easton

How Loss and Leaving Make Room for Meaning

On October, Amsterdam, and the Act of Returning

Nov 10, 2025 • Jessy Easton

10-Min Writing Prompts

24:22

Write About Endings - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #19

Nov 11, 2025 • Jessy Easton

27:19

The Story of an Object - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt and gentle reset #18

Nov 10, 2025 • Jessy Easton

22:49

The Room Holds the Story: Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt + gentle reset #17

Nov 3, 2025 • Jessy Easton

26:35

What’s Missing From the Frame - Write the Hard Thing LIVE Replay

10-min guided prompt and gentle reset #16

Oct 24, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Recent posts

A Meth Lab Childhood (A Love Story)

From 100 rejections a Substack bestseller

Dec 9, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Table of contents for my memoir, The One Who Leaves, that's serialized right here on Substack

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

Nov 18, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Silence Was My First Survival Skill

I spent my life hiding where I came from. Here’s what happened when I stopped.

Jun 10, 2025 • Jessy Easton

The Shape of Memory

A story about meth, memory, and the moment I realized the life I came from wasn’t okay—published in The Rumpus

May 20, 2025 • Jessy Easton

What Growing Up in a Meth Lab Taught Me About Writing the Truth

Why writing the truth feels so damn hard—and why that’s not your fault.

Mar 25, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Terrified? Same. But I’m doing it anyway.

Meth labs, police raids, and breaking generational cycles—my memoir launches in just 3 days

Mar 3, 2025 • Jessy Easton

Chapter 50: The Doctor Called

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

Feb 12 • Jessy Easton

Offerings

The Fear-to-Flow Framework

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

A 4-week somatic writing cohort

Social

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.

Recommendations

Nourish Your Nature

Emily December

Writer-ish with Darien Gee

Darien Gee

Change of Heart

Jamie Cattanach

Open Secrets Magazine

Open Secrets Magazine

Writing in the Dark with Jeannine Ouellette

Jeannine Ouellette

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts