(typewriter bell ringing) (soft upbeat jazzy music) - My name is Isaac Fitzgerald and this is Dirtbag, Massachusetts.

I wanted to give a book that showed that it's okay to be introspective about yourself and that I was raised on a certain type of masculinity that was very much just about toughen up.

(hands smacking) You know, just stick to your guns, don't back down.

And so that's what I started talking about.

It's a way of looking at masculinity, not through one lens, but showing that there's actually a huge range of all these different ways that we can be people.

(upbeat music continues) - I love it that you call this book a confession, not a typical memoir.

I think it's a real act of bravery for a young writer like yourself to write a memoir, because you've got a whole long life ahead of you for everybody to know your secrets.

- Knock on wood.

- Right exactly.

- Knock on wood.

- I'm hopin' I'm getting in the middle of it.

- Right.

- It's the things that you don't want to write about the things you almost, that seem a little too hard to look at.

That is where I often find the best material is going to be.

So when I started this project, it was supposed to be something completely different and I kept writing, and all of a sudden more and more my childhood would get in there.

And I kept trying to get it out.

The more I worked on it, the more I realized that I had something to say about the experiences that I've had, and it didn't have to be looking outward.

It could be looking inward.

And that's when I realized, oh, it's a confessional.

It's like I'm sitting there in the booth saying something, confessing something, sharing something that I haven't really shared before publicly.

(soft jazzy music) - An introduction to one of your first sections is one of the best sentences-- I have read.

- Mm mm.

- "My parents met at divinity school "which is a pretty funny way to start an affair."

(Isaac laughs) Did you tell your family and your friends you were doing this, and when you did, how did they react?

- I mean, it's all over the map of things like this.

And this is a tough thing about making art.

It's wild to say this, because there's some really hard stuff in this book, but my parents, right now, the people that they've grown into, the people that they've matured into are so loving and so supportive and it's really brought us closer together.

(soft jazzy music continues) - Isaac, thank you again.

So much fun.

- [Isaac] Thank you so much, I really appreciate you.

- It's such a pleasure.

- [Isaac] Thank you.

- And thank you for watching A Word on Words.

I'm Jeremy Finley, and remember-- - Keep reading.

(typewriter bell ringing) (soft jazzy music) - [Jeremy] Whoo, this guy has done-- the TV before.

- [Isaac] Oh my Lord!

- Yeah, except I'll tell you, The one thing I can never do right is sit in a chair.