On Writing Sex Work as Addiction

🎙️ New episode: Antonia Crane on her gorgeous sex work/addiction/grief memoir "Spent"

Hey Bleeders,

Have I got a juicy little shortie for you this week! I pulled a conversation out of the archive with a writer I adore: Antonia Crane, author of one of my all-time favorite memoirs, Spent—a raw, riveting meditation on sex work, addiction, and the kind of grief that transforms everything and nothing.

If you haven’t read Spent, run—don’t walk—to your local indie bookstore. It’s a gorgeous gut punch of a book. In this episode, Antonia takes us behind the scenes of how it came to be… including a confession that’s gonna make all my perfectionist Bleeders breathe a little easier:

“I did everything wrong. And I should say that straight off the bat. I did everything wrong.”

LOL, relatable. 🙃 (Also, if Antonia did it wrong, I don’t want to be right.)

She originally thought it was fiction… then nonfiction… then maybe essays… then back to memoir. But you know what? That messy, searching process actually led her to a profound insight.

“What I learned is that I think Richard Yates is right… you only have like two stories you're gonna tell your entire life... But here's the good news: you're gonna massage that material and massage it and massage it... in all these different ways.”

Ahhh, yes—it’s absolutely okay to keep circling the same themes over and over again. Permission granted. In fact, that’s the work.

One of my favorite choices Antonia made was framing sex work as addiction, which felt honest, fresh, and true. I told her I’d never seen that before, and she agreed:

“I think that it's more like gambling, where you go in and you hope and you hustle and you try, and that’s like gambling. You hit big or you hit small, but you hit something.”

For nearly 29 years, Antonia carved out a career out of hustling.

“I made it support me. You know, I'm just like, these motherfuckers are going to fucking support me.”

Yessss. 💸 Put that line on a tote bag!

We also geeked out about the addictive rush of a good haul—whether in a strip club or, in my case, after an OnlyFans spike that happened while I was reading Spent, which felt kind of kindred.

“Okay, now I'm going to have a $2,000 night… As I got older, that became a more fun goal… like, how can I get out of here before 9?”

This episode is a shortie but goodie—packed with gems about writing, sex work, addiction, and the long, winding journey of putting your truth out into the world.

🎧 Listen to Antonia’s episode now!

Happy bleeding!
Courtney

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I’m teaching some upcoming workshops you might be interested in:

• Start a Newsletter to Supercharge Your Platform, Network and Business

• Land Big Bylines by Writing for Columns

• The Multi-Passionate Writer’s Life

• How to Build a “Platform” for Writers Who Shudder at the Thought

• Creating Your Podcast

• Podcasting for Writers: How to Start, Sustain & Grow Your Podcast

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So… ROLL CALL! 🗣️

Are you working on a memoir? Comment below and let me know where you’re at in the (long, winding) process.