A Brief Note About How to Take Part in Unschool Writing Workshops

the Mystery; aka dealing with tech

I’m working on this week’s post—about the sestina form and how you might also use it in adventurous ways—but I think I need to interrupt the process and share this with you as questions are rolling in…

I’ve posted notes about workshops taking place here. At the moment we have a small but steady and useful picturebook group who are sharing manuscripts and getting feedback… all for the price of the annual $60 (Canadian funds - $45 USD). Which is a pretty good deal.

There is a small number of folks interested in taking part in a novel group (submitting chapters with a page limit to be determined, one week apart), and also some interest in a fantasy novel group. I’d be interested in knowing what you’re working on and need. In the past, we’ve had nonfiction and poetry groups, too.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS

First, you do need to be a paid subscriber.

Second, you need to sign up for The Unschool “Workshop Space.”

To do this, go to your photo in RH corner and click “Manage Subscription.”

Next, under “Notifications” turn on “The Unschool Workshop Space.”

Unfortunately, there is no way for me to separate the workshop groups, so that once you are signed up for this, you will receive the initial posts for the groups.

I post pieces with appropriate photos so you can, for instance, see in a glance what is intended for poetry or picturebook groups, and delete or ignore. The photo clues make it easy to know when to look for what interests you.

But here is where workshopping can get interesting. There is so much to learn from each other. You can access any of the works posted and read, and offer even one sentence of thought/feedback. I would love to see more of this happening here; it’s what creates ‘writing community.’ You don’t need to be posting your own material, and you don’t need to go on and on. Either a quick suggestion, a word of reflection or encouragement… would be so good.

Here’s a little piece I posted back in ’21 about learning from other genres/forms:

Genre Gleaning

My thoughts on the workshop process:

Dont’ be negative! Be useful and constructive!

And NEVER publicly “share” a piece. I’ve made it so that the actual work cannot be shared with the outside world—we need this level of privacy. But Substack (and other platforms) are not really designed for this use, and that means you can click the “share” button, and the fact that the piece EXISTS will be shared—though not the work itself. I’d like to keep all of the workshopping to only those who are signed up for it. Thank you for working with me on this.

So if you’ve signed up for the “workshop space” keep an eye out for the emails that let you know something’s been posted, and then check in once in awhile to see how the discussion is going. Posts thoughts on thoughts. Discuss!

Really, I’m excited by the last couple weeks of picturebook discussion—so much going on!

IN ORDER TO POST:

Send your work directly to me, at alison@alisonacheson.com, and I will post the pieces in the order they come, one week apart.

Any questions, please send to the same email!