July 1 newsletter
On with the Work-Stories mini-course! Prompt... and all the usual in the potpourri of the month. This one's always for everyone, of course
Welcome!
…to those of you who have joined The Unschool recently, and a Thank you to those who’ve been here for months and longer. I appreciate each, supporting in your way, and getting something useful of all this. Some leave comments, and others quietly read and write; we’re here because we love words (and are furious with them at times, yes).
For those who are new, check out this piece on how to navigate—the Sub is not the most straightforward, I’ll admit. Remember: a click on the title of any post in your email, and you’ll go directly to the newsletter on the Substack site; it’s a different read on the site.
Workplace Stories - a mini-course
A reminder that through the summer I’ll be posting about “work stories,” or ‘work place’ stories.
Here’s the kick-off post which might guide you with ideas for stories:
A Mini-Course in Work Stories
Time for a mini-course of sorts. Work—employment—paid labour—is something most of us do for many hours and years of our lives. The salary buys us a roof (with any luck), food, clothing. Or warmth, security, nourishment. Beyond, it might buy us some books, music. Shoes we don’t need but love.
And a link to an article about work-place stories by women. For particularly snappy prose, check out the stories of Lucia Berlin, and her collection titled A Manual For Cleaning Women.
I’ve posted one of my own in my other Substack newsletter called “Words.” Here it is:
This story collection was published in 1998, and most of the stories were written several years before that, so long ago now that I’ve lost all digital copies, and am having to re-type.
This is the second story I’ve typed (!) from the collection. This other Substack of mine is a place for OOP work and various essays and pieces, somewhere to home these, and share.
But the process of re-typing at this point in time is strange. The words feel familiar and not. I find myself changing something, and then realizing that to do so is to set off a domino. Characters’ names no longer speak to me; yet I can’t envision anew on that.
But to focus on as a “work” piece… Those hairdressing years were much closer in time to me then. I stopped cutting hair professionally, and sold my tiny second-floor shop, with the birth of my first son. What was daily for me was over: the aches of standing for too many hours with arms in the air, the arriving at home after a work day to tweeze hair embedded in my midriff skin (ugh) on the days I wore anything with a waistband, the drinking of cold coffee in the staff room (hairs floating in it), the minimum wage and unpaid overtime of apprenticing, the raw hands with between fingers of snake-bite V-scissor-cuts when hands got shaky on tired Saturday afternoons… Then those moments of a client who has come in miserable from life itself, and sees something new in the mirror before they leave…
It’s a strange way to make a living. Most things are, possibly.
But all the details of what makes a day of work can be fascinating.
The hairdressing details for this story are only what is needed for this story. As should be. Later in the week I’d like to post about the fiction and not-so-fiction threads, and how we might work with them.
“Details” are the prompt for this month. They do not have to be details from the story you might write. Along with thinking and scribbling notes about work you’ve done, let your mind go with this—the details—and don’t hold yourself to having to follow-up in any way. Just remember, jot down, share.
I’ll leave it at that for now. Re-read the post with questions. Read the story. Think about your own. I’ll be posting further in the coming week and responding to any questions or thoughts you note, here or on the story itself.
Workshop space
And I’ll set up a workshop space for this. Paid subscribers can take part in workshopping. As for length, I won’t set a maximum, but know that—to date—longer stories tend not to get feedback. I wish it were otherwise! Maybe that will change. Let’s see. You need to email your submissions to me to post. If there are particular elements you would like feedback on, let me know, so they can be noted for readers.
And if you do post a piece, please comments on the works of others.
Email: alison@alisonacheson.com
Questions?
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Prompt
Share—possibly in bullet-point form—five things-you-know about a particular type of workplace. “Insider” stuff, like the above details I just shared. At least one of them should be surprising—a “you’d have to be there” detail.
As you read through others’ five, you might want to note for future writing projects to be able to inject one such detail at the right moment about a character creates reality in a story.
Post here in the July prompt thread.
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Poll
Glad I went back to the June 1 newsletter to have a look at the poll. The last time I looked, halfway through that first week of the month, the numbers were saying that Saturday would be the preferred day to post and read. But at the end of the week, when the poll closed, the mid-week days were the choice of almost half. Good to know. Thank you for taking part.
For July, summer reading:
And:
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From the Archives
With two months to go until the 3 Day Novel Contest happens:
Re-cap of June Posts
As always the first-of-the-month potpourri, looking at “delicious sentences” and celebrating two years as a paid newsletter here! Followed by the monthly free-for-all prompt to write such sentences.
I posted about our boundaries—what we write and share, and what we keep to our selves. There’s a thirst for blood out there; good to pause and consider.
And a post about keeping your characters in the unknowing—when you know what is going on all around them. It was something like a part II to the May post about not being “nice” to characters.
The monthly poetry discussion looked at chapter 6—“Sight and Sound” in A Poet’s Craft, working with imagery, a—notably—taking TIME with that work.
And the previously-mentioned piece about a proposed mini-course and workshop- opp with “Work-place Stories”—do check it out for ideas.
With a month’s-closer of going deeper into our work—in this case, writing about picturebook creating, but applicable to all forms.
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Do email me with any writing or publishing questions alison@alisonacheson.com, or post in the comments section here.
Write on—
Like the advice and motivation. I just started putting memoir stories on Substack and have some about work in the pipeline. Here's a short Hairdresser related story. Thirty years ago when I was starting my marketing coach business Maye Musk (Elon's mum) was a Dietician with her own clients. I was helping her and learned from her that Hairdressers were her best source of new clients. I was able to use that principle for many clients going forward asking my clients "Who do you not compete with and has lots of clients who could be your clients?"
I keep coming back to this, but my deepest workplace stories were so traumatizing I still cannot process them into a readable form, whether as fiction or non-fiction. I think because to this day I still haven't fully understood the why of it all.