Featured Writer: Alissa Butterworth
On creating space to write and writing advice.
Welcome to Women Writing!
About the author…
Alissa Butterworth is an author, editor, certified book coach, and educator. She has taught creative writing to teens through seniors and holds a longstanding Writer’s Workshop. Alissa is particularly interested in helping students discover (or rediscover) their own voices and gifts. Her short story “The Carriage Held but Just Ourselves” debuted as part of the Satellite Collective’s Telephone international art exhibit and was published in the accompanying Crosstown Press print anthology. Her short story “Girls Who See Gods” will be released as part of the next Telephone exhibit, slated for late 2025. She has appeared on television and the radio. Her debut novel To Die Is Different Than Supposed was published in February 2025 through River Grove Books. Alissa earned an MFA in fiction from Lesley University. She lives in Pennsylvania with her family, which includes a silly rescue hound named Scout and a boisterous preschooler.
On a writing routine …
I wish I had a more consistent routine than I do! Being a working parent to a young child can make it tough to find the time in my day-to-day routine in which to write. I used to have the privilege of long, luxurious uninterrupted writing sessions, but these days I find time when I can, usually in the afternoons when my kid is asleep, or at school. I’m no good creatively in the evenings, so I get whatever work I’m going to do done when the sun’s still out. My aspiration to is to have more consistent writing sessions, but realistically, I engage with writing or writing-adjacent tasks (reading craft books, fueling my creativity) most days. And overall, I’m fairly happy with that because I’m still getting the work done. It might not be as quickly as it used to be, but I’m finding what works for me now in this season of my life.
“Get comfortable with failure, because once you do, nothing can stop you.”
On writing spaces …
I write in a few different places, which change depending on the stage of the process I’m at. When I draft, I tend to curl up somewhere comfy with my laptop—my bed, the couch, a favorite chair. When I’m revising, I get more done when I’m sitting at my desk. Revising is a less organic, more focused task, so it requires an organized space that signals “it’s time to work.” Regardless of where I’m working or what mode I’m in, music is extremely important to my process. I write and revise on my laptop so I have access to lots of good background music to help settle my mind.
On writing communities …
I don’t currently belong to a writing group, per se, but I moderate one: I teach a long-running Writers Workshop at least twice a year. It’s been going on for almost a decade now, and I have a core group of dedicated writers who join us term after term. I’m really proud of the community we’ve created together, and the safe space the Workshop has become for those folks. We not only critique work, but we support one another throughout writing challenges and celebrate successes. I feel a strong sense of community with those workshop friends. I’m also affiliated with the alumni group from my MFA program, The Cambridge Common Writers, which is another community of fantastic writers who go out of their way to support one another. They do phenomenal work in connecting alumni, and promoting everyone’s achievements. As I often tell fellow writers, writing is a lonely vocation, so it’s important to find community where you can. For me, the communities I’m part of offer fellowship, as well as career support. In addition, I’ve made some really great friends I wouldn’t have encountered if it weren’t for the creative writing classroom or community. What I love about writing is how it brings people from all walks of life together to focus on something positive. That’s hard to find in today’s world, but it’s all the more necessary. That’s perhaps the biggest benefit I see in from the communities I participate in.
On challenges …
It’s always easier to not write than to write, and so if I’m not intentional in trying to make space for writing, it’s what goes by the wayside. Deadlines help, but even when I have them it can be tough to find the time to work. Most often the things that keep me from the page are the mundane tasks of family and everyday life that pile up.
A good example happened recently. I was given an assignment for the 3rd Telephone Game, hosted by the Satellite Collective. If you’re not familiar with Telephone, it’s a version of the schoolyard “whisper down the line” game most of us played as kids. Instead of simply translating a message from one person to another, Telephone asks players to translate a message from one art form to another. A composer’s piece might be sent to a painter, who translates the message they distill from the music into visual art. That painting then might be sent to a poet, who translates it into a poem, and so on. Each artist only has two weeks to create their work before it’s sent off to the next participant.
I received my assignment right when my kid came down with the trifecta of winter ailments: an ear infection, sinus infection and bronchitis, all at once. Add to that the fact that we had family visiting, and it was not the best of times for me to slip away and write a short story.
What happened, though, was interesting. The forced deadline made me have to get the piece done, but the fractured way I had to write it ended up impacting the structure of the story. I ended up writing a series of vignettes, snapshots of different characters and places and times. Stitched together, they become a full narrative, but individually they reflect the short snatches of time I stole from my everyday life to compose. I didn’t expect it to go that way, but the challenge ended up shaping the story in a fascinating way.
On the best writing advice …
The best piece of writing advice I ever received was from my writing mentor in grad school, the novelist William Lychack. He said to finish your full first draft before you go back to polish/revise. You need to build the bridge before you can walk across it.
I remind myself and my students of this advice often. I introduce it as “the best writing advice I was ever given, but that I didn’t take.” I did a lot of polishing without finishing the first draft of my debut novel, To Die Is Different Than Supposed. I 100% could have completed that draft much sooner had I listen to that advice.
There is such a strong tendency to want to get our opening pages “perfect” before we move on to the rest of the narrative, or to linger on getting a certain scene just right. But this is to the detriment of the story as a whole, and can lead to writers never finishing their drafts. This inclination to polish as you go is one I see and hear about most commonly with writers I talk to and work with, so it’s one I try to warn folks about early on. Finish your dirty first draft, and then polish and revise to your heart’s content.
On the worst writing advice …
I had an English teacher in 9th grade who told me that I shouldn’t write creatively because she thought it wasn’t my strong suit, and that I would find it “too stressful.” For perspective, as a girl I used to sit at my mom’s old typewriter from college and write stories and poems for fun. I wrote for the local paper as a teen correspondent, published poetry from the age of 12, and otherwise poured my heart onto the page.
I was taken aback by her comment, especially since she gave it face-to-face in an afterschool conference. I was too young to realize I could ask her why she said it, or what she based her thoughts on. I was especially confused by the “too stressful” part, since writing was always what I did to relax.
I thought about what she said quite a bit, but ultimately wasn’t cowed by it. I continued to pursue my craft, and in all the years I can honestly say it’s never been “too stressful” for me. In many ways, that silly old comment has made me acutely aware of the importance of a writer’s relationship to her work. A writer’s process is personal, and as an educator, workshop leader, coach and partner-in-craft, it’s my job not to steer that process, but to provide a mirror and a sounding board. I’ll offer an opinion if asked, but a writer’s journey is her own, and I’d never dream of telling her to step off that path if she desires to follow it.
On advice from personal experiences …
Allow yourself to fail on the page in early drafts. It’s okay to write a first draft that’s ugly. As women, perfectionism is ingrained in us from early childhood, but it is the mortal enemy of creative writing. The only way we find the story (or poem) we’re supposed to tell is by writing it, revising, and writing it again. If you’re overly concerned with perfection, you’ll never go through that essential iterative process. You’ll never build the bridge that is your story. There’s a great deal of freedom in failure. I often come back to a line from Steinbeck’s East of Eden: “And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” Get comfortable with failure, because once you do, nothing can stop you.
On rekindling creativity …
Long walks and music are my biggest ignitors, followed by reading books that dazzle me. When I tap into amazing art, I feel inspired to create.
On a recent publication …
My debut novel, To Die Is Different Than Supposed, came out in early February 2025. It is a literary family drama with a speculative twist. Here’s what the book’s about: Twenty years ago, the Gable family was nearly perfect—five siblings growing up in an old farmhouse in Pennsylvania with supposedly loving parents. But when a series of devastating events rocks the family—a house fire, the death of their young brother, infidelity, and betrayal—the siblings are left shattered and lost. Jackson is the oldest, the distant wanderer. Lex is trapped on the other side, desperately trying to communicate. Adrian is on the verge of a breakdown. Ella is haunted, finding comfort in a familiar ghost. Remy is the embittered “good” son. And Calvin is the youngest, the half-brother trying to make sense of inherited pain. When the estranged siblings come together for their father’s funeral, they must reckon with his legacy of abuse and abandonment, and with the secrets they kept from each other for so long. Will Jackson find it in himself to tell the horrific story the family most needs to hear? Or will they all be forever trapped by their complicated pasts, unable to move into a more hopeful and united future? I’m also working on a few other projects—a hybrid memoir, another speculative literary novel, and some short stories.
Alissa’s online spaces …
Do you love cozy mysteries?
Me, too! Please subscribe to my new publication all about cozy mysteries under my pen name A. L. Jensen. If this isn’t for you, please share with someone you know who loves cozies. With gratitude!
📚 Upcoming offerings …
Rekindle Creativity Women’s Writing Retreat: Spring Getaway
Join us for a weekend getaway at The Lodge at Pine Cove in beautiful French River, Ontario to reconnect with yourself and your writing, and make connections with a small group of fellow writers. What a wonderful way to celebrate the spring by rekindling your personal creativity and sparking your ideas. Dinah Laprairie and I can’t wait to welcome you. Learn more and register here.
Women Writing Circle
The Women Writing Circle meets on the second and last Monday of the month from 6:30-8:00 PM EST. This offering is for paid subscribers ($8 USD/month). You can learn more about the benefits of subscribing here. I’m looking forward to creating a magical writing community with you, and getting some pages written in 2025.
Happy writing!
I downloaded the book! Sounds so good!