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.).

2016: In Review

Dec 28, 2016

I am not sure how to do a year in review this time around. A lot of people have many things to say about 2016, and much of it isn’t encouraging. But what has been black for many has been more complex for me. Here are some moments from 2016: January I dance the night away with my nieces at one cousin’s wedding. Megan and Hana think I’ve got the moves, and I let ’em believe it. New diagnosis: Gastroparesis. It is the third autoimmune attack in under a year, and takes my diet from “gluten free levels of inconvenient” to “ask me...

Trust Women 2016: Highlights

Dec 12, 2016

Earlier this month, I had the fabulous opportunity to attend the conference Trust Women (representing myself as a writer and also Childbirth PATHS International, a great new NGO). I attended the conference in 2014 and found it truly life changing — and I don’t say that in a light, off-the-cuff sort of way. I’ve been to many, many conferences in my time, and there’s nothing like this two-day event. Trust Women brings together activists and experts from around the world to talk about the latest in human trafficking (and prevention), slavery in the supply chain, women’s rights, and other worldwide...

WriteOnCon is Back!

Dec 8, 2016

Things have been a little scarce here recently. Why? Among numerous other reasons (the topics of future posts!), I’ve also been helping plan, set up, and coordinate the fabulous online kidlit conference: WriteOnCon! We’ve been doing an Indiegogo campaign to help cover website costs, etc., and there’s just about a week left. Of course, it’s only now that I remember I haven’t actually talked about it here at all. *facepalm* SO HERE WE GO. (EDIT: The campaign is over, but you can still register here!) What is WriteOnCon? WriteOnCon is a three-day online children’s book conference from February 2-February 4, 2017 for writers...

Show vs. Tell: A Rewrite Analysis

Oct 27, 2016

Photography by Jason Koons Show vs. tell is one of the most difficult things to learn as a young writer. One of my novel mentees came to me with some excerpts to examine for the dreaded telling pitfall. This lovely writer had spent hours scouring the internet for advice, but found herself becoming more and more confused. My method of mentoring often involves examples — partially because I learn by doing the thing, so I have to try it before I can fully explain it. I took her paragraph and spent about 15 minutes rewriting it in my own voice. Then...

Story Graphics: How to Assemble Your Cast

Oct 20, 2016

I was recently telling someone I’ve been novel-mentoring about creating graphics, and how it can be a great way to break writer’s block. She was like, “Huh?” And I was like, “Oh, I guess this isn’t the most obvious.” So, we already talked about visualizing characters with photo collages. Today we’re going to talk about assembling our casts. This used to be something I just did for fun, but it’s become a necessary part of my drafting process. In fact, for Eleventh Trade I had to stop writing and take a day just to pull together my cast. Making a cast...

Dear Past!Self: Some Advice

Oct 13, 2016

Dear 24-Going-25!Self, Hey, kid. It’s me, 25-going-26!Self. How you doing? I know the answer, but I thought I’d ask to be polite. If your math skills aren’t working (it happens, I get you), I’ll just clarify: I’m writing from the end of your 25th year on earth. Kind of crazy. There are a few things I’d like to tell you, things that might make this coming orbit of the sun a little better. Maybe. This year’s going to be nuts. You thought 24 was a ride, but this is a whole new level. You’re going to have amazing highs. You’ll...

How to Visualize Your Character (With Photoshop)

Oct 7, 2016

Story graphics are one of my favorite parts of productive procrastinating, and one of my favorite types of story graphics is creating character concepts. I got this idea from my sister, Laura Hollingsworth, who uses it sometimes to brainstorm ideas for her webcomic, The Silver Eye. Though I’ll be using Photoshop for this tutorial, you can really use any photo editing program that lets you adjust layers and occupancy. (GIMP is a good, free alternative to Photoshop!) Step 1: Find a Base Image Find an image that basically looks like your character. This image will be at the base of your...

17 Autumn Books to Read Before Halloween

Oct 5, 2016

Fall has filled the air (finally!) here in Virginia. It’s the season for warm drinks, scarves, and boots. It’s also the season for catching the last warmth of the sun by reading on the porch, or staying dry with good books during the October rains. Below are seventeen books I love to read around this time of year, with their publisher’s description included. They mostly fall under the umbrella of YA, MG, and fantasy, because that’s what I love. It’s ordered roughly by age range. Enjoy! Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty Serafina has never had a reason to disobey...

Beautiful People: Luc

Sep 30, 2016

I’ve just turned in my new draft of Illuminate so I wanted to participate in Beautiful People as my reward! The character I’ll be talking about this time is my darling romantic interest, Luc. Sweet child. 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 September questions, post them on your blog, and come back to add your link! I also recommend checking out the posts...

20 Prompts to Uncover Characters’ Hearts

Sep 26, 2016

Characters! Those cheeky fellas. I love seeking out my characters’ hearts. Finding the deep-down stuff that really makes them tick, and then bringing it out in the story. Normally I’ll spend a lot of time brainstorming this in the early side of my drafting, but I also like to revisit the basics when I hit a roadblock and stall out. Often when I’m stuck, it’s because I have stopped listening to my characters. Here are some questions that can help you explore your characters and gain new insights. I’ve written them addressed to your character directly, and recommend answering them...

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