Allison K. Williams's Blog, page 23

Social Media Sucks: What Now?

By Allison K Williams

Photo by Alan Copson

For 20 years now, I have been Extremely Online. I knew the memes. I kept tabs on news. I connected with thousands of writers and readers around the world, and met quite a few in person. Social media was a playground with no rules beyond “don’t piss off everyone else or you’ll pay for it,” and all the kids on the block played fun games and told secrets and used our imaginations to make comedy and tragedy and meaning in bite-size, constant gifts of w...

When to Care and When Not To

By Deborah M. Prum 

My vocation is writing, but my avocation is painting, mostly portraits. I belong to a Facebook group dedicated to showing the work of artists who are trying to create loose watercolor paintings. Members range from people whose pieces could be displayed at a prestigious museum to beginners who are asking for comments and helpful tips on their first attempts. 

A self-avowed beginner posted several portraits online. Using vivid colors and bold strokes, her paintings por...

Should You Narrate Your Own Audiobook? 8 Things I Learned

By Suzanne Roberts

When I was a little girl, I said “aminal” for animal and put an extra syllable in “hamburger.” Not only did I hate my name (try pronouncing Suzanne Roberts with a lisp) but I was terrified of reading aloud. When a teacher asked for volunteers, I shrank in my seat, hoping I wouldn’t be called on. I eventually outgrew my lisp. Many years later, I found out I had dyscalculia, a form of dyslexia: I was (and still am) horrible with math, but also I had, and still have, diffic...

Should You Write That Book? Well, Maybe Not Just Yet

By Dinty W. Moore

Those of us who have survived six or seven decades wandering around this imperfect planet are regularly encouraged to make our bucket list—things we want to do before we kick the bucket—and for many people the list includes: “Write a book, tell my story.”

I get it!

If you’ve lived an adventurous life, or leapt over numerous hurdles, or conquered an intractable demon, your story is important—and what could be better than sharing it on the page? I’ve made it through ...

Navigating Race and Language, While Trying to Bring Us “A Little Closer to the Truth”

Nancy T. McGlasson

By Nancy T. McGlasson

My grandmother, Lucile Barrow Turner (1895-1979), was the first woman to host a nationally broadcast radio program, and a White woman who performed Black songs and stories.

‘Cile, as she was called, first collected and studied the songs as a young girl attending church with Robert and Rosa Jones, a Black couple who worked for her parents in Blackstone, Virginia. Robert—the song-leader at Mt. Zion—and Rosa encouraged her interest in music and expl...

Being Creative in Difficult Times: Do Anything That Isn’t Nothing

By Laura G. Carroll

For several days before this election, I was barely able to write. In the days between November 1 and November 5, I waited anxiously with the rest of the country to find out our future. The results of the election, I thought, would affect the calculus of what I’d do with the next 4 years of my life. Would I be able to pursue my dreams of finishing my book and trying to find literary success? Or would I need to devote all my energy to keeping myself and my loved ones saf...

As Necessary as a Heartbeat: In Defense of the Narrative Arc

By Nancy McCabe

“I don’t write stories with arcs,” a participant in one of my workshops recently said. “I just write about walking in the woods.”

“Why do you walk in the woods?” I asked her.          

Nature is soothing, she said. It takes her away from the tensions of her day.

“So that’s a conflict?” I asked. “You’re feeling tense.”

“But I don’t resolve anything,” she said. “I just observe things. I like to write about looking at wild mushrooms. I go home and I do more researc...

Structuring a Writing Life

By Heather Sellers      

When I was a young writer, I kept a timecard—if I met my goals, in terms of time at the desk, I treated myself to some kind of prize (usually clothes, music, or food). I spent a lot of time just writing. I wasn’t strategic. I did not then return to the desk in order to improve my technique. I was filling up the time with writing, in order to get the reward.

Now, I design my writing life in the same way I design a plot. When we strategize a story, we’re thinking ...

Change Your Book and Change Your Life

By Allison K Williams

Image from MajesticPrints on Etsy

Writing memoir is not therapy. Sure, the process of writing can be therapeutic, and journaling, free-writing, and writing with intention can be part of a healing process (ideally one with professional support). But writing for strangers to read, to be moved and entertained and perhaps even to apply the lessons of your life to their own is not therapy, any more than cabinet-making or art-quilting or singing in the choir replaces prescri...

On Learning to Enjoy the Ethical Round of Edits

By Brook McClurg

A perennial consideration for nonfiction authors is the thorny issue of what it means to write about the other people who populate our works. We must consider the ways in which telling our story might necessarily include a cast of characters that, without conscious effort, would have no agency in their portrayal on the page. Earlier this year, as my book headed toward publication, the problem moved from academic concern to pragmatic consideration.

I have long had two, d...