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1 week ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
It’s The Unschool’s 4th birthday since “going paid.” I am extraordinarily grateful to the 134 of you who actively support my work. I would not be here without each of you—You could be #135! Thank you—Or this offer, birthday gift for a friend:~~~First of the month posts are always a free mix-up, a taste of what The Unschool for Writers is about—crafty bits, the usual re-cap of monthly posts, a prompt…. A few days ago I posted about creating book launches.
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1 week ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
— don’t forget to ask someone to take photos —I started to work on a novel that I thought of as “Book of Frank” back in the fall of 2018. (Frank was somewhat Job-like.) Over four years later it was ready to send to my agent. With new title—BLUE HOURS—and renamed characters (Frank became Keith), the novel was accepted in the late summer of 2023.
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1 week ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
I was just thinking how long it’s been since we had a submission for feedback. And then I receive an email… and here we go! Thank you, Gina!Remember, please, not to share this with anyone outside of our PB critique group here! These WORKSHOP posts are released to all paying subscribers who have signed up for any worksh…
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2 weeks ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
Spoilers below. If you want to read the book first, go do that. Take your own notes as you read—what stands out, questions you are left with, the uses of POV, dialogue, setting, what you see as themes, the title…Or review this post, read the book, return and leave a comment. Some time ago, I thoroughly enjoyed and posted a close read of Eowyn Ivey’s earlier novel, The Snow Child. I focused on the quality of the emotional over the sentimental in that work.
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2 weeks ago | 
medium.com | Alison Acheson
Julian of Norwich on hindsight and creating a loopCreating has a serendipitous quality. It has to. Along with qualities of grinding, exhaustion, joy, and more — part of our creative fingerprint, surely. And every so often we touch in on that foundational principle of writing: “pay attention.” So many principles. To consider. To embrace. To eschew. The serendipity might pass right by. But it is there.
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3 weeks ago | 
medium.com | Alison Acheson
Learning about writing—for joy, even in the struggle to attach words-to-page. No content machines here. Fiction and nonfiction, poetry and writing for children and young people. In lieu of an MFA from some writing program.
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3 weeks ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
Why do they put the sticker right over her face, and block out part of the title? Sticker-person having a bad day… or thoughtless book design? Or something to think about later? Creating has a serendipitous quality. It has to. Along with qualities of grinding, exhaustion, and joy. (What would you add to these?)Every so often we touch in on that foundational principle of writing: “pay attention.” And what that might mean. The serendipity might pass right by. But it is there.
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1 month ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
At this point in the year, for the past few years, we’ve gone through a series of Q&A. This is the 4th in this series. If you have a question, please email it to me [email protected] or post in comment section. Susan’s question: I have become completely flummoxed, frustrated, and therefore frozen about how to use Substack, whether to abandon Medium (and, if so, what about my posts there—and the same with my long dormant original blog).
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1 month ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
On the first of each month, I post a newsletter that is indeed a mash-up—a re-cap of the month, a prompt, a craft piece at times, a poll… a taste of what The Unschool for Writers is about. It’s always for all readers. At the moment, we have the annual Q&A series, a time to focus on your questions. We’ve had two so far, and I’m including the third here as our monthly prompt. A fourth question has been emailed to me, and we’ll look at that in the coming days, and yes… I’m STILL TAKING QUESTIONS.
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1 month ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
There are a number of possible starting points, sharing words and sentence openers in the May 1 post. Here, you might share a prompt for others—a couple of words!Or share your writing in response to any one of the ideas/sentences in the post, or to a prompt left here by another Unschooler. Looking forward to reading what you come up with! And of course, any feedback you might offer those who share work:Leave a comment
