Discussion toward a rich writing exploration I’ll post next time. Anya Achtenberg Nov 22, 2025 Empathy Engines and the Imagination. Part One. Anya Achtenberg But first, a few snarky comments from a frustrated creative writing teacher. I teach creative writing. I mentor writers. I consult with writers on their manuscripts. Many people have found me… Continue reading Empathy Engines and the Imagination. Part One.
Category: Character Development
Custom-Made Story: a 10-Week Intensive Writing Workshop in Fiction, Memoir/Creative Nonfiction, and Hybrid Forms
Announcing the details for Custom-Made Story: a 10-Week Intensive Writing Workshop in Fiction, Memoir/Creative Nonfiction, and Hybrid Forms (poetry welcome!) 10 Mondays beginning November 3rd, 2025 Nothing pre-fab! This truly Custom-Made approach is guaranteed to be free of: recycled conventions and formulae; and AI homogenizing creativity-crushers. The Custom-Made Story course includes: 10-live Zoom classes, recorded for your… Continue reading Custom-Made Story: a 10-Week Intensive Writing Workshop in Fiction, Memoir/Creative Nonfiction, and Hybrid Forms
Which can AI do: formulaic writing or organic writing? // Which kind of writing will fulfill you as a writer?
Oct 18, 2025 posted on Substack, by Anya Achtenberg, Writing in Upheaval Which can AI do: formulaic writing or organic writing? Which kind of writing will fulfill you as a writer? [ Which kind of writing will fulfill you as a writer? Try organic. AI has clarified for me even more the underpinnings of my… Continue reading Which can AI do: formulaic writing or organic writing? // Which kind of writing will fulfill you as a writer?
Say it! Dígalo!
New creative writing standalone workshops For Writers of Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Multigenre and Hybrid Forms with Anya Achtenberg Today, August 16, 2024: I am very happy to announce the Fall 2024 Launch of a new series of single-event writing workshops coming in September Say it! Dígalo!: The Standalone Workshop Series with Anya Achtenberg Each single-event… Continue reading Say it! Dígalo!
News! Creative Writing Workshop: Writing Place and Placelessness Friday, Sept 23, 2022, 1:00-3:00 pm EST
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
Beyond Formula: Writing Love Scenes that Support the Story with Spirit, Passion, Grit, and Character Truth: Independent class beginning January 12, 2012!
Dear Writers, I want to talk with you about my independent classes. I continue to teach Claiming Our Stories: Working with the Power of Autobiography and Autobiographical Fiction, Parts One and Two, with writers.com/writers on the net, as you can see from my last posting. But I have been teaching Finding the Real Story: The… Continue reading Beyond Formula: Writing Love Scenes that Support the Story with Spirit, Passion, Grit, and Character Truth: Independent class beginning January 12, 2012!
Story classes news, and a little story!
Dear Writers, I am gathering a group for another independent online writing workshop. But here is a little incident that happened on the way to putting this on my Facebook page, something put into gear perhaps by the Great Narrator I can't see. I got bold. I got tired. I know what happens in my… Continue reading Story classes news, and a little story!
Character’s voice? Neruda said, “Speak through my words and my blood.”
I want to respond to something someone suggested about my book, The Stories of Devil-Girl, and then get to what I really want to talk about, which has to do with the process of writing strong characters, and the profound reasons for doing so. The statement said something to the effect that this character of Devil-Girl,… Continue reading Character’s voice? Neruda said, “Speak through my words and my blood.”
Good stuff coming very soon! Online class; local mentorship groups.
Dear Friends, Get in on it! February 25, 2008 I will begin teaching an online class for Writers.com called Claiming Our Stories: Working with the Power of Autobiography and Autobiographical Fiction. There are not many places left, so if you have been fencesitting, jump in and sign up as soon as possible! I am very excited about it,… Continue reading Good stuff coming very soon! Online class; local mentorship groups.
The Return of Devil-girl! or, The Stories of Devil-girl, a novella
The Stories of Devil-girl is a novella which I recorded on a double CD set and released shortly before the war in Iraq broke out in 2003. It works at the crossroads of poetry and prose, and of autobiography and fiction, perhaps also of the brutal and the magical. I began writing it in 1989,… Continue reading The Return of Devil-girl! or, The Stories of Devil-girl, a novella
Anya Achtenberg 