In college, I tried to form my own major centered around aesthetics, analyzing the function of language, beauty, and the arts. It turns out that exists: neuroaesthetics.

In looking at what I'm most interested in, the scientific study of awe also explains my creative philosophies, drive, and hobbyist personality.

In my author identity, I'm a prose stylist—meaning I'm a line-level writer who thinks often in units of poetry: economy, evocation, rhythm, musicality. Readers and editors tend to define my creative work by its command of atmosphere and the senses, which fits.

My approach to my fiction bleeds into my other creative realms, and vice versa; my fiction wouldn't be as dimensional or cinematic without my studio art education, which made me obsessed with the technologies of thought, taste, inspiration, etc. When to switch formats, how to get fresh eyes, when to dissect the why behind a hook, when to stop. (Also, how to take critique without taking it personally.) My operational backgrounds—across drawing, photo, video, styling, events—mean I can engineer and analyze tone from any angle.

On the backend, I can explain when word frequency in copy numbs readers, or when to scale up and down in complexity for various audiences. I will bring up far too many scientific experiments. My journalism and fact-checking background makes me especially savvy at quickly researching, interviewing, surveying, editing, etc.

I’ve applied my insights on projects as expansive as my debut novel and as picky as a singular verb in a caption.
This quote sums it up pretty nicely, as I most accurately describe my writing as a process of distillation: