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1 week 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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2 weeks 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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2 weeks 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
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2 weeks ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
NOTE that this is #2 of a series of Q&A for The Unschool for Writers. Every year around this time, readers send questions, either to my email ([email protected]) or leave in a comment — I make my way through them one by one and post thoughts/answers. It’s a fave time of mine, to discover what’s most on your mind.
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2 weeks ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
This question was emailed to me from a subscriber. I’ve edited so it’s a bit more general—although I think others relate to the specificity of this. So many are in this place of trying to lash together work/career with writing at its centre. ~~~Question: I’ve seen your Q&A prompt on the Unschool, and it made me think to reach out with a bigger burning question.
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3 weeks ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
For the last couple years, I’ve done Q&A at this time of year. (You can check these out in the indexes on the home page, in the lower right hand corner.)It’s a piece of The Unschool that I particularly enjoy—hearing from you, what’s on your mind, what is your empty page asking of you, where you’re at in this work. Email me: [email protected] a commentI look forward to this—Alison
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4 weeks ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
For some time now there’s been a distinct trend in published novels to have multiple viewpoints and shifting timelines; a story told chronologically, from the lens of one character—first or third person—is feeling rare at this point. But regardless of number of voices and threads of time, regardless of what went before, or how denouement takes shape, the point of convergence is the crisis. Or, the crisis takes place at the point-of-convergence.
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1 month ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
Following my last post, and knowing there’s a number of new subscribers and followers here, I’ve put together the collection of some of the ‘close read’ posts I’ve written for The Unschool. I’m looking forward to sharing one of Black Woods Blue Sky, but in the meantime a little weekend reading before my mid-month post!What works have you learned the most from as a writer? * Also: it’s that time of year again—to begin a Q&A series.
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1 month ago | 
unschoolforwriters.substack.com | Alison Acheson
Two threads are at play for this post. One of the two is my recent read of Eowyn Ivey’s latest work. Last year I posted a ‘close read’ of her The Snow Child. This one is Black Woods Blue Sky, and I’ll post a close read as soon as the copy I’ve ordered from my fave bookstore comes in for a second read. It’s that good! I returned it to the library with 24 people in line for it, and had to order my own. The ending of this novel is one of the finest I’ve read in a number of years.
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1 month ago | 
medium.com | Alison Acheson
Member-only storyAnother writing “principle” to questionAlison Acheson·FollowPublished inThe Unschool for Writers·7 min read·--photo by authorBack in the day, works for children were intended to be instructive — how to be in the world, AKA listen to the wise adults. In the past, many children’s books read more like historical Sunday School papers.
