January 1, 2023 Newsletter
The monthly potpourri
Thank you for your patience
I have enjoyed the past two weeks—a necessary break. I hope you’ve had some similar rest, if needed. A rest renews. I have many plans for the Unschool, and have needed time to step back and consider.
Resolutions?
Or just: “things I’d like to change up after Christmas”… Or after fill-in-the-blank, any time of year… January 1 is arbitrary. You can start and re-start at any point. (Don’t set a date to start that novel, or to finish that short story. Consider the real time needed, give it what it asks of you. And don’t procrastinate.)
This image above says it well: the kid in me thinks, “Wow! Let’s head down here!” The adult in me is envious. The old mom in me is yelling about never running down a road that takes a corner and has too many trees that keep you from seeing what is approaching.
The writer in me is thinking, “Here we go again! It always feel like this!” And “What IS on the other side of those trees?” Followed by, “Now which of those exclamation points am I going to cut on a rainy writing day?”
So let’s run into 2023—
Congrats in order!
Suzanne Johnston first wrote this piece about a wise Grandpa in our “holiday writing” mini-course last year, and it has just been published in Canada’s Globe & Mail. This is so good to see. Congratulations, Suzanne!
Monthly Prompt
Burrowing — borrowing from Katharine Haake.
Katharine Haake is both academic and creative writer. She wrote a book titled, What Our Speech Disrupts: Feminism and Creative Writing Studies. I read it some years ago. Haake went through a long decade of being unable to do any creative work, and she speaks of those years in the book. One of the pieces to healing and creating once again, was to create a technique she’s called “burrowing.” I find it useful after a break from writing, or to crack open some block.
Come up with one sentence. It might be from something at hand, such as “I just finished my coffee…” Or steal a line from a book you are reading, or re-work a line of poetry from that collection of poems sitting on your table, or a news headline… just one line to get started.
Focus on that sentence. Think nothing else. You’re not thinking “story” or “poem.” All thoughts are with that sentence and the words in it. Create a second sentence with this focus—that is, pulling out one work or phrase, and creating the second sentence using it or them.
Focus on the sentence at hand. Continue, focusing only on the immediate sentence, pulling from it to build the next, with no thought to what you are creating. Just immersing in words. When I do this, I find myself consciously thinking of the word she has chosen to call this: burrowing. It is. It has that feeling. It’s time off from all else outside of this process. It’s warming, and life-sustaining.
Private. It also tends to be a rather private practice, so it may be a bit odd to make this the monthly prompt! However, if you want to share, we’d love to see. Let’s not do “feedback” for this one, in the usual sense of feedback. But post your own piece, and do read others’. Comment on words that seem particularly right or useful or to standout. If the writer does want ideas on possible directions for development, add such a note when you post! And others can comment to that.
The Prompt Post Thread is posted minutes after this newsletter goes out. Or link here.
Archived Post
Let’s revisit the first Foundational post for the Unschool (in the Indexes, you’ll find a series under “Foundational”).
Update on A Poet’s Craft discussions:
I’ll be posting a discussion thread for this in the next few days, working with questions and thoughts from the Annie Finch book, A Poet’s Craft. When I reviewed this book, I suggested you might want to purchase for the purpose of learning from Finch, a masterful teacher, and taking part in our discussions.
(Annie Finch’s site, for those who want to checkout. Also, Annie pointed out that her book A Poet’s Ear: a Handbook of Meter and Form, is not a separate book. It’s the Poet’s Craft sections on form, excerpted for people who want a separate form handbook.)
Watch for the thread. If you haven’t yet ordered or received the book, do take part if you want to talk about poetry. Or if you write fiction… and want to talk about words!
Polls
Some thoughts on both the November poll, and the December.
The November question: are you writing for pleasure/self-expression/discovery... with no thought to making some part of your livelihood from it?
And the responses were 1:2 —twice as many of you hoping to create some income from writing.
This is good to know as I include posts about the publishing process, and the re-writing (for instance) that goes into that. Though I also think it is significant to enjoy the work—at least, at some point in the process.
A fair question would be to ask how you see the dollars (check the one that most resonates with you):
So I will continue to post about publishing, both the traditional route and self-publishing, about editing and self-editing, about what it takes to create a publishable manuscript… as well as that incredibly strong pull we each know, the pull that demands of us to write, even on the worst of days.
What IS that—that pull?
~~~
The December poll question:
"The best writers often do their finest work with a little clench of the teeth, or by closing a fist around their pen." (quote from David Teems’ bio of William Tyndale)
What do you think? And post thoughts!
And the results? 3:1 agree/disagree
This one made me very curious about your thoughts on the clenching and the fist—I could assume a dose of anger, and some strong feelings. But I’m not sure I should assume anything! In the comments, please share your thoughts on this. Ironically, Tyndale was a man with a rather sweet spirit by all accounts—or at least he was until they began to burn his books! But he did write with a particular urgency; he wanted to reach readers’ minds and hearts. Is that a “clench of teeth” or a “fist?”
There’s such anger and outrage in our current world—or at least this part of it. In some parts of the planet, people live with daily terror, and don’t have the time or mental room to do the outrage of so many who live in the top two-thirds of North America.
What are alternatives to writing with clenching and fist?
January poll
Along with the stereotype of “starving artist” there’s the same of artist-living-with-mental-health-issues. Some say they do their best work when suffering in some way. True, when I was a teen, I did keep a journal as a result of poor mental health, and feeling sad for prolonged periods of time. But I continued to write and years passed. I wrote less about myself, and more fictional stories, and there was a shift in the mental and emotional space from which I wrote. All our paths are so different.
Workshops
Picturebook, poetry, and scene (fiction and nonfiction), will be starting up again this month. Let me know if you’d like to take part, and email your submission to me at alison@alisonacheson.com so I can add them to the queue.
Note word lengths: picturebook no longer than 600, and “scenes” no longer than 1200. Here is info about the scene workshop—how to access and take part.
How to access the “Workshop Space”
You need first to be a paid subscriber. Then click on your icon at the upper RH corner, and the drop-down will have “Manage Subscription.” From there you can click on the “Workshop” option under “Notifications.” That will connect you with the “workshop space.”
Once registered, you can click on the sub-title of “Workshop Space” right under “Unschool for Writers” at the top of the newsletter page.
Questions of time commitment
Only one piece is posted each week. With enough people involved there is no need for any one of us to take on full feedback. Avoid repeating what has already been said, and simply open with one or two. It keeps the time commitment minimal—which most of us need. At the end of the week, the writer has received a mix and depth of feedback.
Questions? Please ask!
December re-cap
With the second half of the month as a break, I did not post my usual amount. We worked through a handful of workshop pieces, especially in the poetry group—good to see. Elizabeth introduced us to the form of “dizain”—thank you!
Some few posted “holiday stories” in the December prompt space. (If you have one you’ve been working on and the month got away on you, please don’t hesitate to post it at any point! It’s never too late.)
The potpourri first-of-the-month newsletter had a piece that concluded my process journal pieces dealing with radical cutting. And the monthly prompt thread was one of holiday writing.
I reviewed Annie Finch’s tome, A Poet’s Craft. And followed up with a discussion thread. There was a wonderful selection of links shared in the thread. Do check out, and thank you to those who contributed!
The post on The Power of Three looks at this in structure and elements, details and setting. A way of thinking about story-telling. When I added it to the Index, I placed it under “foundational”—even though the idea is worthy of frequent revisit. Some key pieces of writing knowledge are both foundational and perennial.
I finished the month with a “notes” piece to let you know I’d be taking a break, and to share a note I saw in the Neil Young film Harvest Time. (The note was on Young’s piano as he was playing) This is it:
“God Respects Me When I Work, He Loves Me When I Sing”
~ Rabindranath Tagore, (1861-1941), Bengali poet & philosopher
So let the singing begin…
Onward with 2023, Unschool Writers!
I used to live most of my life with a clenched fist. To me it means pushing, over-efforting, tension. It's not how I do my best work and it's not how I want to live. I have gone from being an ardent striver in most areas of life, to being someone that worships ease and flow. Relaxed effort is much more productive and enjoyable than it's opposite. Thank you!
Interesting poll on reasons behind getting paid to write... many big opportunities don’t pay but the exposure is worth considering. Getting back to payment for writing, it can be motivating to receive payment for something I’ve put a lot of time and effort into - as much as (if not more than) my full-time work. Just to be paid for the output (like an artist selling a painting). Although many lit mags don’t charge people to read their online content, so there’s that too (though they may receive support from advertisers). I suppose that’s where grants can fill a gap, although they are very competitive and never guaranteed.