Allison K. Williams's Blog, page 19

How to Love Substack Without Suffocating In It

By Caitlin Gorman

I was drowning in my Substack. A deluge of daily noise demanded my attention. Monday essay roundups, Tuesday writing prompts, Wednesday self-revelation, Thursday threads, Friday wrap ups. Advice on how to feel less alone in our writing lives, bittersweet memories spun into soft yarn, sharp observations that slice, draw blood.

Click through, click through, click through. I wanted it all.

Other emails poked at my vulnerability. A strange compulsion, this “upgrade to p...

Rejection: A Sign You’re On The Path

From the Editors

Here at The Brevity Blog, we love being in dialogue with other terrific literary sites. In a January 10th essay at Electric Literature, Benjamin Schaefer writes on rejection, and the pursuit of success as a writer, mentioning our editor Allison K Williams’ much-shared essay, Rejection Is Not Feedback.

Schaefer writes:

* * *

Rejection may be accompanied by feedback—which may or may not be useful (another important distinction)—but in and of itself, rejection is ...

The Lens Shifts; The Story Breathes

By Anna Quinn

I was fourteen when my mother gave me a camera for my birthday—a small, unassuming Instamatic. I knew she worried about the huge amount of time I spent walking alone and thought a camera might keep me company, or maybe she hoped it would tether me to the world in a way I hadn’t yet figured out for myself.

Whatever her reason, the camera changed my life.

Taking photos quieted the endless churn of thoughts in my mind. Instead of spiraling over things beyond my control, I ...

The Universe Has a Plan for Us and Our Stories

By Lainy Carslaw

I pulled my white Jeep Wrangler to the edge of a parking lot on Chatham’s Eden Hall Campus which sits among green space and rolling farmland thirty minutes north of the city of Pittsburgh.  But before turning onto the road, I paused, almost hesitant to leave. A vast meadow was spread across the street directly in front of me. It was the perfect time of day, not quite dark or light but some beautiful in between. White butterflies zig-zagged through the air and brown swallow...

Quitting Time: Why You Need to Let Go of that Writing Project

By Allison K Williams

As writers, we’re sold on the value of perseverance. Just do another draft. Just keep working. Send another query, another submission. One day you’ll break through. Sit down and finish. Now. Today. This week. In fifteen-minute increments while waiting for carpool, or in one wild coffee-fueled weekend. I think I can, I think I can.

I can get to the end of this sentence. This paragraph. This page. This essay. This book.

But there’s value in quitting, too.

The p...

Writers! Add More Horns!!!

The Power of Context, Movement, and Desire in Literary Description  

By Dinty W. Moore

In writing workshops, our fellow writers will inevitably tell us to “Add more detail!”

Okay, but isn’t that a bit like telling someone attempting to compose a symphony to “Add more NOISE!”?

“What sort of noise? Horns, strings, or percussion?”

“Oh, maybe horns!”

“Why horns!?” you might ask. “And what should those horns sound like?”

When our fellow writers tell us to add more details, the...

What Is Your Ambition? The Reasons to Write

By Beth Kephart

I think of my first book, all those years ago, as a letter—words of gratitude for the people I loved and for a child, most especially, who had taught me all that matters most about perseverance, integrity, and courage. Upon publication day for A Slant of Sun: One Child’s Courage, I swept the few downstairs rooms of our house of unnecessary furniture (and dust), prepared (with the help of my mother) a feast, and opened the door to my friends.

This was my ambition, then: T...

A Letter to the Brevity Blog Community—Our Editors’ Wish List

Dear Writers,

We’re always impressed and sometimes surprised by what arrives in The Brevity Blog inbox. An interesting, informative and inspiring conversation about creative nonfiction writing has developed and continues to flow, thanks to you. Still, we’re often asked, “What are you looking for on the Blog?” As 2025 arrives, we collectively set about to answer that question.

Our Editors’ Wish List—topics that we’d like to learn more about or dig into more deeply:

Hybrids

The Blog...

Self as an Open-Ended Question: Displacement, Narrative Distance, and Spirit Houses in Memoir

A Conversation Between Karen Salyer McElmurray and Sonya Lea

Sonya Lea

Kentuckians Karen Salyer McElmurray and Sonya Lea now live on opposite coasts but met through their publisher, University Press of Kentucky. They read each other’s recent/forthcoming books, and their first conversation afterward was around researching the self, and how we question who we think we are.

Sonya: I’ve been thinking about the themes that we share as writers—home and travel and hardship and healing. One of t...

This Year You’ll Finish Your Book…Here’s How

By Allison K Williams

Is this the year you recommit to a project that’s languished, unfinished, for months or years? The one where you think:

one day…
when I can dig out my notes…
and have a few solid hours to really dive in…

Newsflash: Your calendar will never magically pop up “Today You Can Focus Entirely on That One Project.” To finish that book rusting in the back of your mind, you must actively bring it forward.

First, pick one. (You know you have more than one.)

Which proj...