By Andrew W. M. Beierle, AIW Board Member
I am preparing for my first transcontinental road trip, a weeklong journey to my new home in the San Bernardino National Forest, 6,109 feet above sea level, where I plan to begin a new long-term writing project.
Perhaps the most daunting aspect of this life-changing 2,645-mile trek is the [...]
The Official Blog of American Independent Writers
Category Archives: The Craft of Writing
I wish I could be more like Jack Kerouac
The LitArtlantic Festival is Not to be Missed!
By Jessie Seigel, AIW Board Member
At noon on Saturday, May 22, I will be moderating AIW’s panel, The Writer’s Life: A Report from the Field, at the LitArtlantic Festival, at the Writer’s Center in Bethesda. The panelists are film maker David Taylor, novelist C.M. Mayo, journalist Alan Elsner, and biographer/memoirist Kevin Quirk.
Each of these authors [...]
How to Make Sure Your Readers Ignore Your Stuff: No Action Verbs, No Imagery
a “Verbal Knightcap” by Robert M. Knight, AIW Board Member
One really great way to make your readers go away is to sneer at them, write pompously. Works every time; they will make a point of avoiding what you wrote. And one great way to write pompously is to drain the energy of your sentences [...]
Dig out Some Writing Time During Snowy Stillness
by AIW President Claude Berube
Like most people in the Mid-Atlantic, I found that more than two feet of snow blanketed my house and cars yesterday. The Mayor and Governor declared emergencies for the city and state respectively; all cars were ordered to remain off the road. By last night, the storm had passed.
The following morning, [...]
Active Voice: A Great Way to Keep Writing Crisp
a “Verbal Knightcap” by Robert M. Knight, AIW Board Member
The use of active voice might be the least understood element in English that most people think they understand. They understand even less when they get the use of active voice confused with the use of action verbs. And many do. Many editors can’t keep them [...]
Technology and the Novel
by Mark Tarallo, AIW Vice President
Think back twenty years, to 1989. The internet and email pretty much unheard of. Most did not have a personal computer, or a cell phone. Cutting-edge personal technology? A fancy answering machine.
Day-to-day life in 1989 was substantially different than it is today. One could almost say it was another [...]
Write What You Know? Hell, no! Know What You Write!
by Jessie Seigel, AIW Board Member
As a writer, I find myself perpetually at odds with the adage: write what you know. Too often it is taken literally, as an injunction to approach only subject matter that comes from one’s own experience. Frequently, this results in fiction that is simply veiled autobiography. Unless the life is [...]
The Beautiful Mongrel: You’ve got to love a language like English
a “Verbal Knightcap” by Robert M. Knight, AIW Board Member
It’s unruly, and harsh. Its spelling can be ludicrous. But English might well be the most beautiful of the dozens of languages and hundreds of dialects we call Indo-European. Depends on your definition of beauty.
That definition requires that we forget the sophisticated sound of French, the [...]
Building a Community of Writers
by AIW Board Member Andrew W.M. Beierle
I’ve just returned from the Atlanta Gay Literary Festival, where I was invited to read from my second novel, First Person Plural. It was a sentimental journey: the first time in two years I have returned to the place I called home for more than a quarter century. A [...]
Why I Write: Jessie Seigel
by Jessie Seigel, AIW Board Member
Why do I write? Today, I write because characters keep roaming through my head—characters with pasts and futures that I must put down on paper or no one but me will know they exist, and they’ll fade away. Last year, or the year before, the driving motivation was often a [...]
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Read the Latest News from AIW
- AIW Member News : September 2010 September 3, 2010
- AIW and Partners Workshop : WHAT CAN AN AGENT DO FOR YOU AS A WRITER?, September 27, 2010 August 30, 2010
- Half Price Special for AIW Members : New York Writers Workshop Pitch Conferences, October 8-10, November 12-14, 2010 August 30, 2010
- Poet Kim Robert’s Upcoming Readings, Book Signings, Panels, and Tours August 28, 2010
- AIW President’s Report : August 2010 August 27, 2010
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