Getting Engaged, Leaving New York City, and Writing My Plot Twist in Real Time – Writer Diary
Cara Alwill is a bestselling author, mentor, and publisher of feminine rebellion. With over 300,000 books sold in ten languages, she built her own global publishing empire long before partnering with traditional powerhouses like Penguin Random House. A decade after her viral success with Girl Code, Cara continues to lead women into their next era—with less hustle, more truth, and stories that actually mean something.
As the creator of high-impact offerings like BOOK BOSS and Hot Girl Writing House, Cara mentors women in writing, branding, and business—guiding them to build unforgettable platforms rooted in self-trust, not strategy. Her work is about throwing out the rule book, honoring what feels good, and creating from a place of power, not pressure.
She is also the host of the acclaimed Cara Says It All podcast and the founder of The Tortured Bloggers Department, a sold-out NYC storytelling salon that champions raw, real, rebellious writing. Whether she’s helping a woman birth her first book or guiding her into a softer, smarter way of doing business, Cara’s mission is to elevate a new generation of women who lead with resonance—and build like they own the place.
This week, Cara celebrated her engagement, sold her couch on Facebook Marketplace, said goodbye to friends in New York, and prepared for her move to Florida.
MONDAY AUGUST 4TH
7:10 AM - Mazzy (as in Mazzy Star…yes I’m a 90s girl), my adorable, yet very needy dog wakes me up with her whimpering. She doesn’t need a walk yet, or even cuddles. She just wants me out of bed so she can take my spot.
9:00 AM - I open Substack and dive into the comments on my latest post, where I’ve just shared that Aaron and I are engaged (proposal story and all) with my paid subscribers. It’s wildly thrilling and a little terrifying to put my most intimate moments out there, especially since Aaron and I had a very public breakup that I chronicled in my last book (lol). But so many of my readers were rooting for our love story, and now they’re over the moon for us. It feels incredible to celebrate with them.
2:00 PM - I have a Zoom call with my client who has hired me to ghostwrite and help her self-publish her first book. Today we’re finalizing her vision for the cover, as well as going over the voice + structure of the introduction. I absolutely love helping women bring their books to life. I was born to tell stories!
5:00 PM - I just dropped a podcast episode with Aaron as my guest. We definitely overshared and definitely said too much but I can’t wait for people to hear it. Honesty is my drug of choice!
TUESDAY AUGUST 5TH
8:00 AM - I somehow ignored Mazzy’s dramatic 6 AM fake cries and slept in! I was up late watching The Real Housewives: Ultimate Girls Trip (Season 5) till 1 AM so I’m a little tired this morning after haunting dreams of Ramona Singer skinny dipping in St. Barth’s. Need espresso.
1:20 PM - I look around and feel so ready to leave this apartment next week. To leave New York. To leave my old life. I remind myself to get back to the vultures on Facebook Marketplace who ask me all day Is this still available? and then ghost me once I say yes. It’s oddly reminiscent of my dating app days. But fortunately this time I’m selling my Jonahtan Adler couch, not myself!
5:45 PM - I pour a glass of champagne and start getting ready for Generation Women. My brilliantly talented friend Zara Barrie is reading tonight so I’m going to support her. I love Generation Women so much. I read a wild dating story there a few years ago (it involved witchcraft) and it was one of my favorite experiences.
7:00 PM - Generation Women is wonderful! I meet Maria Milito at my table, the longtime on-air personality I grew up listening to on NYC’s iconic classic rock radio station Q104.3. The Universe is amazing. New York is amazing. I’ll miss it.
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 6TH
9:00 AM - I drop Mazzy off at the groomer (I convince her it's a spa day) then come home and start planning my next Substack. I’m in the middle of writing The Plot Twist Diaries - a series of essays, reflections and diaries about what it looks like to rewrite my entire life. Engagement and big move to Florida included. It’s for my paid subscribers and it’s doing insanely well. I am literally an open book and my community loves to know the tea!
1:00 PM - Call with my badass client, Casey. Within 24 minutes, we decided she is writing and self-publishing a workbook for female entrepreneurs. I’m going to help her make it happen. In five weeks. Let’s go!
4:00 PM - I start a Substack piece inspired by my bistro set that I am selling on Facebook Marketplace. It morphs into a beautiful piece about becoming a wife and stepmother. This is why I love writing so much. You truly never know where the hell a story will take you.
THURSDAY AUGUST 7TH
7:27 AM - Holy shit I am moving in 8 days! Should I be more freaked out? Why am I so calm? I still have a lot to do so I decide to move some things around on my calendar to keep my schedule light. I’m working on not overextending myself these days. My peace is more important than anyone else's expectations of me. Advice worth taking!!
4:00 PM - Finally sold my couch on Facebook marketplace. Movers almost couldn’t get it out of my apartment. I gently suggested over and over again for about 30 minutes that they try taking the blanket off to get it through the doorway. They finally listened. It worked.
7:30 PM - Goodbye cocktails on the rooftop of the Conrad hotel with one of my oldest friends. We take a million photos of each other for Instagram. Later at the bar we run into the Real Housewives of Miami. It’s a weird fever dream involving a mediocre salmon entree and a white Birkin.
FRIDAY AUGUST 8TH
8:50 AM - Aaron calls me to tell me the house we’ve been manifesting is off the market and is now available to rent. We scramble to get our applications in. I obsessively refresh Zillow and look at all 36 photos. The primary bedroom is the size of a hotel suite! The kitchen is gorgeous! I’d have my own office!
3:30 PM - Early happy hour with my Zara. We talk about identity, making a living on Substack, and why self-publishing is the move. We also talk about how writers tend to over-dramatize everything - including arguments with our significant others. We giggle into our Sauvignon Blanc about how silly we can be. It’s nice to know I’m not that crazy for throwing a remote across the room last week…for absolutely no reason.
SATURDAY AUGUST 9TH
9:20 AM - My mother calls, frantic over which Italian cookies to bring to my cousin’s house in New Jersey. We’re headed there today to meet her newborn baby girl, and in our world, showing up without an Italian delicacy is a huge faux pas. I tell her to get one pound of assorted. She tells me she’s getting a pound of rainbow and a pound of assorted. Fine.
5:00 PM - Back from Jersey, I take my last Saturday stroll around the East Village and pop into Ladybird for an early dinner at the bar. It’s my favorite vegan restaurant. I’m not vegan (I love cheese way too much) but I adore really well-done vegan food. The place is also aesthetically gorgeous. it’s where I held my Don’t Do Anything I Would Do book launch party. I walk in and the staff immediately runs up to me: “You’re that writer!” It feels really good. I’m literally living the life I dreamed of.
SUNDAY AUGUST 10TH
10:00 AM - I start combing through work, deciding what to read on Tuesday night at Must Love Memoir. It’s my last reading in New York City before I move! I decide on the Facebook marketplace piece. It’s a little emotional, a little ridiculous, and absolutely perfect for this milestone.
3:15 PM - I meet up with my friend Blaine for goodbye drinks at El Camino in the East Village. It’s one million degrees out but we snag a corner spot under a fan and sip on our spicy margs. Blaine splits her time between Hilton Head Island and New York, so technically we’re both southern belles now. We’re already talking about the next time we’ll both be back in the city.
6:00 PM - I walk home through the East Village, knowing it’s the last time I’ll do it as a New Yorker living in New York, at least as this version of myself. I silently say goodbye to the pizza place on Avenue A where I’ve had way too many late-night slices. The karaoke bar that holds my heart (and some of my cringiest moments). I hear the smack of the skateboards in Tompkins Square Park (my personal playlist) and admire the graffiti-covered walls (my personal art museum) and I know one thing for sure - this city will always be within me.
I’ve fallen in love here. Fallen apart here. Built myself back up over and over again. Become so many versions of myself and this version right now might be my favorite. The version who is brave enough to love. Brave enough to change. And brave enough to trust her own plot twist - even when it takes her far away from the one place she swore she’d never leave.
Because she’s finally realized that she’s allowed to have two great loves - the city that raised her, and the man that feels like home.
