May 2021 The Unschool for Writers: first monthly Newsletter

Welcome!

Newsletters will be posted and emailed the first of each month to all subscribers.

It is so good to see writers signing up to take part in this venture—especially as I continue to post and bring it all together.

Each newsletter will include brief descriptions of pieces posted in the past month, in the event you’ve missed something. The nature of Substack is that it is not easy to organize posts! So I am working to make titles and subtitles guide you to what the article is about. But for those with limited reading time, or interests that are quite focused, I hope such “indexing” is useful.

I will also be establishing an index of pieces on the welcome page, and will add to it each month, so you can find what you seek in the archives. (Scroll down the righthand side…)

I will also, each month, give you some idea of upcoming features.

The GIANT STEW that is the Unschool for Writers

Yes, it is a giant stew. The almost-a-dozen books I have published range from picturebooks to memoir to children’s nonfiction, YA, middle-grade historical… it’s eclectic, yes. And I envision the readers/writers here as being on the writer-spectrum from curious beginner to exhausted freelancer or advanced and seeking community, further knowledge, inspiration. And yes, I think it’s possible to make this happen.

Even if you’ve been writing for years, you still have moments where something can feel new in a most disorienting way. Or you may have waited until your seventh decade to begin to write, and you find yourself digging into the so-called “advanced” material, as some of your “apprenticeship” has simply happened along the way of life.

Any art form is hard to pin down in all ways.

So let’s get to work.

May 2021 Prompt

—because every month will have either a prompt or exercise

If you take a look at the book review about The Gift, in the comments, you’ll find an exchange between Lyle Young and I about the circuitous nature of how some people write, both nonfiction and fiction. I mention how this works within The Gift, with Lewis Hyde, author, arriving at the most interesting conclusions toward the close of his chapters; chapter after chapter I was so moved by how he would bring together his ideas, and then take them further, to a new place. I found myself re- and re-reading.

Your prompt this month, is to take either a piece you are working on (maybe one you’ve set aside…?) or even a thought/idea you have had for a piece, and find no less than twelve thoughts—even just pieces of thought—to add to it.

You might want to do this with old-school paper and pen. Or on screen. However best you work.

Set a timer. Absolutely no more than 15 minutes. Don’t censor yourself.

As you work toward the goal of twelve, you’ll come up with a few that seem solid, and then might feel a bit of a wall rising. Your thoughts might go to silly, unbelievable, downright outlandish… WRITE THEM DOWN ANYWAY. And go on.

If your timer goes off and you still don’t have twelve, don’t walk away; stay in place and complete. The meander thing? Let your mind go.

Years of early and secondary education have trained the mind to come to a conclusion before writing. There is little in the way of explorative writing as we grow up. So to open ourselves to exploring on paper, to seeing our minds in front of us, grappling, circling. Wandering.

Try not to judge any of the twelve pieces you come up with. Over several days, spend 5-10 minutes with each, developing it. Once you have given each time, then return to your original idea. Don’t be afraid of the circuitous. Don’t be afraid to go in the corners!

Forthcoming posts - what I’m working on

I am currently putting together a comprehensive list (with reviews) of writing books. This may have to be done in several sections; it is getting long! Books for beginning writers, grammar, punctuation books. Books about craft that are also memoirs. And more advanced books.

And am also working on a series of foundational pieces for the beginner.

I also am prone to distraction… so that if something captures my interest, I explore. Which is how my 2-part piece about “post-MFA questions” came to be; I saw a tweet from former-student Lindsay Wong about issues she wishes had been addressed within her MFA program, and I couldn’t help but want to explore some thoughts in response. So I did. And there will be such posts, always. For May, I will be posting at least twice a week.

PLEASE POST ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE, or send me an email, and I will do my best to respond and create a post — alison@alisonacheson.com

I like to know what’s on your mind, what you’re struggling with in your writing.

April posts - summaries

The Craft and Art of Writing - a welcoming piece to the Unschool, explains what it is about, how it will work

On Educating Self—thoughts and pieces - similarly, a piece about the habits of self-educating: the reading, both fiction and about writing, journal-keeping, being involved in the world around you, and of course writing and wonder-and-dreams

Optimal Writing Time - the nature of time, daily, seasonally, annually, and how to make the best use of it for writing. This is a useful piece for both beginning writer and advanced who are struggling to make or find time

He Said, She Said, They Said, Too - a primer for the bug-bear of dialogue punctuation, something that many writers struggle with

Post-MFA Questions - in 2 parts, dealing with taxes, “day jobs,” balance, being “public,” dealing with rejection (all subjects that can easily be explored at more length later, too)

Book Review: The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World. What it is to be an artist.

Altogether, a mix of material, including some grammar/punctuation/language basic and a writing/art-book review. A pattern I hope to follow.

What’s the photograph of? My dad, and two little brothers, and myself, all working on a little house for me when I was a kid. I would sleep in that house from Easter weekend to Labour Day, and read every night until it was too murky dark to go on. I wrote in that little house, too. It was a place of dreams and the best work.

We need to hold on to those places, even if they exist only in our minds and hearts.

Bonus: here’s the link to a piece I recently had published by The Writer Magazine, published in Boston for over 100 years. Amazing.

https://www.writermag.com/improve-your-writing/fiction/character-interlands/

I’ll leave you with a quote from, Optimal Writing Time:

Keep in mind the significance of leaving time to fill the tank. Doing nothing is part of a writer’s work. Make time for it.

This is key.

Happy Writing in May!

June 1, I’ll go paid, and hope you’ll follow. I’ll do my best not to make it cost more than a decent coffee!