Leigh C. Mitchell
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In my last post, I shared three shows and books that have been feeding the atmosphere of my current novel — stories that echo the emotional terrain, the tension, the quiet unraveling, and the rebuilding my main character is walking through. But the truth is, what I watch and read doesn’t just inspire my writing.…
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I just finished Kennedy Ryan’s Before I Let Go, which digs into postpartum depression after stillbirth. It landed next to my pages in I Feel Numb — my main character’s miscarriage and what follows — and reading it felt like someone else was bravely naming the quiet, painful pieces I’m trying to hold on the…
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Before I ever thought about writing a book, before I understood story structure or character arcs or themes, I knew poetry. Poetry was my first language — the place where my emotions learned how to speak. Long before I had the courage to tell my story out loud, poetry gave me a way to whisper…
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One thing I know for sure: I will never limit myself to one lane as a writer. Yes, I write emotionally charged stories rooted in identity, healing, and becoming — but that’s not the only world my imagination lives in. Not even close. I grew up loving the mystical, the magical, the spiritual, the unexplained.…
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People ask me sometimes if all my books will be as emotionally charged as the one I’m writing now. And the answer is simple: No — but they will always be real. I’m not interested in writing stories that float on the surface. I’m drawn to the layers — the identity shifts, the quiet battles,…
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People often ask why my book opens with a woman walking away from the life she thought she would have. Why I chose to begin with a departure instead of a beginning. Why I started with heartbreak instead of hope. The truth is simple:Her story, although vastly different from mine, was born from a place…
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My first book opens with a woman standing at the edge of a life she no longer recognizes. Pregnant. Exhausted. Heartbroken. And carrying the weight of a future she never imagined she’d have to face alone. She leaves the life she thought she would build with her husband — the life she planned, prayed for,…
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As I write my first book, I’m learning that the characters who show up on the page are not random. They are echoes of the women I’ve known, the women I’ve been, and the women whose stories deserve to be held with tenderness and truth. They come to me layered, complicated, resilient, flawed, soft, and…
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As I write my first book, I keep thinking about the people who will one day hold it in their hands. Not in a broad, abstract way — but in a deeply personal one. I think about the readers who will find themselves in my stories, the ones who will feel seen in ways they…
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There wasn’t one dramatic moment — no lightning bolt, no perfect morning, no sudden burst of clarity. It was quieter than that. Softer. It came to me the way truth often does: slowly at first, then all at once. For years, the idea of writing a book lived in the back of my mind like…
Leigh C. Mitchell 