Autumn 2021 "Holiday Writing" mini-course - INTRODUCTION

Spring, summer, winter, and fall -- times that resonate

photo: Rebecca Peterson-Hall for Unsplash
  

As of today, mid-October, and over the next couple of days, I will be posting several pieces towards the so-called “Holiday Writing” mini-course (and workshop).

This post is an intro to let everyone know what this is about and how it will function!

The actual course material itself, and the discussion threads (one for each story submitted), will be for paid members only.

If you are not yet a paid member, you might want to consider going paid for a month or two to take part and see how “paid” works out for you.

WHAT IT IS

I write “so-called” because the subject matter is not limited to traditionally recognized “holidays.”

Think of it more as “days that are out of the ordinary!”

So much of our lives are passed in the most spectacularly unremarkable ways.

These stories will be all about the other days: the celebratory and note-worthy; those times when all else seems to pause.

They can be from anywhere in the world, and from any time; days that are government-sanctioned or family-created and sustained. Your own days, or long-gone relatives, or others…

In other words: wide open.

Days that are out of the Ordinary.

HOW THE COURSE WILL WORK

I’ll post a piece on what types of pieces you’ll be writing, and another piece filled with prompts. (Though don’t feel that your starting place is limited to these!)

Please feel free to jump in and post thoughts on either or both pieces. Let’s have some discussion and questions!

THE WRITING

Length is really the one requirement. I’m going to say no more than 1500 words (approximately 6 pages, double-spaced) for a memoir or fiction.

If the work is a poem, it’ll be shorter—obviously—and if it’s a picturebook (which works so well with the idea of “day out of the ordinary”!) please no more than 600 words. As that is all a picturebook should ever be anyway.

(For a refresher on what picturebooks are all about, read the post from back in the spring. There have been a number of posts about this form—check out the index to find all.)

THE WORKSHOPPING:

I’m pretty excited about this, I have to say! I so enjoy the comments and questions you are posting, and the pieces of writing many of you have posted to respond to the monthly prompts and exercises… This is the time to post actual pieces of some length now, and for others in The Unschool to see and offer feedback.

Here’s the process to make this happen:

Email your story or poem to me, so I can open a discussion thread for each story. This is key, please. Otherwise it might grow very confusing if they are altogether. (Forget the “might”—it will!)

Email to alison@alisonacheson.com

I will post the threads in the order they come. Some of you might have old stories that fit within the parameters of this course, and you’ve been seeking feedback. And you can pull out, dust off, and re-write before posting.

For some, especially once the prompts are posted, you might be starting a project from scratch. I’d like to leave this whole course open for two months. So if you take the first three weeks to write, and then post, that’s just fine. Or longer.

The last date to post anything will be December 8 (Wednesday), and the course will be completely wrapped up by December 15.

HOW TO WORKSHOP:

Be kind. But also respect the story. What is the story now? What can it become?

Work with the grain of the writer’s intentions! Of course, it’s not always easy to know what those intentions are… but don’t hesitate to ask.

Often, in a classroom workshop, the writer is supposed to remain silent. This has never felt quite right to me. So some thoughts on this:

The writer should not explain; the piece should speak for itself… to a certain extent!

But I’ve experienced discussions get grossly sidetracked, and without the writer saying, “Hey! That’s not where this was going!” a whole lot of time can be wasted.

So… writers! Don’t hesitate to step into the discussion, and give a re-direct.

As for feedback, sharing with the writer what you feel is working is good. Sometimes we don’t know our own strengths. And strengths are to build on.

Any questions the reader is left with are good for the writer to know; where are the holes in knowledge and understanding?

It’s thinking such as “If this were my story, I would…” Ah… but it is not your story! It’s the writer’s.

                                                                 photo purchased from iStock

Days that are out of the Ordinary.

Should be the real title of the course. Let’s get on it…

Questions? Post them in the comment box below. It might take awhile for stories to roll in, but here we go —

Alison

alison@alisonacheson.com