A quiet place in the woods near Boaz, Alabama—for the work of writing.
Oak Hollow is a privately owned property of nearly seventy acres in the countryside near Boaz, Alabama. Located at the end of a long gravel road off Cox Gap Road, it offers a quiet setting of wooded hillsides, open spaces, and a grassy meadow stretching through the trees.
Over the years, we’ve spent countless hours working on the land—clearing, building, planting, and making improvements. It remains a place where we enjoy working outdoors, walking, reading, writing, and thinking.
Today, West Hollow, a modest cabin nestled among the trees, serves a particular purpose. It provides a quiet setting for the work of writing and is an integral part of Richard L. Fricks’s individual story-coaching program for beginning novelists.
The Property
Several areas of Oak Hollow have become especially meaningful to the writing experience, offering opportunities to work, walk, share a conversation, or step away from the desk for a while.
The Meadow
At the heart of the property is The Meadow, a grassy corridor extending approximately 1,300 feet through the woods. Walking its length and returning to the starting point covers roughly half a mile.
The Meadow is a place for walking, exercise, conversation, and thought. Depending on the season, the surrounding woods offer changing colors, birdsong, and the ordinary sights and sounds of rural Alabama.
For a writer, walking can become part of the creative process. A difficult scene, an uncertain character motivation, or a problem with a story’s structure sometimes becomes clearer after leaving the desk and spending time outdoors.
The Clearing and Outdoor Kitchen
The Clearing is an open area among the trees where we’ve developed an outdoor kitchen and gathering space. Its cooking facilities, grill, and fire ring provide a place to prepare a meal.
For writers spending time at Oak Hollow, The Clearing provides a welcome change of setting—a place to share a meal, discuss a story, or simply enjoy some time outdoors before returning to the manuscript.
West Hollow: A Cabin for Writers
West Hollow is a modest, twelve-by-twenty-four-foot cabin tucked into the woods, a short walk from the main gravel drive.
The cabin is deliberately simple. It provides a quiet place to sit, read, outline, draft, revise, and think through the problems that arise during the writing of a novel. Outside, the surrounding woods offer a welcome change of setting when it’s time to step away from the desk.
Writing a novel requires more than having a good idea. It calls for sustained attention, patience, imagination, and a willingness to work through uncertainty. Characters must be discovered and developed. Scenes must be constructed. Stories must be shaped, evaluated, and revised.
A writer might spend the morning developing a character, working through an outline, drafting a difficult scene, or revising pages written earlier. Some days the work goes well. On others, progress comes slowly, and even a few paragraphs may require hours of thought and reconsideration.
The cabin cannot do the writing. Nor can it remove the difficulties that come with learning the craft. But it can provide something valuable: a place where the work receives the time and attention it deserves.
Writing at Oak Hollow
Novelist Richard L. Fricks is a certified Fictionary StoryCoach who works individually with a small number of beginning writers committed to writing their first novel.
His year-long program takes writers through the process of story development, outlining, drafting, evaluation, and revision. Rather than conducting large workshops, Richard works closely with each writer, providing practical instruction and guidance while the writer learns the craft and develops a complete manuscript.
West Hollow serves as a central working space for the program, with The Meadow and The Clearing providing opportunities for walking, conversation, and occasional breaks from the manuscript.
The goal extends beyond completing a book. Writing a novel requires patience, discipline, imagination, and a willingness to confront uncertainty. Along the way, a beginning writer develops skills, habits, and confidence that may extend well beyond the manuscript itself.
The finished novel matters. So does the writer who emerges from the experience.
Learn more about the year-long novel program.
A Place for Writing
Oak Hollow has changed over the years, as has our understanding of what we want it to be. The woods, The Meadow, The Clearing, and West Hollow have become part of a place where physical work and creative work often meet. Today, that includes making room for writers and the sustained effort required to turn an idea into a novel.
Learn More
To learn more about Richard L. Fricks, his novels, and his individual story-coaching program for beginning writers, visit:
Oak Hollow Cabins is privately owned and is not open to the general public. West Hollow is used for writing and scheduled story-coaching activities. Overnight lodging and general recreational visits are not offered.
