One Sentence Is Enough: Writing, Grief, and Telling the Truth Safely with Erica Richmond

In this episode, Toni sits down with Erica Richmond, author, speaker, and writing coach, for a powerful conversation about storytelling, grief, and writing from a place of safety.

Erica is the founder of Open Sky Stories, the author of the Pixie Children’s Series, and the creator behind the forthcoming creative nonfiction manuscript Yelling at Dead People—a deeply honest collection of essays on grief, parenting, and survival after loss.

Together, Toni and Erica explore how writing can be a tool for healing without re-traumatization, why small and imperfect stories matter, and how to create healthy boundaries around what we share, what we protect, and what we keep just for ourselves.

This episode is a permission slip for anyone who’s ever said, “I want to write, but I don’t know where to start.”

What You’ll Hear in This Episode

• Why writing doesn’t have to be “brave” to be meaningful
• How to begin writing gently—one sentence at a time
• The difference between hard writing and harmful writing
• Why unfinished, imperfect stories often carry the most power
• How to decide what stories are meant to be shared—and which are not
• Writing through grief without reliving trauma
• How Erica’s work on Yelling at Dead People reshaped her understanding of grief, parenting, and survival
• The truth about grief: it’s not linear, tidy, or predictable—and that’s normal

Key Takeaway

Your words matter. Your stories matter. And they deserve to exist—if nowhere else, then on a piece of paper.

You don’t need a plan. You don’t need a book deal. You don’t even need three pages.
 Start with one sentence and let it lead you where it wants to go.

Erica Richmond is an author, speaker, and writing coach who helps people tell their stories from a place of safety. She is known for writing what she calls “brave stories”—honest, vulnerable narratives that invite healing, connection, and self-understanding.

Her upcoming manuscript, Yelling at Dead People, draws from more than a decade of writing through grief after the loss of her children’s father, offering readers a deeply relatable and compassionate look at mourning, parenting, and resilience.

Connect with Erica

• Website
  
  
• Instagram & Social Media
• Free Resource: Sign up for Erica’s newsletter to receive a Writing From a Place of Safety activity
• Programs:
  • The Courage to Write (on-demand webinar)
  • One-to-one mentorships and group writing support

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Transcript

Opening And Purpose Questions

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Is there a major life transition pinching you? I know you may be asking, what's next? What's my purpose? What if? Because I've asked those two. Welcome to the Start Your Comeback Podcast. I'm Tony Thrash, a certified life coach, and I want to share the tools and practical steps to help you create a winning game plan to move into your new adventure. You're listening to episode 122. Over the last couple of years, while doing this podcast, you hear me talk about journaling. I encourage you to journal your thoughts, your feelings, because it's a way to process any emotions or feelings you might have. Well, today I'm so excited to have Erica Richman on the show to talk about that specific thing. Erica is an author, a speaker, and a writing coach who helps people tell their stories from a place of safety. She's the author of several books, including the Pixie Children's Series, and is currently working on a creative nonfiction manuscript titled Yelling at Dead People, with excerpts forthcoming and one piece shortlisted for a literary prize. Through her work, Erica helps writers and readers use storytelling as a tool for healing, connection, and self-understanding. Erica, thank you so much for being here today. I'm so grateful for your time to do this. So would you mind just giving my listeners a little bit of background about who you are, kind of what you do, and then we'll jump in.

Erica’s Background And Brave Stories

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Yeah, absolutely. Uh thanks for having me here, Tony. Uh and a little bit about me. So my name is Erica Richmond, and um I am the founder of a business called Open Sky Stories. Um, and I'm an author, a writing coach, and a public speaker. And I've recently been um described as a writer of brave stories, and I love that. I think I'm gonna put it on my business card. It is such an um incredible honor to be called that. Um, because I do tend to write uh things I write tend to be quite vulnerable. Um and I I think of them that way. I don't often think that I'm very brave for writing them, but so it's very nice when I get that kind of feedback.

SPEAKER_02 2:57

Absolutely. Well, obviously I'm a writer as well, and so writing, I sometimes, well, I don't feel, I know that it does some healing work in all of us, regardless of what we've walked through. And so if someone were listening today, and by the way, I preach this all the time, like I I recommend people start to journal and all this, and they just go, ha, I'm not doing that. But so, but if someone were listening today, and you because you're a writing coach and you write these brave stories, if they wanted to rediscover writing, say in a gentler, softer way, where do you suggest they begin?

SPEAKER_01 3:40

I think that um the best way to begin is in little steps. Um and it, you know, if you're whether you're journaling, whether you're writing memoir, whether you're writing a uh fiction novel, um, you don't have to tell the whole story all at once. You can do it in pieces and small little pieces at a time. Um, particularly if it feels very vulnerable and hard and scary. Um consider just writing something very small but consistent. Um, and that's gonna be where the practice comes in. Um, because it writing is a practice, such as like anything else. Um, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you get with it. Um and again, when you're talking about healing, of course, the more you um the more you do it, you're the more you're going to heal from it as well.

SPEAKER_02 4:30

Do we start by writing like, I mean, three or four pages? Do we start with, you know, three or four sentences? Like what how would you tell someone to just I mean, for me, I would just say start, but like, so what would you tell someone?

Morning Pages And Realistic Routines

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Yeah, good question. So um I have followed Julia Cameron's uh morning pages uh routine from the artist way. And Julia Cameron talks about writing three full pages by hand every single morning, the first thing. And that I think it's a terrific uh model, and I have followed it. I've also fallen asleep on top of my notebook as I tried to do it before I had my coffee. Um I also so for me, I I get it. I think that is a I think it's an incredible program and I think it works really well. However, writing three full pages every morning before you do anything else can be a block for a lot of folks. Um, and they feel that they don't, they just don't have the time. And um mornings are hectic and hard. And if I had started it when I was, so I'm a single parent, if I'd started it when I was a single parent of like a two and four year old, I probably would have had a very different uh different challenges, right? Like I did it when my children were older. Um, so they didn't really need me in the mornings like that. Um, so I get it. And I so I think you have to trust that you're gonna start with what works for you. Um, if you can do, you know, if you wake up and you write journal three pages every morning, that's fantastic. But if you can wake up and you journal one sentence, that is okay. Um, it doesn't have to be huge to make an impact.

Why Imperfect Stories Matter

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Right. And it's just a start. Like that's what we want is we you just want to start. And and one sentence, if that's a start, then write that one sentence. I love that. Thank you. Why why do stories, especially the small, unfinished or the imperfect ones matter so much in our personal and collective lives?

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Um, there's a quote and I I meant to look it up. It is called We Are All Stories in Stardust. And I think that we that right, like we just we're that's how we're makeup is. We're made up of stories and stardust. And um, whether you choose to keep your stories to yourself or share them, you are still um just filled with stories. And I think that um the best stories are the imperfect ones, the ones that come out in rough edges, um, that haven't been polished, um, that are um little snippets uh uh of something that you might want to say of a bro of a bigger situation. Um, those to me are the most powerful stories that we could share and that we could write down rather than a really polished um, you know, 12-chapter uh novel uh memoir. I I think it's these small ones that are really the most impactful for ourselves, but also for um people, readers.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Yeah, and I think that the willingness to just be vulnerable and to share that, because you never know the impact that your story is gonna have on someone else. Absolutely. Every story matters. Every, every person's story from start to finish or the in-between, it matters. And someone hears that and then thinks, oh my gosh, I'm not alone.

Boundaries, Safety, And Privacy

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, I and I think so. For me, um, I, you know, since I've been sharing my stories broadly, I I get people all the time, particularly it tends to be particularly women, um, just based because of the nature of the stories I tend to tell, um, will often come up and be like, Thank you. Like, thank you for sharing that. Thank you for letting me know that I'm not alone. And then through through my story, I mean, they're they're hearing my story, but they're hearing it based on their own situation. So um, and I've heard it, I've heard it said before that once you, once you've told your story, once you've shared your story, it no longer belongs to you. It belongs to the person reading it. Um, which is so true because they're going to interpret my words based on their own experience in life. Um, and I think that's also one of the most beautiful things about stories is that um the way that we can find um these pieces of connection um with each other just um by sharing a small slice of our story. I love that so much.

SPEAKER_02 8:58

Well, as a writing coach, you often talk about the boundaries in storytelling. So, how do writers decide what to share, what to protect, and what just to leave tucked away safe and unwritten?

Healing Without Re‑Traumatizing

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Oh, it that's a hard one. And it's so, as we said, the right writing is vulnerable, um, independent. Like if we're journaling, it's like we share a lot of things that we might never say to anyone um in the light of day. We would write it down in our journal. Um, right. And so sometimes I I've had people um, as soon as they finish writing, like journaling, that to just destroy the paper immediately. Um, because that's the only way they feel safe enough to write it down. They write it down and then destroy it, whether it's deleting the file, ripping up the piece of paper. I love to burn it. Um there's something super uh cathartic about burning things um that you don't want anymore. Um yeah. So I save them all up uh because we, you know, are surrounded by heaps and heaps of snow right now. So it'll have to be once the weather gets nicer to have a bonfire. But um yeah, we can um I think that's a great way. Um people are really typically writers that I speak to are really afraid of hurting people's feelings um and saying something that they shouldn't. Um, and that stops them from writing it in the first place. Where I my my suggestion is um the only audience that matters is you. Um and so write it down for yourself and don't worry about who might read it, because you never have to share it with anyone. Um you can then decide what what goes out and what doesn't. Um I have a series of children's books that are based on my own life, basically um memoirs in in fairy tale form. Um and I wrote the first story two years um before I published the second story. And the first story remained buried in my closet because I wasn't, I wasn't ready to share it yet. Um it's you know, I just wasn't ready. Um so the second one came out and it was out for two years before I then published the original story that I wrote first. Um so there's no time limit to this. You can write it, you can, again, mine was at the bottom of my closet um in a notebook. Um, and I've I decided to like dust it off and rework it, and it worked at that time. But um, I had to really trust that I would know when it was time that I could share it um with other people because I I had to be ready for any reaction that I might get. Um and just um, you know, again, if it it doesn't matter if you're if it's very personal, sometimes we're writing about other people in our lives. Um, and there is a consequence to that. Um, absolutely. So I think a lot of it is trusting yourself. But the main thing is just getting it done because the story, um, you you really your your most important audience.

Yelling At Dead People: Grief And Parenting

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Yeah, that's good. That that that's really good. Because I I know for me, sometimes I I when I write and I I tell parts of my story, there are parts I don't ever tell. The people closest to me know, but I don't tell those parts because, you know, it's it's not so much that it would upset me to share, but I have children. Yeah. And I don't want to, you know, upset them. I don't want to put them in a in a place that makes them uncomfortable. And and sometimes they get on this kick, go for it, mom, write it, put it out there, and then I'm like, yeah, but that still doesn't feel it did, it doesn't feel safe for me to put that out there for you. So I I appreciate you, you know, saying those boundaries and and all that. That's a that's a great way to look at it. Okay, so how can writing be healing without asking people to relive or re-traumatize themselves? Because let me tell you, this one is a hard one.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

It is. Um, so I um, you know, I've I've been in counseling. I think when I started a lot of my heaviest writing, I was in counseling at the time. And so I think that was a huge thing that I was able to be writing at the same time as being very well supported um in terms of my mental health. Again, sharing, writing small things. Um, and sometimes even just uh focusing on really the the happy moments. Um, because in every dark situation, there's glimmers of light that we can see. And so maybe if I'm writing about a time in my life that was really hard, I can just take a second to be like, you know what though, what was really good? Like what was fun? What music was I listening to? Uh, where did I used to go dancing, you know, at that time when I was young and out dancing and not in bed at eight o'clock at night? Um, like what was really so I can focus on some of that too, which is really um, which can be really helpful. And again, it's really listening to yourself. Where, like, is it starting to feel hard? And I and it doesn't mean that we can't work through some hard things, but is it feeling, I guess, painful? Right? Um, and and if so, just stop. Give yourself permission. You can stop anytime.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Yeah, that's good. Like giving yourself the permission, slip to to stop or continue, depending on because I feel like what pain and hard are two different things. Like if it's too painful, it's probably not a great idea. But hard, like you said, we can work through it. Yeah. Okay. I can't wait to ask you this question because I think this is the greatest title of a book I have ever heard. And I cannot wait to buy it. So I don't know how long it's going to take you to write it, but the title is mesmerizing, let me just say. So here we go. How has your work on yelling at dead people shaped the way you think about grief, parenting, and telling complicated personal stories?

Honesty, Humor, And Nonlinear Grief

One Takeaway And Where To Find Erica

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Yeah, yelling at dead people. Uh it is a work in progress. I finished the first draft at the end of last year, uh, which was my goal. So quite happy. I mean, uh, you know, it sounds like I could, you know, it is a huge thing, but I've been writing it for 11 years. So if anyone out there is, you know, thinking that I'm gonna help them publish a book in six months, but that may not be that that's not where my forte is. Um but yelling at dead people is a collection of essays, and it's um it's it's all about grief. And it starts with um talking about the grief of my children losing their dad to suicide when they were seven and ten years old, 11 years ago. Uh so sorry. Thank you. So that was, you know, and we had been separated for six years, but still co-parenting. Um, and the kids still saw the hymn um weekly. And so raising small children who were faced with that enormous grief while trying to figure out my own complicated grief in the process um really um was challenging. And so I, you know, because I I write as a way of processing everything in my life, um, I was writing a lot at that time and sharing some of it. Um and just collecting these little stories. And so for the last 11 years, I've this collection of stories, and then starting probably about a year and a half ago, I decided to really give it a good go and put it into put them all into a book form. And so it was a matter of refining them, revisiting. Um, and it's been it's been interesting to look back. You know, I just finished revising a piece just um this week, and it was about the first six days of the moment I found out that he died and six days following. Um, and so to really go back into that, talk about re-traumatizing, right? Um right, like that, and I was like, but at the same time, I look back and I'm like, holy, I was like, look how strong I was. Like I didn't even realize it. I felt like I was falling apart. Um, and I write about strong, right? Yeah. I was I felt like you know, and I write about really silly things that I did, and and you know, like talking to inanimate objects and like um trying to figure things out. And so I'm honest about all of that in the in the writing. But at the same time, we made it, like we made it through. Um, and so I think that's a lot of where where this book is at is that grief is not a straight line. Um it is not this one one size fits all type of thing. Um, and and the more that I I you know share bits of my writing and bits of my stories with people, the more people are like, this is perfect. Like this describes my grief about my dad, or this describes my grief about um, you know, a best friend that I had. Or, you know, like so I think it's gonna be a really relatable book, um, even though it's about my own specific um moments um and writ in raising the kids, my kids, and you know, and and and just in talking about, I know you mentioned wanting to protect your kids through some of the writing, I get that. Um, so I've been looking, you know, as I'm writing this, very mindful that I'm writing about my own um experiences and I'm not writing about their experiences. Um, that's right. Like I I I can assume what they might have been thinking, but I don't know. Um, they probably don't even necessarily remember anymore either. But, you know, so it's all around it might be things that I've actually that I witnessed in them, um, but it's on how that affected me as their mom, as a person, as a right.

SPEAKER_02 19:28

So yeah, which can be that's a great yeah, it can be that's a great thanks. Yeah, I appreciate you saying that because you know, I I mean, just writing just writing going back to writing your story, regardless of who you are or how you're writing it, it it it doesn't matter, but we know typically there's gonna be some sort of grief associated with that story somewhere along the way because we're not immune to grief. Grief is going to find us and it comes in unannounced uh a lot of times, especially years later. Like, you know, you come across a piece that you are wanting to rewrite or whatever, or uh the date or uh the birthday or whatever, and this whole semblance of grief pops its ugly head into your life again, going, Okay, what are you gonna do now? And you you have to deal with it because it just it it's demanding you to deal with it, basically. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:36

Yeah, it's absolutely the only way through grief is through through it. Um Yeah, you you can't yes, yeah, right. And and so again, like raising small kids through it was like we we had to sit in the middle of really messy, messy stuff for a long time um in order to get to the other side um of that. And so um, and and some of the messiness is was hilarious. Um when you look back and you're like, oh my gosh, I we did that, but it was um, but it worked, right? I think because you have to just let things happen.

SPEAKER_02 21:13

Um do. And there's no rhyme or reason, and it doesn't matter really what anyone else is thinking about it because you're doing what is good for you and your kids or good for you and your husband or whoever you know it may be. You're doing the things that, yeah, it looks crazy maybe on the outside, but I'm just telling you, this is how we're dealing with it. And it's okay.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Absolutely. And I think so. The idea that I'm writing all these crazy things down um is gonna be really um interesting because I, you know, I already will have shared with some people and they're like, I get like, I get it. I might not have done it exactly the way you did, but I understand 100% why that happened.

SPEAKER_02 21:55

I I can't tell you, I I'm gonna hit you up when it comes out, and we're gonna have a whole conversation again on that book because I'm just telling you I I haven't heard the I haven't heard a title like that in a long time and I'm just captivated by it. I think it's brilliant. So um okay so last question and it's really not it well it is a question. So before we before we finish I want you to give the listeners one thing that they can take away from this conversation today that would propel them to start that writing process whatever that looks like just the one thing. Maybe it's to go buy a pen. I don't know whatever it is. And then when you finish I would love for you just to tell the listeners where they can find you on social media, your website, all those things. And then I'll make sure all that's in the show notes.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Fantastic. Yeah so the the the main thing I want to share with or listeners right now is that your words matter. Your words matter your stories matter they are incredibly valuable to others, but mostly to yourself. So so you they deserve to exist somewhere um start small write one sentence see where it takes you um and just trust that they really do deserve to be out there in the world. And again when I say out in the world I just mean um on a piece of paper. I don't necessarily mean publish um that is that's that does not have to be your your end goal for this.

unknown 23:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

So if anyone does it was looking for some support with that I do offer one-to-one mentorships and and groups. I have a program called The Courage to Write which is an on-demand webinar that folks can sign up for and it's really going to be helpful for anyone who's a little bit cautious and nervous about starting and battling inner critics around writing and creating. You can find it all at my website openskystories.com if you sign up for my newsletter which is at the bottom of my site you can get an um immediate writing from a place of safety activity and I am on uh social media at open sky stories oh my gosh I just appreciate you doing this so much it's just been such a pleasure to get to spend a little bit of time with you and get to know you and I I really do hope that this is uh one of many conversations over the next few years that we'll get to have together.

Host Closing And Journal Prompt

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Me too well thanks again and um have a great rest of your day. I'm so grateful for Erica being on the show today. And let me tell you why because I love to journal and because that's the way that I process things and obviously she does as well but I want you to hear me say just start like she said just start one line today and see where it takes you. I appreciate you being here today and I'll see you next time. Hey thanks for listening I don't take it for granted that you're here. You didn't listen by mistake. If you want to reach out you can DM me on Instagram at Tony Thrash. Until next week remember there's still time left on the clock let's get you off the bench to start your comeback. I want to give a special shout out to Country Club for the original music. You can find them on Instagram at Country Club