Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Writing advice to keep the turkeys from getting you down. by Ruth Harris Helpful writing advice— “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” — Somerset Maugham “Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, […]
by Anne R. Allen What’s over-workshopping? It’s what happens when writers attend too many writing workshops or critique groups where they’re fed dogmatic, my-way-or-the-highway rules. Following rules too closely can slow down your story (and your career.) It can also eliminate what’s creative and original in your work. You can spend years schlepping that […]
by Becca Puglisi Have you ever fallen in love with a story villain? Or at least found yourself liking them somewhat against your will? Seems a little weird, experiencing all the happy feels for this character, but I think we’ve all been there. When a villain is well written and well rounded, they can tug […]
by Anne R. Allen I’m sure everybody remembers the teacher or parent who told you they didn’t like your “tone” when you were being a snarky adolescent. Or a whiney brat who wanted a cookie right before dinner: “Oh, right. I’m going to ride my bike to the dance? Like I’m 10 years old?” […]
by Ruth Harris The lights are red. All signs are Stop Signs. That stack of pages you thought was going to be a book? You know, with characters, a setting, maybe even a plot? Somehow, it vanished in a wasteland of false starts, dead ends and dead darlings. Why? What happened? You’re the author — […]
by Anne R. Allen A “creativity wound” is the psychological injury we feel when someone we trust says harsh, negative things about our creative work. Executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Grant Faulkner explains it like this: “We put our souls, the meaning of our lives, into the things we create, whether […]
by Anne R. Allen Social media etiquette? Does such a thing even exist anymore? When on any given day your eyeballs can be hit with posts glorifying genocide, disinformation, and alpha-thug rapists and traffickers? The answer is yes. Even though social media feels more and more like an airplane headed for a large mountain, […]
By Gary Braver Like other crime novelists, I keep a file of real cases. Not only do these serve as ideas to draw from, but they give authentic grounding while inspiring me to learn more about the perpetrators and their victims. What caught my attention at the onset of my latest novel, RUMOR OF […]
by Anne R. Allen A lot of people hope to write a book when they retire. And that’s a great plan. Late blooming writers can do very well for themselves if they learn to write well and have something unique to say. Some writers who became successful authors in their later years were Laura Ingalls […]
A transition sentence is like a bridge by Ruth Harris At a writers’ workshop, I once heard a beginning writer talk about how it had taken him almost all day to write a paragraph describing his character waking up in his bedroom upstairs and going to the kitchen downstairs to make breakfast. “He made eggs […]
by Anne R. Allen Last week a few readers clued me in on the loss of Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature. That was the thing that allowed readers to browse the first few chapters of a book before plunking down their money. The feature allowed readers shopping for books on Amazon have the same opportunity […]
by Jim Denney I’ve been concerned about various threats from artificial intelligence for several years — threats to the economy, threats to our civil society, and even threats to human existence. I became even more alarmed about artificial intelligence when I discovered that AI systems are chronic, pathological liars. In early 2023, I began […]
by Anne R. Allen I see terrible advice in online writing groups and blog comments all the time. Sometimes I step in and gently disagree. But mostly I don’t. Arguing with people on social media is an exercise in futility. So I get to express my opinions here. It’s great to make friends on […]
