Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen This week I’ve been hit hard by signs that publishing industry bloggers are disappearing into the Substack world of “become a paid subscriber to continue reading this article.” But it’s also obvious the publishing world still needs us! How do I know? This week, I’ve been buried in emails from book […]
by Debbie Burke Let’s assume most of us who follow Anne’s and Ruth’s blog are not kidnappers, rapists, or murderers. Since we’re not, it can be difficult for us to imagine the mindset of characters who commit heinous crimes. So how can we write multidimensional, memorable villains who have more depth than the cartoonish […]
Go ahead, write that first draft with a feather. It’s all good. by Anne R. Allen Recently I’ve been looking at comment threads on old posts. Five years ago, people were leaving a lot more comments. But commenting on blogs has faded along with the popularity of blogging, which a lot of people see as […]
by Anne R. Allen I’ve been going through my blog archives, and I found one of the first pieces I wrote for the blog—15 years ago. This was before the “Kindle Revolution” had really taken hold, so almost all beginning writers were desperately trying to “land an agent.” (We seemed to treat agents like some […]
by Anne R. Allen This week I’m visiting the writing blog, Writers In the Storm, talking about “Chekhov’s Gun.” “If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise, don’t put it there.”…Anton Chekhov Chekhov, the Russian playwright, also wrote short stories, […]
by Jenny Hansen Was your writing process a long and winding road for anyone else here? And by writing process, I mean “a reliable way you’ve been able to approach the page that allows you to finish books.” I struggled for decades to find my process. And I do mean struggled. I’d open a Word […]
by Anne R. Allen This week I’ve had a record number of blog comments and emails from authors who have been victims or near-victims of publishing scammers. So I thought I should update my scam warnings. The Times Square Billboard Scam The most popular new con seems to be the Times Square Billboard scam. Rachel […]
This week I’m visiting the Sleuthsayers blog, with a blogpost about why murder mysteries are so popular in times of chaos and upheaval. Here’s the opener. Why Do We Read Murder Mysteries? By Anne R. Allen I once met an aspiring writer who been forced to move in with Mom after a year of […]
by Melodie Campbell My friend and colleague John Floyd, on the blog Sleuthsayers, recently featured a fun post on movie sequels. (Are any sequels better than the original? Yes! We agreed that A Shot in the Dark is better than The Pink Panther, but I love both.) That got me thinking about writing series books, […]
by Rachel Thompson BadRedhead Media, LLC. I have written many posts about the various scams targeting authors. Here are snippets from each one, specifics to look out for, and examples of these scams. My Substack is free, so you can click on each link to read more if you’d like. PR Scams Marketing and […]
by Ruth Harris The clip file. Remember those? Gone are the days of messy, torn-out newspaper and magazine articles jammed into over-flowing, disorganized files. Those ancient artifacts have been replaced now by their neat and spiffy digital counterparts. Writers are readers and what we read is (or should be) a rich mine of ideas. […]
Bad advice and false friends can destroy a career before it starts by Anne R. Allen Happy Easter! I hope everybody is enjoying biting the ears of chocolate bunnies, eating expensive hen’s eggs you’ve dyed garish colors, and other fun seasonal rituals. Yes, I love them all, and I admit to nearly decapitating a chocolate […]
Multi-author anthologies are a great marketing tool by Anne R. Allen A couple of weeks ago, a European blogger asked if she could reblog a post I wrote 10 years ago. She said it was the best piece on marketing she’d ever read. (Aw shucks. Here’s me blushing.) The truth is I’d forgotten all about […]
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