Allison K. Williams's Blog, page 3

Craft Your Thunder Jacket

How to Limit Re-Trauma When Writing

By Melissa Fraterrigo

The rain starts, a soft thrum, and Dylan, our pandemic lab-collie mix darts from his bed and hurls himself at my ankles. His soft fur is plush against my skin but he’s trembling, rattling my desk, and I have work to do. Hard work.

“It’s okay, buddy,” I say. “I’ve got you.” I retrieve Dylan’s thunder jacket, a soft polyester coat that slips over his front legs and Velcro’s at the midsection like a straightjacket. The fabric hol...

Want to Overcome Self-Sabotage? Start with This Question.

By Lisa Cooper Ellison

I have always hated pin the tail on the donkey.

Growing up in the late 1970s and ‘80s, it was the birthday party game of choice. I wilted every time I saw that paper donkey taped to the wall, knowing that after cake, I’d be blindfolded, spun around, and sent on a futile mission.

Writing can feel the same way—we start with a sparkly idea, but the path between inspiration and completion can be just as disorienting. And like playing pin the tail on the donkey, our...

The Fine Art of Flexible Storytelling

Throw open new storytelling doorways and let in some air

By Dinty W. Moore

There are any number of reasons we get stuck while writing a memoir, not the least of which is that looking inward is exhausting. Trying to remember, trying to process, trying to distinguish between false memory and reliable recollection. Hard, hard, hard.

And of course, so much of what we as memoirists explore is tied to past trauma or disappointments, and revisiting those moments can be draining as well.

...

Your Piece Was Not Chosen

By Lucinda Guard Crofton

The persistent noise grows louder and louder, smashing my dream into bits. Slowly, the realization dawns on me that it’s my alarm insisting I rise up and face the day. Eyes half-open, I grab my cell and swipe it only to have my inbox greet me with yet another “We must decline your submission … we do wish you luck in placing this with another magazine.”

Ugh! Early morning rejections should come with a cup of steaming coffee (and a chocolate donut). I walk downsta...

Circling the Drain: The Movement from Idea to Essay

By Bernadette Geyer

My writing projects spawn and multiply in various computer folders, or huddle clipped together on my desk topped with a Post-it note that says “For editing.” There are also dozens of dog-eared journal pages, waiting for me to review and determine if there’s something to work on in the future. I’ve been binge-writing over the past year, words spilling from me as if some obstruction had finally been expelled.

This abundance has me thinking about my writing process—how ...

Sh*tty First Draft? No.

By Deborah Carr

Anne Lamott first coined the term “shitty first draft” in her 1994 book on writing, Bird by Bird. Her intent was for writers to free themselves from the burden of feeling that their first draft had to be perfect, or even coherent: it just had to be written down. But while the term has been widely adopted, the spirit in which it was created has not.

As used by some writers it sounds more like self-loathing. I get it—calling your first attempt “shit” takes away the sting o...

Memoir Writers: Be Like Wayne Thiebaud—An Obsessive Thief

By Vickie Barret

Years ago, during a writing class with a gifted and generous writer-teacher, the topic of what to read while writing came up. I looked to our writer-teacher for a singular answer, and without hesitation, he explained that he couldn’t read anything in the same genre he happened to be writing in.

It was an important, self-evident rule: when writing a memoir, don’t read memoirs; same goes for fiction.

I bristled. Because at the time, I wasn’t just casually reading a mem...

Memoir Writers: Be Like Wayne Theibaud—An Obsessive Thief

By Vickie Barret

Years ago, during a writing class with a gifted and generous writer-teacher, the topic of what to read while writing came up. I looked to our writer-teacher for a singular answer, and without hesitation, he explained that he couldn’t read anything in the same genre he happened to be writing in.

It was an important, self-evident rule: when writing a memoir, don’t read memoirs; same goes for fiction.

I bristled. Because at the time, I wasn’t just casually reading a mem...

Making the Personal Universal: Incorporating Research into your Creative Practice

By Amy Shea

I didn’t set out to write a researched narrative nonfiction book. I’d spent over a decade writing mostly personal essays and creative nonfiction. But when I felt the pull to write on the topic of disparities in death and dying, which eventually developed into my debut book, Too Poor to Die: The Hidden Realities of Dying in the Margins, I found myself diving headlong into research.

It was unfamiliar territory. As I began my doctorate, where I researched and wrote the first dr...

When The Words Won’t Come

By Natalie Serianni

It’s been four months since I’ve written anything. 

Sure, I’ve jotted down ideas. Does that count?

And it’s… weird.                          

The problem wasn’t that I wasn’t writing. The problem was that I didn’t miss it.

It all started in January. I was teaching a nine-week personal essay writing class outside of my full-time job. And I soon became committed to my students’ success. They were pumping out incredible pieces and I knew I could support them. I...