When we write about our own lives, many of us get stuck on the same worry: “Why would anyone care about my story?” Of course we want our work to be read, and we want it to matter, to connect deeply with readers. But the tricky paradox of writing personal stories is that our work has the greatest potential to speak to a broad range of readers when, against our impulses, we aim not to interest everyone; we must write as the very specific and idiosyncratic people we really are. Humans are endlessly weird and intriguing, each of us operating according to our own set of impulses, fears, and ruling passions. For a writer, those obsessions can power a whole life’s work.

If obsession isn’t a word that resonates, call it fascination, infatuation, preoccupation, hang-up – whatever you name them, the things that captivate you are a source of energy that is uniquely yours. They can guide and help you explore the questions that propel you in writing and in life.

Molly Wizenberg is a memoirist, essayist, and the author of The Fixed Stars, a Stonewall Honor Book and a finalist for the Washington Book Award in biography and memoir. Her memoirs A Homemade Life and Delancey were both New York Times bestsellers. Her work has appeared in The Guardian, The Washington Post, and Bon Appétit, where she was a columnist for three years. She also cohosts the weekly comedy-and-food podcast Spilled Milk, where, with co-host Matthew Amster-Burton, she’s been chewing on-mic since 2010. In other lifetimes, she wrote the James Beard Award-winning blog Orangette (2004-2019) and co-founded the Seattle restaurants Delancey and Essex. Today she writes the newsletter I’ve Got a Feeling and teaches writing workshops online and around the world.