Alyssa Hollingsworth

About Alyssa

Alyssa was born in small town Milton, Florida, but life as a roving military kid soon mellowed her (unintelligibly strong) Southern accent. Wanderlust is in her blood, and she’s always waiting for the wind to change. Stories remain her constant. Alyssa received her bachelor’s in English/Creative Writing from Berry College and her master's in Creative Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University. Alyssa is represented by Amber Caraveo at Skylark Literary. Her debut The Eleventh Trade – "a powerful story of love, loss, friendship and hope, centered around Sami, a young refugee from Afghanistan now building a new life with his grandfather in Boston" – will be published Fall 2018 by Macmillan (U.S.) and HotKey (U.K.).

Stop Glorifying the First Draft and Finish It

Jul 28, 2017

As a mentee for writers, a critique partner, and person who generally has a lot of friends in very different stages of the author business, I end up talking to a lot of people about their first drafts. Especially their first-manuscript first drafts. The attitude of many first-manuscript writers can be summed up nicely in this graphic, which I’ve grabbed off Pinterest: (So much is wrong about this graphic, but I only got time for the starry-eyed attitude today.) There’s something very sweet and appealing about this. It reminds me of the sentimental early days of writing, and how every...

10 Travel-Themed Exercises for Character Chemistry

Jun 9, 2017

As you may have gathered, I travel. A lot. So I figured — why not take a look at my travel experiences and see what brought out the biggest differences among my companions? That way I can steal from our adventures and use it for character chemistry in my writing. (If you travel with me, there’s an 85% chance this will happen. That’s the risk you take being friends with a writer-person.) Even when you’re traveling with great people, there are subtle conflicts and compromises along the way. If you’re less lucky, those little adjustments can become stewing rage or explosive...

Story Graphics: Theme Collage

Jun 2, 2017

Continuing on in my (somewhat infrequent) story graphics series, let’s talk about one of my favorite things to make: Theme collages! These can be a fabulous way to visually brainstorm your project from all angles (character, setting, conflict, you name it). I particularly love to make collages for my fantasy stories, because there are so many pretty pictures to choose from. For maximum brainstorming effectiveness, I recommend putting on your story playlist (or a playlist of fitting music), getting a cup of tea, and snuggling down to put all this together. The music in particular really helps! Full credit where...

5 Free Scrivener Writing Backgrounds

May 26, 2017

(This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links and end up buying something, I’ll receive 20% of sales. Why? Because Scrivener is amazing. I’ve used it for five years and love it. And I thought, you know, since I talk about it literally all the time, maybe I should have it help pay for this blog.) Many moons ago, I posted a picture of my writing progress in Illuminate using one of Scrivener‘s special features: Composition background. First, I’ll let you know how what composition mode is and how to set...

How to Make a Killer Character Sheet

May 19, 2017

I’m very visually oriented, if you haven’t guessed from the graphics series that appears periodically on this blog. I brainstorm and process stories best through tactile exercises. This is one reason my character sheets are a little bit ridiculous, but also very thorough. My friend and partner in crime, Annie, is much the same way — and at any given time you should assume that these blog entries were created by our hive mind because we steal each others’ stuff constantly. Anyway. Today I’m going to walk you through making your own character sheet! What’s a character sheet? It’s all the...

10 Writing Resources: Revision

May 12, 2017

There are a lot of guides around the web for drafting, brainstorming, and actual writing, but I feel like there’s less about an equally important aspect of a writer’s life: Revision. Revision is actually my favorite part of the whole writing process, so it’s a phase I hold near and dear to my heart. But I know for a lot of people, it’s the very devil incarnate. That’s why I’ve compiled some of my favorite guides for revision here. Peruse, take what you need, and get going on those edits! 1. Getting Organized to Write or Edit For those of you...

Trust Conference (American Forum) 2017: Highlights

Apr 27, 2017

This week, I had the fabulous opportunity to attend the Trust Conference: American Forum (representing myself as a writer). I’ve attended the full conferences in 2014 and 2016, and they are truly life changing. This conference was a smaller, shorter affair, but still very insightful. The Trust Conference brings together activists and experts from around the world to talk about the latest in human trafficking (and prevention), slavery in the supply chain, and other worldwide humanitarian issues. If you want to see the panels for yourself, you can check out Thomas Reuters Foundation’s Trust Women video album on Facebook, which...

5 Things You CAN Control in Your Publishing Journey

Mar 31, 2017

Whether you are going the traditional publishing route or you aim to self-publish, there will be things that you can’t control. This entry is geared toward writers who want to have a career of some sort through traditional publishing, because that’s the side I’m more familiar with, but I’d love to get some tips in the comments from independently published writers! With traditional publishing, you cannot control things like: Agents’ or publishers’ interest, how much your book sells, or how much your friends’ book sells. It’s a really uncertain world, where you are never quite certain what will come of...

Beautiful People: Nadia

Mar 24, 2017

I’m beginning *dundundunnnn* a new project! If everything works out, this new story will be coming out Fall 2019. Right now, I’m calling it The Invisible Boy and it’s about a girl that makes friends with a boy who just might have some secrets up his sleeve… or, rather, in his hoodie pockets. Meet Nadia! What is Beautiful People? Beautiful People is a blog meme hosted by Sky @ Further Up and Further In and Cait @ Paper Fury. Every month, they post ten questions to help writers get to know their characters better. How do I join? Just jump in! Snag the March questions, post...

10 Writing Resources: Fantasy

Mar 17, 2017

Even though my debut, The Eleventh Trade, will be a contemporary story, fantasy remains my true love. There’s so much room for exploration, creativity, and experimentation — and I can’t wait to get back back to it! But in the meanwhile, here are some resources I’ve found helpful that you might enjoy, too. My first golden rule of fantasy: The more real you want it to be, the more solid details you should use. I don’t mean like “the blue door that was chipped around the handle except for where it wasn’t chipped, aka everywhere else, and also it smelled...

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