WRITE LIKE CARRIE: The Ex files

How to turn breakups, situationships, and past loves into addictive personal essays.

You know the one.

The ex you still think about when a certain song comes on. The situationship that almost ruined you. The relationship you never fully wrote about…because you weren’t sure how.

What if those stories weren’t just emotional baggage…What if they were your best material?

Welcome to Write Like Carrie: The Ex Files. A live workshop where you’ll learn how to turn your romantic history into voicey, honest, chic-as-hell personal essays women can’t stop reading.

This is for the writer who:

  • Has loved deeply (and maybe unwisely)

  • Has at least one relationship she still replays in her head

  • Wants to write about her past without sounding bitter, cringey, or like she’s trauma-dumping

  • Knows her love life is basically a novel…she just doesn’t know how to shape it

In this workshop, we’re doing what Carrie always did: turn the men into material.

What We’ll Cover:

1. Choosing the Right “Ex Story”

Not every breakup is an essay. You’ll learn how to identify:

  • The relationship that changed you

  • The almost-love that still lingers

  • The situationship that taught you something brutal but useful

  • The emotional turning point worth writing about

You’ll leave with at least one clear, compelling story idea you’re excited to write.

2. Writing About Him Without Losing Yourself

We’re not here to:

  • Man-bash

  • Trauma-dump

  • Or write diary-style rants

You’ll learn how to:

  • Make you the main character

  • Turn emotional chaos into a clean, magnetic narrative

  • Find the insight, shift, or truth inside the relationship

Write about the past in a way that feels powerful—not pathetic

3. Turning Heartbreak Into Signature Content

Your love life isn’t just content. It’s your writing beat.

We’ll talk about:

  • How Carrie turned her relationships into columns

  • Using recurring themes in your love life as material

  • Writing essays that feel intimate, honest, and irresistible

  • Creating the kind of pieces women send to their friends at midnight

You’ll Walk Away With:

A clear idea for at least one “ex” essay

3–5 signature writing prompts

A simple structure for shaping relationship stories

A stronger, more confident narrative voice

Permission to write the stories you’ve been avoiding

This Experience Is For You If…

  • You want to write personal essays about love, dating, marriage, or heartbreak

  • You’re building a Substack, blog, or memoir

  • You have a complicated romantic past (who doesn’t?)

  • You’re tired of overthinking your writing

You want your stories to feel honest, stylish, and addictive

Workshop Details:

Live 90-minute workshop with Cara

Includes:

✔️ A live, voicey, no-BS teaching session with Cara

✔️ Real-time Q&A where you can bring your messiest love stories

✔️ 3–5 signature “Ex Files” prompts designed to unlock your best material

✔️ A simple, repeatable structure for turning heartbreak into hot copy

✔️ Full replay access so you can write at your own pace

This is a self-paced experience — watch, pause, rewind, and return whenever you need to

When: Sunday, March 8th at 11am ET

Join us live or catch the replay. Both the recording and workbook will be sent out right after the session.

Investment: $111

🥂 From Cara

I created this workshop because women are obsessed with writing that feels stylish, intimate, confessional, and real — but no one teaches how to do it.

This isn’t about copying Carrie. It’s about finding your version of her: your voice, your rhythm, your personal essence.

Let’s begin the year with a laptop, a voice, and a whole new identity.

See you on 1/11, babe.

Cara Alwill is a New York City–born–and–bred bestselling author, writing mentor, and founder of Pink Ink Press — a boutique publishing imprint devoted to bold, feminine, rebellious storytelling. With over 300,000 copies of her own books sold worldwide and translations in ten languages, Cara has built a career on helping women turn their stories into art.

Her work has been featured by Forbes, Oprah Daily, Cosmopolitan, and more, but she’s best known for her unmistakable voice — warm, confessional, stylish, and instantly recognizable. On Substack, Cara has cultivated a fiercely loyal readership who come for her honest essays, city-girl sparkle, and signature narrative rhythm.

Today, she teaches women to write with confidence, perspective, and emotional intelligence — the way a woman writes when she finally steps into her power.

Write Like Carrie is her invitation to every woman who’s ready to embrace her voice, tell her truth, and claim her main-character energy on the page.