Allison K. Williams's Blog, page 44

My Editor Ghosted Me

And I’m At a Loss for Words

By Fredricka Maister

In June, my editor, Jessica, wrote, “Just wanted to let you know that I’m running a couple days behind on getting the (minimal) notes on Part III to you. Sorry for the delay.”

She was referring to the 40 pages I had sent her in April.

After working with Jessica for almost two years on my book of essays, I had grown accustomed to her delays. Early in our relationship, Jessica had a new baby, her father had recently died and she, an o...

The Unexpected Blahs of Post-Publishing Blues

By Kathy Wagner

I never thought I’d write a book. Sure, I daydreamed about it; I imagined myself flustered by Oprah’s effusive praise or wearing a glittery designer gown while accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature. I mused over my literary fantasies in the same way I imagined how I’d spend my eighty-three million dollars of lottery winnings, even though I was way too practical to buy a ticket.

As a single mom with three kids to feed, the idea of spending decades of training, practice ...

Too Vast for Words: Writing Prompts for Large Subjects

The essay is a grapple, a cheerfully desperate attempt to drape words on thoughts or emotions  mostly too vast for words.
                                    —Brian Doyle

By Marcia Aldrich

What writer among us hasn’t felt overwhelmed by the enormity of the subject before us? In teaching student writers I realized that they needed strategies to tackle a large subject, to come at it from the side or through the back door—to sneak up on it, so to speak.

One unit I taught in creative no...

Moving Beyond Resistance

By Elizabeth Fletcher

I have a confession: I hate sitting down to write.

When I overcome that not-so-small hurdle and begin the work of translating the images and voices in my head, wrestling words into sentences and then rearranging sentences until they fuse into something complete, I step out of my own way and find fun. For as much as I loathe sitting down to write, there’s an ecstatic high to having written, to losing a sense of a self and being surprised along the way.

To underst...

Law & Order (And Your Memoir)

By Allison K Williams

When producer Dick Wolf created the first of the long-running Law & Order family of TV series, he split the show in half on purpose. In the early 1990s, it was difficult to sell an hourlong drama into syndication, and syndicated reruns were where the money was. Hence, two parts, as Wolf told the New York Times in 1992:

“The second half-hour is slightly shorter than the first,” Mr. Wolf says. “So you can run the cops one night, and the next night the lawyers, with ...

Five Reasons to Incorporate Food into Your Writing This Year

By Jessica Kehinde Ngo

Everyone has New Year’s resolutions they’re newly embracing or already breaking. If you’re like many writers, your resolution may be to write more, submit more, get published, or take your writing to the next level. With this in mind, I’d like to offer you five reasons to spice up your prose with references to food. Doing so just may help you to accomplish all of the above and even have a little–or a lot–of fun in the process.

ONE: Tap into memories.

When I sit...

How Chronic Pain Changed My Writing Process

By Heather Sweeney

When I first started writing, I was very particular. I needed either complete silence or music with no lyrics that would jumble the words I was trying to compose. I needed to reacquaint myself with whatever project I was working on because I didn’t like jumping right in where I left off. And most importantly, I needed a long block of uninterrupted time.

Whether I wrote after tucking my young children in bed for the night or parked myself at my desk for hours of marath...

How It Feels to Be Free

By Barbara Phillips

In 2018, I realized after reading Kiese Laymon’s Heavy, a universally lauded memoir, that my writing came from paddling around in honesty’s shallow waters.

As a novice writer of memoir, the essays I’ve written reflect the standard line, “write what you know.” Meanwhile, Kiese’s writing came from the terrifying deep end of the emotional honesty pool, and I just about quit in despair of having the courage to get there.

Kiese introduces Heavy with direct address to h...

Exploring the Memoirist’s Creative Soul

On the occasion of memoirist Sue William Silverman’s new craft guide, Acetylene Torch Songs: Writing True Stories to Ignite the Soul, Brevity editor Dinty W. Moore took the occasion to interview Silverman about her unique, holistic approach. Like a torch in the darkness, Silverman’s advice to writers “brings together the heart, mind, and senses to illuminate the human condition.”

Moore: I have read my fair share of craft guides over the years, and have even written a few, but I am struck b...

Wild Creativity: Breaking the Rules to Build a Creative Process

By Megan Baxter

It’s dark here this time of year. The sun barely clears the pines. But the moon is brilliant on the snow and birches, and my dogs sleep restlessly as the coyotes sing on the wooded paths that braid through the timber lot. This time of year, everyone has something they want to resolve or do differently. All I’d wanted to do was fire the burn pile while the snow was low, but the equinox slipped by, and then the holidays, and now a year too has turned over. Already, I can feel...