Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Writing how-to’s”
This is Part 1 of a 3-part series about me, writing and how writing saved my life. Everyone needs to write — everyone. By the time we get to Part 3, you’ll know why your words are so important, too. Okay. Here we go… My Chinese immigrant parents expected my birth to make them lucky. Instead, they felt cheated. For …
When I showed up for my Wednesday evening communications class, the mood was miserable. Donald Trump’s victory at the polls was just hours old. Everyone was angry and scared. Most of these students are people of color, with many from immigrant families. What kind of America is this, where it’s suddenly okay to be racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, anti-everything? …
To rock your writing, read your words out loud — to yourself. Your most important audience will always be that Audience Of One. Over the years, I’ve used out-loud reading to transform myself and hundreds of students. But for even more proof of its value, I have tips from three bestselling authors. If we do as they say, we’ll get …
Picture a century-old, Renaissance-revival style meeting hall in downtown Brooklyn, with stately Corinthian columns and vaulted, 40-foot ceilings. Fill it with a youngish, multiracial, multi-gendered crowd. They are novelists, poets and non-fiction writers, plus a sprinkling of editors. Imagine them getting raw and personal in sharing their publishing survival tips. Welcome to “PubCon 2016.” On June 25th, Asian American Writers Workshop (AAWW) hosted …
Greetings from Michigan! I’ve been here for a week, helping my boyfriend relocate to a new job in Ann Arbor. Hey, did I just hear alarms go off in your head? Well, they’re clanging inside of my brain, too. The dreaded commuter romance is the last thing I ever wanted. But we hope to this change — especially with long-distance relationships becoming more …
Last semester, I surprised my creative writing class with a simple but profound assignment. Forget about the usual high standards for submissions. No need to labor over their words. Instead, just write for 10 minutes a day. I didn’t care about their topics, punctuation or logical sequencing of ideas. In fact, I didn’t want to see their homework at all. But …
