"Unpacking" yourself in your writing

Illustration by Franz Lang

Kely Sarmiento wrote: "I'm writing about experiences I've lived through. It's hard because the problem is not writing, it's facing myself and putting myself out there, being vulnerable. I start writing, and it's like I open a Pandora's box. I can't seem to finish the frigging thing because I want to put everything in there. It's this "all or nothing" dynamic—I tiptoe around myself, work on the corners, the edges and all around. I don't go to the core of it all. I...