Aimee Liu, Freelance Journalist Profile

Articles

How to Construct an MFA Writing Life Without an MFA

2 months ago | writingcooperative.com | Aimee Liu

Where else to turn for writing mentorship, fellowship, and motivationAmong my writer friends, including some established authors, the search for a strong writing community is a recurrent theme. But “writing community” can mean very different things to different writers, because no two need exactly the same kind of support. We all have different temperaments, goals, styles, and habits. Some crave tough love and hard deadlines. Others require a steady stream of praise to keep going.
Woke Or Not, Can We Talk About DEI, Politics, And Tech?

Feb 19, 2025 | wearedigitaldiplomacy.substack.com | Ramona Grigg |Aimee Liu |Joe Thomas |Angela Lang

Why DEI matters!Enter Big TechNot everybody in the private sector is aligning against DEIWhat now? Our series on digital trends in politics and diplomacyâThe digital space provides unparalleled opportunities to amplify womenâs voicesâđ Letâs start with this via and đ LOVE IT!The conversation that Ramona started on Notes is a must-read!We all need to have a conversation about DEI and what that acronym â sometimes overused, sometimes underestimated â means for all of us.
Can Your Readers Picture What’s On the Page?

Nov 17, 2024 | writingcooperative.com | Aimee Liu

How to prevent your prose from going darkI recently read a friend’s manuscript that I couldn’t picture. I did learn about the characters. I grasped their problems and the decisions they had to make. I knew what towns and countries they traveled through, down to the exact street and plaza names. I was dazzled by the imagination that had concocted this narrative, which brimmed with conceptual ideas. But I could hardly see any of it.
Why Is Irony Like a Roller Coaster?

Oct 28, 2024 | baos.pub | Aimee Liu

Percival Everett will show you how this literary superpower worksWhen you moderate an author event, you try to read as much of your panelists’ work as possible. So, when I was tapped to moderate a recent conversation with novelist Percival Everett, I immersed myself in his more than 30 books, including the novels James, Erasure, I Am Not Sidney Poitier, and The Trees.
One Publisher’s Secret Formula for Identifying Potential Bestsellers

Oct 19, 2024 | writingcooperative.com | Aimee Liu

The 3 M’s that will sell your bookLast fall I had the privilege of chatting with several senior editors and publishers from major houses in NY. All were interested in the new book I’m ghosting, which eventually was sold in auction. While I can’t tell you anything about our specific project, I did pick up an editorial formula from one publisher that might interest you. It’s how she predicts which books will become bestsellers.
Is Your Memoir a Fish?

Sep 26, 2024 | writingcooperative.com | Aimee Liu

This structure could save your storyMy MFA students used to agonize over structure. Especially the memoirists. There’s something particularly challenging about stitching together a story about your own life that travels backward and forward in time and that has a beginning, middle, and end despite the fact that your true story has not yet ended and you may not be entirely sure where or how it began.
Memoir As Road Trip

Aug 20, 2024 | writingcooperative.com | Aimee Liu

Make sure your readers join you — and stay for the whole rideMy MFA students often got lost when writing their memoirs. I suspect every memoir writer does at least a few times during the creative process. But I’ve found that one very effective navigational trick is to conceptualize memoir as the perfect road trip (assuming you enjoy road trips). Here’s what this road trip does not do:It doesn’t take us flying down a superhighway at 80 mph, pausing only for pit stops in anonymous rest areas.
My Last Proposal Led to a Six-Figure Book Deal

Jul 6, 2024 | writingcooperative.com | Aimee Liu

Here are the book proposal basics that helped clinch the saleLast fall I spent four months ghostwriting a book proposal that led to an auction of major publishers and a 6-figure publishing deal. This was one of half a dozen proposals I’ve written for nonfiction projects that went on to be well published. I’ve also ghosted a dozen more books that were sold on the strength of proposals produced by others, which served as blueprints for me to finish the work.
Crossing Cultures in Marriage & Life

May 22, 2024 | zora.medium.com | Aimee Liu

By Aimee Liu An interview with memoirist Susan Blumberg-Kason about the 'Good Chinese Wife'Image by author Susan Blumberg-Kason is a memoirist, biographer, and book critic who's written candidly about her experience as the American wife of a Chinese man in the 1990s. I wanted to interview Susan because both my grandmother and my mother, too, were white American women who...
Expose Your Characters With Revelatory Dialogue

May 11, 2024 | authoraimeeliu.medium.com | Aimee Liu

By Aimee Liu Talk on the page must be concentrated, layered, and stealthyPhoto by David Clode on Unsplash Writing dialogue has always been a challenge for me. Even after publishing four novels, two memoirs, and multiple short stories, I still struggle to capture the essence of human conversation on the page. But when you think about the many narrative tasks that dialogue performs, that...