Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Writer’s Block happens to a lot of us. by Ruth Harris You hate your book. You hate your characters. The plot sucks. You have no talent and don’t know what you’re doing or why you’re doing it. On REALLY bad days, you even hate your computer which just sits there like a bilious toad and […]
by Anne R. Allen In a comment on my post “A Little Less Conversation. A Little More Action Please,” Audrey Driscoll pointed out that novels that throw in a whole lot of combat and running from danger can be boring, too. She was absolutely right. In my response to her comment, I tried to […]
by Kenneth Strange, Jr. As a former FBI agent and true crime author, I seem to be more in demand for speaking engagements than ever before. However, to set the record straight, I will often begin a talk debunking FBI myths including the notion that we FBI agents have experience working in the realm […]
Dialogue is fun in fiction, but too much can be exhausting by Anne R. Allen Yes, I’m quoting an Elvis song (actually by his songwriters Mac Davis and Billy Strange) in a writing article. But the title is a good thing to keep in mind when you’re writing fiction. I recently paid money for a […]
by Ruth Harris Into (almost) every book about grown-ups some sex must fall. How or even whether the details are described is up to the author, but for now let’s get beyond the nitty-gritty details of who-does-what-to-whom and what-goes-where. Instead, let’s consider some likely circumstances, consequences and complications offered by literary sex. 1) Or, […]
by Anne R. Allen In a workshop I attended recently, several people criticized an author’s work because they didn’t approve of the way the protagonist behaved. They thought the character was morally deficient. First, this wasn’t good critiquing. It’s not the critiquer’s job to make moral judgements about another author’s characters. A novel full […]
by Anne R. Allen Talk about self-publishing has diminished in the last few years. Most of the “Kindle Millionaires” that surged onto the scene a decade or so ago have evaporated from indie writing communities. Some of them are, of course, busy writing their next bestseller. But a lot either got traditional publishing contracts, […]
By Laurie McLean, Fuse Literary Publishing woke up from the pandemic years of big backlist profits and came out of the gate swinging in 2023. Publishing houses did not buy as many books as in 2022. (Anecdotally, I sold 24 books in 2022 and had a million-dollar sales month, but I only sold 4 […]
Happy New Year from Ruth and Anne! It’s been a great year here at the blog. We’ve had wonderful guests who’ve written posts on everything from the nuts and bolts of Becca Puglisi’s how to write a “redeemable” villain to Jim Denney’s inspirational piece on why AI is not going to replace human creativity. Ruth […]
by Anne R. Allen Merry Yuletide! Every religion in the northern hemisphere celebrates the Winter Solstice in some way. Usually with lights to illuminate the darkest time of year, like the festival of Hanukah. In the snowy north, the European ancestors of many of us were cold and hungry, so they invented holidays to […]
by Anne R. Allen So you won NaNoWriMo! You had to skip Thanksgiving dinner with your brother-in-law’s fabulous spatchcocked turkey, and watching the game with your favorite cousins. Plus your houseplants died, your cat evaporated, and you still have your Halloween decorations up. Tip: Make some Santa hats for all your bats, witches and […]
Rudyard Kipling needed a literary agent by Mark Williams As last September ended, a report from the Association of American Literary Agents painted a bleak picture of the American literary agent — working long hours and struggling to pay the bills, worrying for their future. Among the members of the author community who had ever […]
Is your query letter the problem? by Anne R. Allen I’ve often wondered why some wonderful writers never get a nibble from an agent, and others get a request for a full manuscript after a handful of queries. I had an insight into the issue this week when I heard from a friend of a […]
