By Alex Miller

My girlfriend Elizabeth sleeps over in my dorm room. It’s late and she’s curled up in the sheets, while I sit at a small desk, finishing a story for my creative writing class. Elizabeth is a math major and extremely logical. She says creative writing has no practical value in the job market. She says the glow from my laptop is keeping her awake. As usual, I can find no flaw in her reasoning. I shut the laptop and slide into bed beside her. To maximize space in the twin bed, I slip my arm beneath her, and she rests her head on my shoulder. We’ve developed this technique to avoid either of us having to prop our backs against the cinderblock wall. Before we fade into sleep, Elizabeth admits she sometimes has ideas she would like to write about, but she doesn’t know how to turn them into stories. I chuckle. I tell her it’s something all writers struggle with. How does anyone transform the stupid details of life into a coherent narrative? Something with a point? Something that makes sense? Elizabeth says writing is hard. I agree with her, like I always do. But I have a secret. Something I’m not ready to share with her yet. My secret is that writing is easy. Especially now that Elizabeth is part of my life. Every time I put fingers to the keyboard, I’m just finding new words to say I love you.

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Alex Miller is the author of the novel White People on Vacation (Malarkey Books, 2022) and story collection How to Write an Emotionally Resonant Werewolf Novel (Unsolicited Press, 2019). His stories have been published in literary magazines including Flyway Journal, Bullshit Lit, and MoonPark Review. He lives in Denver.