December 1 newsletter

Congrats to an Unschool writer... with a few thoughts on starting a newsletter here. Monthly prompt. And more. Even a STUFFING recipe... or is it Dressing? What's in a word?

Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

Here we are again—the last month of the year.

Whatever Holidays-of-Light you celebrate, I hope you are able to slow and find some stillness each day through these next weeks. If you can’t find such time, just shove other things aside, and make it. If necessary, toss all you’ve ever been told about how this month is supposed to be. And start afresh.

Thinking of words of the painter, Edgar Degas, who said

“It isn’t until the painter has no idea what he’s doing that he makes good paintings.

Gotta get ourselves back to the Garden on this one.

Some of my recent posts have been rather intense take-aparts of craft. But there are times when it’s good to set aside the learned, and look again.

Learning to write is being open to create with the known and the unknown. Every new project brings with it some “unknown.” We might pause before we dive in with what we know—and see what we can learn from the unknown first.

There’s that strange space before we begin to write, and before we embark on yet another draft, when we simply don’t know.

How might we make more use of that mental and emotional space, before we blunder in with our ideas? At the very least, let’s go slowly.

I know “holidays” get crazy. Mostly because we allow that to happen, really.

But recall your childhood approach to special days—be it a holiday, a birthday, or a precious Saturday. Find the space of awakening on that day, with the hours stretched out ahead of you, the anticipation, the wonder, and the not-knowing.

Spend time sitting with your WIP, or a new piece, or a prompt. Find that space, and be there for awhile. Even a half hour wrested from whatever you need. Wrested to rest.

More on this idea of “Sitting With…” coming up in the next couple of weeks, before we sign off for a couple of weeks.

~~~

WELCOME!

to a large umber of new Un-Schoolers here.

Sarah Fay

of

Writers at Work

included The Unschool in her recent post about Top 20 Writing Newsletters. (Thank you, Sarah!)

A couple of helpful posts to check out for The Unschool: How to navigate, and the 2023 Index of posts this past year. Note: I’ve “opened” a number of months’ worth of posts, posts that have been previously pay-walled. I’ll close them again in a couple weeks, but wanted to give you an idea of what The Unschool is about.

Let me know if you have questions. Email: alison@alisonacheson.com.

Also: a Thank you! to those who’ve chosen to go paid for The Unschool in this past month.

And an even bigger THANK YOU to those who paid some time ago, and have chosen to remain on board! Some of you have been here since the beginning. I can’t tell you how much that means.

For some reason, in the past eight months or so, I’ve had a number of people drop off and/or revert to free subscription. I’m a bit concerned about this; I’m now generating less income than I was a year ago, in spite of continuing to post regularly. (I’d appreciate any insight/thoughts on this!)

And so my gratitude for those who’ve stuck around and those who’ve recently on-boarded takes over—thank you!

If you’re still on the “free” list, or you’ve let your paid subscription lapse, please consider going paid or giving a gift subscription for another writer you know—it really is the only way this can continue.

Congratulations to…

Ronaldo Acuna, long-time subscriber of The Unschool, on having his essay, “Fathers,” published in Prism International, a literary journal that is not an easy market.

Take a look: https://prismmagazine.ca/2023/11/16/60-2-exclusive-wreck-beach-prize-winner-ronaldo-acunas-fathers/

Ronaldo plans to start his own Substack newsletter soon, charting his writer/artist path. It’s going to be called Panels and Prose. Keep an eye out for it! (I’ll post the link when he sends it to me.)

He had some questions about the whole process of being here on the ’Stack. I sent him an email with answers and thoughts that might be helpful to those of you thinking to do similarly. So—

thoughts on Starting a Substack Newsletter—

First, know that Ronaldo’s Big Question was about the usefulness of starting a Substack newsletter in order to let the world know about his work and his approach.

My thoughts: I think Substack works well to get your voice out into the world. You might not make much $$--especially to begin with--but it’s a solid professional platform and it doesn’t cost you anything. I see no reason to wait, to either start a newsletter or to set up the option to be paid. Substack readers seem to appreciate seeing how careers progress and take shape.

Know that it’s not easy to change your newsletter name after you’ve started. You can change it ONCE, and it’s a pain (I had to do this, for reasons of copyright) so spend time thinking about a solid title that’ll work for the long haul.

It’s important that your title really does share--in a few words--what the newsletter is about. A most significant piece.

Also decide how often you want to post and stick to it. I was posting every five days, which is not really sustainable--or not for me, anyway. So I now post once a week, and more only once in awhile.

Also know that you should have a few things to post when you open an account. Spend time putting together your “about” page before you open an account. There’s no hiding anything while you get set up! Once you open an account it’s there for all to read... so be ready.

Once you’ve got a few things posted, email EVERYONE you know. It’s surprising who will be interested. Or I’ve been surprised. Also, you never know who is going to support you so do offer a “paid” subscription option immediately, even if you leave it open and free as well (which I would also recommend at first...) ALSO do offer a “founding member” option--again, I was blown away by the generosity of a few people who immediately signed up as “founding members.” Which is most encouraging.

The build is slow—unless you’re Margaret Atwood. It’s a long haul. But then, so is most everything about writing!

Questions?

Prompt

Tell us a story in the form of a list… and, in some way, USE the numbering of the items to play some role. (Yes, you know how I go on about FORM & CONTENT.)

So the list might be 1-10, or it might be 10-1. (What’s the difference?) It might be 1-14 with the number 13 missing. Or some other number missing, for some reason that becomes clear at a later point. Perhaps the list is formed in some other way, with number substitutes.

The list can be of anything: story points; ingredients; actions taken; decisions made; characters; the order in which to eat courses of a meal; or plant spring plants.

Short or long.

Let your imagination GO…. The link to the prompt thread is here.

Photo by David Ballew on Unsplash

~~~

Re-cap of November posts

With the exception of the November 1st post and the usual and accompanying “prompt” thread, all other pieces were pay-walled, and will be again in a couple of weeks. Below, brief descriptions…

As always I’m open to answering your questions in a post. (In the 2023 Index, you’ll find the list of the Q&A series I did in the spring, looking at half a dozen great questions. It’s always useful to know what is on your mind.)

The first week we looked at how words like “Today” can refocus you to work in specific time instead of “general” and get the work moving.

In week two, I looked at how present tense works—and doesn’t. It’s often used when writing works for young adults; it’s thought to carry a sense of the “immediate.” Some readers find it just irritating. But there’s always a time and place; “form and content” and “what serves the story?” are significant.

Week three was about “knitting” disparate and discrete pieces together when you’ve worked on a first draft in a non-linear way.

In this last week, I shared an interview with

Joshua Doležal

of

The Recovering Academic

. Thank you, Josh, for this opportunity, and putting it together; I thoroughly enjoyed our exchange! Should a workshop be a safe space?

If you’re missing the monthly poetry discussion piece (looking at chapters in A Poet’s Craft), know that it is forthcoming first week of this month. Know that I’m planning on looking at two or more chapters together and posting every other month. I think this will work better now that I’m posting weekly.

So some weighty craft pieces for November.

Thank you to those who asked questions, posted thoughts, and responded!

~~~

From the Archives:

Let’s revisit a prompt for a change.

This one is from September of ’21. No one posted to it. This was back in early days of The Unschool. Maybe someone will want to have some fun with it now, and post work, or the idea of the prompt will connect with your WIP and create an opening.

Alas—you’ll have to copy/paste, as it’s not attaching properly (possibly because it’s a dated ‘thread’?)

https://unschoolforwriters.substack.com/p/exercise-rough-and-raw-edges-to-hold/comments

~~~

Stuffing or Dressing? What’s in a word? *RECIPE ALERT

Every Christmas as a kid I would have an argument with one of my brothers about what to call the food that was STUFFED inside the turkey. My take was that, given that it was stuffed, it must be “Stuffing.”

Quick poll:

A RECIPE For People Who Do Not Like SOGGY BREAD.

Ingredients:

1 cup of brown, dark, red, or wild rice (or mix—just anything that’s not boring white!)

Cook it, even the day before, and let cool.

Saute some kind of sausage meat, pork. I get mine from the Italian corner store, made with fennel. look for something extra tasty. Or you can find it in a regular grocery story, somewhere near where they sell the turkeys. One package, fried with a chopped up onion and a few stalks of LEAFY celery. If you can find stalks with leaves on them. extra flavour, pretty bits of colour. Cut up some sage, fresh is best. However much you like. And lots of pepper. (I’m not big on measurements.)

While that’s frying up and your home is starting to smell as if they neighbours might have to drop by, grate up one or two carrots, and throw that in for a bit of a fry, too.

Once this is cooked, mix it in with the rice, along with a generous handful of dried cranberries, one or two handfuls of raw whole almonds, and one cut-up granny smith apple.

Use a stuffing bag! You’ll find them either close to the turkeys in a grocery store with a clever manager or two… or you’ll have to hunt around the area where they have the parchment paper, aluminum foil, and that stuff. I’ve asked employees for them, and they haven’t known what I’m talking about! But these things are made of cotton mesh, (much like you’d use to turn yogurt to cream cheese… another post?) and it means that taking out the stuffing, once cooked, is done in seconds.

Easy holiday meal

For a really easy holiday meal, when you don’t want to have a whole stuffed turkey, make this stuffing, put it in an oiled roaster, and bury—cover—turkey breasts in it. Roast in the over for an hour or so. If you’re a fan of stuffing and with you could have more than once or twice a year, this is a tasty meal.

Oh, and it might be good reason to call it “DRESSING.” Maybe.

I do digress…

Wishing you the best through this holiday season!

And mostly, peace and good writing —

Alison