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My Writing

I write to uncover the voices often left behind—those on the margins, in the silences, or obscured by stigma. With each project, I strive to spark empathy and provoke reflection, using plays, long-form storytelling, story architecture, digital content, and copywriting to explore the complexity of human experience. Writing, for me, is an act of resistance and recognition: a way to illuminate what’s messy, unseen, or unspoken—and to make space for the truths that demand to be witnessed.

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Please use the links below to navigate—or feel free to peruse it all.

Copywriting

This is a growing portfolio. I am actively expanding my range and would be happy to share additional pieces or respond to a custom prompt upon request.

1. Instagram Carousel Post 

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Client: A nonprofit mental health app called KindMind
Goal: Increase awareness during Mental Health Awareness Month
Prompt: Write 4–5 slide captions (1–2 sentences each) for a carousel post: “5 Gentle Reminders for Tough Days”

Tone/Voice: Warm, Clear, Mission-Driven

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Final Copy:

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Slide 1: Title Slide
5 Gentle Reminders for Tough Days
Because even the smallest kindness counts.

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Slide 2
Drink a glass of water.
Start with something simple and kind. Your body is listening.

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Slide 3
You are strong and capable.
Even when it doesn’t feel that way. Especially then.

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Slide 4
Find something to hold onto.
A pet. A pillow. A memory. Ground yourself in something that feels real.

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Slide 5
You are not your thoughts.
They can be loud—but they are not facts. You are more than the noise.

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Slide 6
Go find the moon.
Step outside. Look up. You are part of something wide and luminous.

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Instagram Caption:
Bad days don’t last forever—but while you’re in one, we hope this helps. 💙 Save this post for later or share it with someone who needs a little light.
#MentalHealthAwareness #KindMind #GentleReminders

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2. Northwood Online Email Campaign

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Client: Northwood Online (Fictional University)
Format: Email Campaign Copy
Goal: Drive enrollment for Fall 2025

Tone/Voice: Friendly, Supportive, Clear

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Brief: This project was part of a copywriting exercise to simulate a real-world university enrollment campaign. I was tasked with creating compelling email copy that would resonate with adult learners—particularly working parents and career changers. I wrote two samples: one in a brand voice for general marketing, and another as a student testimonial to add emotional weight and authenticity.

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Sample 1: Brand Voice Email Body Copy

Your future is calling—will you answer?

At Northwood Online, we make it easier to move forward. Our fully online bachelor’s programs are designed for working adults, busy parents, and anyone ready to turn “maybe someday” into today.

Whether you're building a new career or finishing what you started, you’ll find the flexibility, support, and accreditation you need to take the next step—laying a foundation for your future.

[Explore Degrees]

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 Sample 2: Student Testimonial

I had been working minimum wage since high school, and I needed a change. I needed to grow—and I needed Northwood Online’s flexible programs. There, I was able to balance my busy life as a mom with a full-time job and my studies on my own terms.

I’m excited for my future, and for my kids’ futures. Because of my bachelor’s degree from Northwood Online, I’m now a paralegal, and I’m confident in the foundations I’m building for future generations.

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3. Paper Habit’s New Eco-Journal

 

Client: Paper Habit
Voice & Tone: Clever + Practical
Format: E-commerce product description
Prompt: Write a 2–3 sentence product description for a refillable eco-journal for daily planning. Include a call to action.

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Final Copy:
Step into your future on Planet Earth with this refillable eco-journal for daily planning. With 100% recycled pages and 10 sheets of waterproof, recyclable stickers, you can track your week, map your month, and manage your finances—your way.
Plan your day, pursue your dreams, and support a healthier planet all at once.

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4. Blog Excerpt 

 

Client: A science-forward skincare company called DERM/NOW
Topic: “What’s the Difference Between AHA and BHA?”
Prompt: Write a 100–150 word blog intro that hooks the reader and introduces the topic.

Tone/Voice: Educational + Engaging

 

Final Copy: 

Exfoliation is a great way to keep your skin healthy and clean, but did you know that there are multiple kinds of exfoliants? 

With so many exfoliants on the market, it's important to understand the difference between AHAs and BHAs. This is the kind of clarity DERM/NOW was built to offer, so let’s dive into the science.

AHAs (alpha hydroxy acids) are water-soluble, making them great for smoothing and brightening your skin’s surface. BHAs (beta hydroxy acids), on the other hand, are oil-soluble—meaning they go deeper, clearing out pores from the inside.

Read on to discover which exfoliant is right for your skin >>

Story Architecture

Helix: A Nine Book Series

2025

A forensic genealogist unravels a serial killer's decades-long path of genetic violence—and uncovers the institutional systems that let it happen.

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Helix is a 9-book psychological thriller series following Dr. Mara Ellison, a forensic genealogist haunted by the disappearance of her sister. When a string of cold cases reveal a disturbing mitochondrial DNA pattern, Mara becomes entangled in the hunt for a killer who targets girls with a rare genetic marker. As Mara, and detectives Nick Jain and Mei Hao trace decades of buried crimes, they uncover not just a pattern—but a system built to erase these girls. Each book weaves a standalone case into a larger reckoning with medical ethics, family secrets, and institutional failures.

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9-Book Series Arc: Helix

PDF

Full overview of each book, including the central case, character development, and systemic theme.

 

Stillbone: Helix Book 1 – Chapter Outline

PDF

A detailed chapter-by-chapter outline of the series opener, showing structure, narrative escalation, and character beats.

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Digital Content

The Hollow Skull

2022

A database created for the information community Historians. It includes an explanation of databases, an archive of annotated title pages from Shakespeare's First Folio, blog posts about databases and how historians interact with technology. 

Take me to the Hollow Skull

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A Brief History

2020-ongoing

A Brief History of human consciousness upholding the stories of the marginalized. This is an ongoing project that I add to regularly. I can never hope to fully represent humanity in a single web page, but I am trying to document important aspects of stories we may forget. This page is a part of my Nori Society website, which hopes "to give teachers and parents (and everyone else) the opportunities and resources to access and gain knowledge in order to live courageously as the giants of today while nurturing the giants of our future". It is the beginning of a non-profit I hope to develop.

Take me to A Brief History​

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Website Design

2020-ongoing

I have been designing websites professionally since 2020, and on a personal basis for over a decade. Please look at my website design portfolio.

 

O, To Study Shakespeare in Stratford~Upon~Avon: The Annals of My Experience Studying Shakespeare Where He Grew Up

2017-2018

I document the time I spent in England getting my MA in Shakespeare through posts about my surroundings, my work, and theater.

Take me to the blog 

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Plays

Nori (In Progress) Four women, linked by blood, traverse a world not made for them. 

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The House on Monaco (2023) Abandonment, addiction, and depression are thrust into the forefront of three middle-aged childrens' minds as the murky childhood and trauma of their mother is uncovered. While packing boxes, they come across clues to their Native American heritage lost through the generational horrors of the Residential schools. 6w.

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The Vapours (2021) In 1863, a Victorian Countess invites an old, dear friend for tea in hopes of unraveling a decade old repressed memory that has led to a paralyzing case of P.T.S.D.. "The Vapours" is an antiquated term for a myriad of mental health issues, including what the Victorian's called hysteria, melancholy and P.M.S.. 3f, 1m. ~1 hr.

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The Seagull: A New Adaptation (2020) A modern-day retelling of Chekhov's haunting dark comedy. This is a play about how things are. This is a play about a Seagull. A play about a young girl and the boy who loves her more than his own life. This is a play that makes us question ourselves and the world around us. What does it mean to be an artist? Who are we in the world? What destroys us? How and why do we live despite unhappiness? Sometimes painfully understandable, this play will challenge your desires and beliefs and explore art and life through the eyes of ten selfish artists. It makes a mess of love, leaving a path of destruction. 4f, 6m.

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Real (2018) A same-sex love story which deals with the controversial and sometimes scary topics of Reality, Truth, Love, mental illness, physical disabilities and homophobia through the very real love story of Alethia and Amora. It is told largely through text messages, as that is the primary and arguably limiting form that romantic relationships take in our culture today. 101pgs. 6f, 2m, 2non-binary/genderqueer.

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The Winters Tale (In Progress) A modern-day retelling of Shakespeare's classic and ambiguous so-called romance. In 1993, a small law firm in San Francisco welcomes a second baby into one of their title families. The stress brings out the worst in some, leading to heartbreak, desolation and death. 25 years later, in Winters, CA, a young law-student fights for the love of her life while battling the justice system. 7m, 7f, 1 trans woman, 1 boy.

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Delilah (In Progress) After 25 years, her estranged brother appears on her doorstep, triggering the flashbacks of what lead to the banishment she faced from her religious childhood home. 1f, 1m.

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One Sunrise in August (2016) A group of college roommates pull an all-nighter in the weeks before the start of their senior year. 5m, 5f.

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Fourplay (staged 2018) A play written in collaboration with Fiona McGregor, Lauren Bates, Lorna Jinks and Ella-Lucia Ricci. When three of Shakespeare's women commit psuedocide, where do they go? where do they wait for their men to learn the lessons necessary to get their beloved women back? Performed in the Other Place Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon, United Kingdom. 45mins. 5w.

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Lavender Rose (staged 2017) A one-man-show telling the story of a lesbian couple’s journey to motherhood in early 1990’s Austin, Texas.

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Aaron & Sophie (staged 2016) Aphrodite is given two mortals at a time and, with them, she tells love stories, as a puppeteer would. Aaron and Sophie is an adaptation of the the tragic myth, Pyramus and Thisbe. Aphrodite looses control of her two mortals in the midst of her Brother, Ares's, World War II. It questions whether anyone is truly in charge of their fate, and if we aren't, who is? 2w,2m.

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Funeral of a Contradiction (staged 2015)  Two adult sisters, at odds with each other and attempting to deal the tragic fact of their mother's dissent into addiction and ultimate death, take a trip to Costco to pick up a meal for their large family. A snide comment in the frozen section launches an all-out battle that has taken years to surface. 10mins. 2w, 1m.

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One Last Hit Before It's Over (2014) Two Russian girls discuss the terrible night one of them has just experienced and try to wrestle and deny the fact of their predicament. 10mins. 2girls.

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The Heart Monitor (2014) A little boy finds himself in unfamiliar, though somehow safe, surroundings and desperately trying to find his life in order to get home. 10 mins. 1 boy, 1 man.

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Griffen (staged 2012) A one person show about the coming of age of four generations of women linked by a name. 

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Publications

Stranger Than: New Fiction, Poetry, Comics, and a Play a compilation of work by many writers, researchers and poets. Edited by Chris Sumption. Blurb, April 12, 2013.​

Novels & Stories

The Tower

The Tower (in progress) More than a century from now, a young woman named Sally spends her days maintaining the technology and Artificial Intelligence that upholds The Tower's Resident's luxurious lifestyle. By doing so, Sally plays an integral role in maintaining the expansive and insidious lie on which their lives are built.

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The Year of the Woman (in progress) 2018 saw the rise of the woman: the continuation of #metoo and increased pressure from the women of the world to be heard and listened to. Meanwhile, an American woman studying Shakespeare in England experiences her own revolution.

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I Am Helena (in progress) A 13 year old American girl is sent to live with her father, a man she has never met, in England, having lost her mother before receiving the answer to the question she most wants answered: Why did you name me Helena? As she grows up, she finds her life entangled with the lives Shakespeare created centuries ago, and she struggles to remove the curse.


Clara (in progress) At 15, Clara doesn't understand why her parents ship her to a boarding school. As time goes on, the secrets unravel, and she finds herself face-to-face with something terrifying, something that only asks for her love.

Short Stories

Faylia McGregor and the RSC Barricade (2018) Twenty years after Harry Potter defeated the Dark Lord, five young witches studying the great, revolutionary Wizard Shakespeare, take on a resurgence of Neo-Death-Eaters based at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon, United Kingdom.

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Raindrops (2015) as a young man reels from a breakup, the man he becomes tries to reassure him with the life ahead of him.

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The Porcelain Doll (2015) A little girl makes a friend, and a friend within a doll. A Gothic tale.

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52: A Ghost Story (2011) A high school girl's volleyball team finds themselves stuck in their locker room after a late practice. As gory chaos ensues, they unearth the 52-year-old mystery of the girl who was killed there.

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Moments of Forever (2011) A new fairy tale about a young crown princess must find a husband before taking the throne, according to the law of the land. As a war threatens to tear apart her kingdom, she begins a star-crossed love affair with a drafted man and must make a choice between her beloved Queendom and a life with love.

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© 2022 by Annika Nori. Proudly created with Wix.com

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