In the Season 3 premiere of Dripping Creativity, Chris Corvan sits down with author and professor Alecsandra Kakon to talk about her debut novel, This Is Why I Need You. This is a book about friendship, secrets, identity, and the quiet tension of everything we avoid saying out loud. So naturally, we had to get into the messy stuff: complicated friend groups, the strange crisis point of turning thirty, the stories we tell ourselves, and the people who become mirrors whether we asked them to or not. Alexandra talks about moving between academia and creative writing, how the pandemic helped push this novel into existence, and why friendship became the emotional engine of the book. We dig into multiple points of view, character morality, editing, emotional honesty, and the terrifying little truth that readers will never see your characters exactly the way you do. Rude, honestly. Beautiful, but rude. We also talk about trauma, silence, neurodiversity, parenting, privilege, psychological abuse, and why the most interesting characters are rarely cleanly “good” or “bad.” They are people. Which is much worse. And much better. At its heart, this episode asks a deceptively simple question: Who are your people, and are you actually showing up for them? A sharp, heartfelt conversation with a rising voice in contemporary fiction. Music by Gridlazerhttps://gridlazergrid.bandcamp.com/ Pre-order This Is Why I Need You:https://ecwpress.com/products/this-is-why-i-need-you Follow Alecsandra Kakon:Instagram: @Alecsandrakakon Follow Chris Corvan:https://chriscorvan.bio.link Episode Chapters 00:00 Welcome to Dripping Creativity with Alexandra Kakon00:37 Alecsandra’s creative path before the debut novel01:20 Writing, academia, and the myth of a “dual identity”04:28 Silence, complex trauma, inclusion, and neurodiversity education08:07 Parenting as storytelling12:36 Why editing is where the magic happens12:45 Chris reacts to This Is Why I Need You13:09 The emotional core of the novel15:45 Writing four points of view without losing the thread18:54 Chris admits he over-plans because, well, ADHD19:15 The Dirty 30 and why friendships start to shift24:01 Plotter, pantser, or beautiful chaos goblin?26:31 Drafts, editors, and rewriting the book into itself29:20 What Alecsandra had to confront while writing33:26 Who are your friends, and do you carry them with intention?35:27 Which character will readers defend too hard?36:56 The hidden complexity of Valentina’s storyline38:48 When every protagonist is also someone else’s antagonist43:40 What Alecsandra is working on next46:38 Where to find Alecsandra Kakon and pre-order the book47:55 Closing notes from the House of Void Network
