You'll Want to Read This (Or: Ch-ch-changes Around Here)

two square pegs? what are you talking about?

illustration by Rosalie Perl

It’s 3:36 AM. I’ve temporarily taken the clock off the wall so I won’t be constantly aware of how I’m awake too early, despite feeling as though I got enough sleep. I’ve got a chilled bottle of lime-cucumber Gatorade by my side and the week has felt like it’s speeding by—a perfect time to tell you about some changes with The Unexpected Shape.

As you might’ve been able to tell by the subject line of this post and the new header (isn’t it nice?), The Unexpected Shape is taking a bit of a pivot. It isn’t a sharp turn ‘round the mountain. More like a gentle tilting of the road toward what it seemed like this newsletter was already trying to be.

A struggle I’d long had with this Substack was the issue of wanting to share personal essays and love-letter-like missives with you all, while also wanting to share nonfiction craft essays for those of you who want to, or are, writing nonfiction. In the end, it felt like trying to fit two square pegs simultaneously into a square hole, instead of feeling like I could concentrate on both in a way that made sense.

And so: this Substack is now a publication that is less focused on “how to write personal nonfiction” (keep reading, though; there’s a separate place to subscribe for writerly talk) and more like a series of personal essays and love letters to you all. As the new tagline says, it’s now a publication for thoughtful softies. If that resonates with you, I’d encourage you to subscribe if you aren’t subscribed; if you’re already subscribed, or a paid subscriber, read on to see what else will be changing around here.

What if you signed up for The Unexpected Shape Newsletter for the year for writing talks and classes? As a part of The Unexpected Shape, I’ll be holding monthly Fireside Chats for paid subscribers, which will be an opportunity to listen to me talk about aspects of writing and/or living with limitations, as well as a chance to hang out together and work on responding to writing prompts. This will be a bit of an experiment—I may increase the number of Fireside Chats we have per month if they prove to be popular—but the first one will be on February 27, 2024, at 10 AM Pacific Time, and I’ll send out an email to paid subscribers with the Zoom link the day before so you can join in the fun. (And yes, there will be a recording!) Paid subscribers will also continue to get little presents here and there—the last thing I made and sent out was an e-book of journal prompts, but I’m excited to surprise you with new things as they arise.

And what about those of you who are (also?) interested in emails about writing personal nonfiction? That will now be the purview of a free newsletter called the Academy Bulletin, which you can subscribe to at the page HERE. Expect emails about personal nonfiction writing, including craft essays, personal nonfiction prompts, new class announcements, discounts, and freebies. People who subscribe to the Academy Bulletin will also receive a free online class called The 10-Day MFA. If the below excerpt pings something in you, you might want to grab a copy.

You feel like you might not be able to get there without having received an MFA—or any formal writing education at all. The author's bios you see at the back of your favorite books frequently mention an MFA, and you worry that if you don't, you won't have what it takes to write the book of your dreams. But you can't bear to walk away from that very dream—so, what next?

I received an MFA from one of the top three MFA programs in the country. I've also been on the other side as a visiting professor at an MFA program. I'm confident that the things that I feel were most important to my writing practice over ten years from the date of my graduation would surprise you... and I want to share them.

I’m bringing all of my learnings and first-hand experience to bear to host my first on-demand class designed to springboard you right into working on your first book: The 10-Day MFA.

I hope you’re excited about these shifts around here; I certainly am. Thank you for being here—and for those of you who join the Academy Bulletin, I’ll see you there (and again, you can sign up for that HERE. ❤️