February 1, 2023 Newsletter
*to access the actual Substack Unschool site instead of reading this as an email, CLICK ON THE TITLE ABOVE AND IT WILL TAKE YOU THERE.
For those of you who are new here, this first-of-the-month newsletter is a free-for-all, a collage. It includes a prompt (followed by a “thread” to post your work in response to the prompt and/or to check out what others have contributed), as well as a poll of sorts, a response to last month’s poll, and much more. Usually some craft piece, this month included in the prompt.
If you missed the poetry discussion thread for January, it’s here. I’d love to see more taking part. After a very lively discussion in December, it was Elizabeth and I in January.
The fact that the focus is poetry doesn’t mean it’s for poets only. Even thinking about poetry—I’m serious—will serve all forms of prose. Thinking, reading, and discussing to build knowledge. True, Annie Finch’s book appears to be a Serious Book: it’s thick and comprehensive. It could press flowers or knockout a home intruder. But in truth, both the book and this monthly focus is for those who love words—which is why we’re here. So watch for the February post/thread and pop in for a discussion. It’ll be up before mid-month.
Workshops
In the “scene” workshop, we’ve had a piece posted that will interest those with a sci-fi bent—do check it out.
The picturebook workshop is small in number, but there is much to be learned from the posts, if you are at all interested in this form of writing. The poetry workshop, too.
I encourage you to browse, ask questions, email pieces of work to me to post. (See under the Unschool for Writers at top of page? The title The Unschool WORKSHOP Space? Click on that. If having issues navigating there, read this primer.)
My email: alison@alisonacheson.com
*** A note about the notifications-system here on the Stack: it is not the most useful! If you’ve shared a piece in the workshop sections, or in a prompt thread, do check back to see if feedback has been left. Also: Check out the Prompt threads—we’ve had a couple folks add to the December and January prompts recently. Sometimes it takes time to come up with a piece, and everyone seems to have moved on. And if you’ve posted pieces under Prompt threads, check out your own, too.
A word about paid and free subscribing
This first of the month newsletter (with follow-up prompt thread) will always be free. However, you may have noticed that for January almost all other posts were pay-walled. This is a tough decision on my part, for the future. But a number of solid hours every week goes into creating each post. Today I received a roofing bill for minor repairs—and the total is more than four months’ of my work here… as an example. (How boring, to write about roofing. But there was a giant bubble in the ceiling that had to be dealt with before something popped out of it!)
So a HUGE thank you to those of you who do understand the subscription model, and support The Unschool—I truly appreciate each of you.
And for others, please consider going paid.
~~~
Enough house-and-roof-keeping—and on to the Good Stuff:
Prompt - Craft & Juxtaposition
Much of what creates tension in a story are elements at odds with each other.
Characters at odds, is perhaps the most obvious: protagonist and antagonist. But characters have internal push-and-pull, too. Setting—both place and time—can be at odds with character. Imagine: to be heavily conflicted in a spare prairie setting; to be alone in the middle of a busy day and place, surrounded by people.
Imagine weather and lighting at odds. The first summer we had enough forest-fire-smoke to SEE in this part of the world—in my memory—was so odd; the pink-gold of the sunlight was strangely beautiful. Then I’d get a waft of smoke, and be reminded what it was.
A word like “bittersweet” evokes a mix of emotion. Before that “mix” becomes too blended to feel the elements… what is it about? Then consider the blending, the loss or gain in that. The aftermath. Or the waves of this. Let yourself sit in these thoughts. Parse.
A writer whose use of juxtaposition is masterful is Caroline Adderson. In her novel Sitting Practice, she pulls together the study of Buddhism, and the occurrence and the reality of living with a spinal cord injury… hence the title. In all her works, from adult novels to children’s picturebooks, the knitting together of the disparate always blows me away. Read her work with this thought in mind.
So for this prompt-exercise, choose a word, a noun, most likely. And quickly, let your mind roam to some “opposite,” and pull them together. You might jot down a number of nouns in a single column, and then throw words next to them.
An example of this might be the picturebook title by Sheryl Gwyther: Princess Clown. Unexpected.
You might want to begin to create something of a storyline with your two words, or a character, or simply push this until you have a list of such combinations. Choose the one that most piques your interest, the one that demands that you work with it—and do. It might be a story-beginning or a poem which you might post and share. Or simply post the phrases.
(For some further thoughts on juxtaposition, here’s an archived post about nonfiction and…)
a quote for all artists:
Photographers need to resist their own knowingness, and to remystify what they do. Susan Sontag
Juxtaposition is one way to “remystify”—to cause questions to form and take shape in you.
A title, Halfpipe Poet, came to me before any other aspect of my second kids’ novel—before character, setting, and plot. It was the title itself that provoked the whole, the oddity of athlete and poet within one character… ah, our assumptions.
I look forward to your prompt posts on the thread, set to publish 15 minutes after this.
And do leave any thoughts/questions about any of this:
A Market
This short short fiction contest looks interesting at 750 word max, deadline March 10. What caught my eye is that Anthony Doerr is the judge. (All the Light We Cannot See, I read and enjoyed. I have not read his most recent… have you?)
Polls
In the January poll, I was looking at the question of writing and mental-health, and how it affects output. Half of those who responded said they write optimally when in a settled, even happy, state. One third said their mental state did not affect their writing. Seventeen percent said their optimal writing was done while feeling anxious or sad. I wonder if this was writing that reflected that state or was about the state… or if they wish it were otherwise, or just quite fine with this. (Which would then fall under “settled”?)
“Polls” and such statistical pieces don’t really tell stories! I’m always a little suspicious of numbers that try to replace words.
But I was intrigued by one-sixth of respondents saying they do their work under such pressure.
Lately I re-posted an archived piece about mental health, and we’ve also looked at ritual with regard to rejection. Connecting these then…
If so, or if you have feelings otherwise, consider sharing. Would love to hear more than these simply polls allow:
Re-cap of January posts
Hard to believe I’ve had to set up a third annual “Index” now, but it’s true.
As always the 1st of the month newsletter along with the prompt thread (“burrowing”), and what will become our monthly poetry-exploration thread, circling around the book A Poet’s Craft.
I decided it was time to examine that old adage of “show don’t tell” in more detail than I have previously—I continue to have Unschoolers ask me questions about this. Part I looked at “show,” and Part II at “tell.” It’s a rich topic. One of you pointed out the historical in this—so true.
I had to—yes, had to—write a piece on how to navigate Substack! How to get from “email” to the actual site… and then, to find your way around. There are now hundreds of pieces in the archives, easily found in the Indexes posted on the home-page. But if you don’t know how to access, or can’t access easily, it can all seem to be too much! Here’s the piece: (for easier access than clicking on underlined words!)
A handful of markets— competitions, in this case.
And lastly, a piece on Rejection… because, alas, it’s a part of all this! Possible ways to work with it.
Archived Post
This month, let’s revisit the piece on the Tao Te Ching and writing. (Is that juxtaposition? Or a natural “fit”? The spiritual and/or/with the artistic?)
Questions
Anything at all, on any aspect of writing or publishing…?
Peace—
Alison
I am quite late writing here, but I just wanted to say: it makes me most happy to imagine someone attacking an intruder with a giant book about poetry! I mean, not that having an intruder is a happy event in an of itself, but if you HAD to attack an intruder, it makes me happy to imagine someone doing so with that poetry book, instead of, say, a large spatula or a throw cushion or something like that.
As to the poll, I said never, because, beyond getting my tea made, there isn't anything that feels like a ritual. I sit in different places, I sometimes I listen to music, sometimes not, I write at different times during the day, sometimes I do timed sprints, most of the time I don't. Not sure what this means. Although I do know that no one has every accused me of being compulsive, although I also don't feel like I am a very spontaneous person either, in that my days, if looked at from a distance, don't vary much, as anyone who reads my posts will no doubt attest to (smile.)