Writing Craft

Autobiography and Autobiographical Fiction, Beyond writer's block, Character Development, Contemporary Events, Creative Process, Fiction, Fictional worlds, Juicy Craft Points, Memoir, Narrators, News; things to look for, Poetry, Story, The Craft of Writing, The power of the arts, Workshops, Writing & Social Justice, Writing and Place, Writing for Social Change

News! Creative Writing Workshop: Writing Place and Placelessness Friday, Sept 23, 2022, 1:00-3:00 pm EST

Anya Achtenberg

for the International Women's Writing Guild Free Write withAnya Achtenberg Sefara-Rabi Writing Place and Placelessness A sense-of-place writing workshop to address place in a world of historical amnesia, diaspora, flight, trauma that knocks us out of place, gentrification; place as investment property, as profit. The poisoning of the sacred. Climate catastrophe.  All this with a deeper dive… Continue reading News! Creative Writing Workshop: Writing Place and Placelessness Friday, Sept 23, 2022, 1:00-3:00 pm EST

Writing in Upheaval

Understanding story focus through the lens of exclusion and inclusion

Anya Achtenberg

I began writing this blog, Writing in Upheaval, as the Covid-19 pandemic was shown to be spreading, and lockdowns and self-isolating began, because so many writers expressed having difficulties working. They had lost their focus, they said, in and for their writing. Shift upon shift, jolt upon jolt Before I’d finished the first of these… Continue reading Understanding story focus through the lens of exclusion and inclusion

Juicy Craft Points

Writer’s block? Is that a real thing?Dispensing with inner critics and self-censorship.

Anya Achtenberg

I’m a novelist. I write long. If you’ve had a phone conversation with me, you know that’s a transferable skill. But I also know how to listen. Well and deep. Which is how I listen to language, to writing, to writers, to what they ask for.  Straight lines make journeys shorter, but at times a… Continue reading Writer’s block? Is that a real thing?Dispensing with inner critics and self-censorship.

News; things to look for, The power of the arts, Travel

Why the heck do I organize trips to Cuba? I am not a travel agent…I’m a novelist, poet, teacher!!!

Anya Achtenberg

February 20, 2016   Why have I--- a quite busy professional writer; teacher of creative writing; writer’s consultant; film maniac and occasional Cuban film festival curator; arts adorer; salsa dancer and music devourer; and, of course, lover of books, and lover of justice --- continued to organize trips to Cuba?      Like my Multicultural Cuba… Continue reading Why the heck do I organize trips to Cuba? I am not a travel agent…I’m a novelist, poet, teacher!!!

Uncategorized

What happens inside a writer, in a world at war? Who to listen to, in a world at war?

Anya Achtenberg

  The bombing continues, the cities are rubble, are emptied… whose plan… the children are at the center of the explosion, they burst apart, as if the heart of a child were the precise target. Fiercely some hold on to their own holocaust, but as I write a novel, “fiction” you’d say, the characters meet… Continue reading What happens inside a writer, in a world at war? Who to listen to, in a world at war?

Beyond writer's block, Creative Process, General Writing, Voice

Trusting Our Own Vision, or: The Late Bloomers’ Club

Anya Achtenberg

For A.M.-C. “The bud stands for all things, even those things that don't flower, for everything flowers, from within, of self-blessing; though sometimes it is necessary to reteach a thing its loveliness” From Galway Kinnell, “St. Francis and the Sow” I was a small girl in Brooklyn, between broken English and broken hearts, whispered Yiddish,… Continue reading Trusting Our Own Vision, or: The Late Bloomers’ Club

Beyond writer's block, Creative Process, General Writing

Writing and the New Year: A request for writers.

Anya Achtenberg

Dear Writers and Friends,   Almost 2013!   I have a request, for you and for myself, for the new year. We have plenty of other work for our imagination to do, and so—let’s free it from that need to imagine we are writers, and write with an imagination freed to do its enormous labor… Continue reading Writing and the New Year: A request for writers.

Contemporary Events, Story

The terrible story is always bigger than the terrible event.

Anya Achtenberg

On December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, around 9:30 in the morning, a gunman entered an elementary school and on a rampage, after killing his mother with one of her guns, killed extraordinarily courageous staff members-- teachers, a psychologist, and the principal (all women), and 20 small children, six and seven years of age. Grief… Continue reading The terrible story is always bigger than the terrible event.

Fictional worlds, News; things to look for, Story

Blue Earth, a novel: update on the recently published book.

Anya Achtenberg

Dear Writers, Dear Friends, I have so much to share with you, and I will be starting to post again, as much as I can on craft, so please watch these pages. For now, I have to tell you about my novel, Blue Earth. It’s now been a little while since Blue Earth – my… Continue reading Blue Earth, a novel: update on the recently published book.