September 2023

The Writer

Advice and inspiration for today’s writer

The Writer1 min read
The Writer
T.J. Murphy, Editor Scott Brandsgaard, Senior Designer Ryan Gillis, Vice President of Marketing Strategy David Glassman, Chief Technology Officer Toni Eunice, Media Solutions Provider and Content Analyst (Phone: 617-706-9089, Email: TEunice@madavor.c
The Writer2 min read
Ursula K. Le Guin recreates reality
AT FIRST GLANCE, URSULA K. LE GUIN’S fiction — filled with wizardry, mystical lands and societies thousands of years in the future — appears to flaunt the old standard, “Write what you know.” But in the October 1991 issue of The Writer, Le Guin expla
The Writer3 min readIntelligence (AI) & Semantics
The Joy of Work
I IMAGINE BOTH YOU AND I ARE CURIous to see how artificial intelligence is going to “disrupt” (to use the Silicon Valley vernacular) the writing world in the next few years. This question sizzled for me during a community development meeting in my to
The Writer3 min read
Follow Your Dream, But Don’t Quit Your Day Job
I’M A LATE BLOOMER. I’VE BEEN writing for kids for about 30 years, and I sold my first picture book in 2010. In college, my favorite class was Introduction to Children’s Literature, better known as Kiddie Lit, an elective in my elementary education c
The Writer6 min read
Advice from Edgar Allan Poe’s crypt
TODAY WE REMEMBER EDGAR ALLAN Poe as one of the earliest authors (some would say the creator) of both detective stories and horror stories, and as the writer of some of the most haunting poems in the language. We may be less familiar with his nonfict
The Writer3 min read
Art Of The Interview
INTERVIEWING IS A HIGH ART. Whether a series of questions conducted for a primetime television show, the probing of characters by a fiction writer or the one-chance question shouted at a public figure, the results can make or break the final product.
The Writer8 min read
Comfortable With The Uncomfortable
Susanna Moore belongs to a small class of writers whose work performs the paradoxical miracle of giving solace by offering none. For all their sensuous engagement with the Hawaiian landscape of her childhood (which led to the myopic critical judgment
The Writer3 min read
7 Reasons This Writer May Unfollow You On Twitter
I HAVE A CONFESSION TO MAKE: I am sorely tempted, much more often than I feel comfortable admitting, to “unfollow” an ungodly number of people on Twitter. Friends. Family members. Idolized authors whose tweets, for various reasons, send them floor-wa
The Writer5 min read
PONDER YOUR WORDS: How to Wield the POWER OF LANGUAGE
“A word after a word after a word is power,” says novelist Margaret Atwood. Part of that power is the power writing bestows upon its author – the power not only to reflect our emotions but to impact them. But we usually want more from our writing tha
The Writer6 min read
Build It Into Your Day
As a freelancer, my time is limited. With two little kids and a part-time schedule, I have to make the most of every minute I’m at my desk. Over the last five years, since my son was born, I’ve become more efficient than ever about making the most of
The Writer1 min read
Month Ahead
Today is National Read a Book Day. No need to say more. Agatha Christie was born on this day in 1890. She produced 66 novels and 14 story collections. National Comic Book Day. Excited for Halloween? Read The Dreaming by Queenie Chan. National Coffee
The Writer12 min read
Postscript
Many writers want to hone their craft but don’t want to commit to or pay for a full-blown MFA program. Luckily, many local and online classes, workshops, and certificate programs can support writers’ needs without obliging them to commit several year
The Writer3 min read
How Can I Earn a Living by Writing?
Hardly a day passes but some young man or woman climbs the stairs to the office of The Bostonian to ask me that question. Always I tell them that the only way I know for a beginner to earn a living by writing is for him to get a job on a newspaper. S

The Writer

More Issues From The Writer