Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
Want to have a professional writing career? by Ruth Harris You started out with dreams of a professional writing career, didn’t you? And then you achieved your goals, didn’t you? But now what? You thought being a professional, published writer would liberate you from the routine of a day job. You also thought you’d be […]
by Anne R. Allen Writing scams aren’t just for newbies anymore. A few weeks ago, publishing guru Jane Friedman discovered unfamiliar books on her Goodreads author page. She also found them on Amazon — published in her name. She realized they were probably AI written and very low quality. At first Amazon refused to […]
Remember Fabio’s male character was only a fantasy by Harry Bingham For a female author, the construction of a genuine, well-rounded male character offers a unique chance to cross gender barriers and explore a broad range of experiences. However, how to effectively dive into the male psyche? How do societal norms mold the actions and […]
By Anne R. Allen Point of view is one of the toughest things for a new writer to master when learning to write fiction. You hear terms like “omniscient, third person limited, second person, deep point of view, camera’s eye” etc. But it’s hard to figure out which one works for your story. And […]
Ruth Has a different kind of post for us today. She offers us a monologue by her hilarious character, Blake Weston, from “The Big Six-O,” the first in her “Cozy in the City” series. Here’s Blake facing her 60th birthday: by Ruth Harris From: Carbon paper to carbon emissions. Edward R. Murrow to Tucker Carlson. […]
How an ancient philosophy of energy can help you create better characters by Deborah-Zenha Adams It doesn’t matter what genre you’re writing — characters are the lifeblood of your story. No matter how perfectly-plotted, tightly-structured, and wildly creative your story is, readers might not stick with it if the characters are hollow, bland, or just […]
by Anne R. Allen I’m often approached by parents or grandparents of children who’ve shown a talent for writing. They ask how a child can learn to be a writer. Or sometimes a person going through a mid-life job change will ask my advice about going back to college to pursue a long-deferred writing dream. […]
by Anne R. Allen Learning to write effective, believable dialogue is one of the toughest parts of learning to write narrative — whether fiction or memoir. We don’t want to simply transcribe the way people actually talk, with all the pointless “ums” and stammery filler-things we say in real life. But we also don’t […]
by Anne R. Allen Recently, a blog reader asked me why readers dislike it when the POV character dies at the end of chapter one, when most TV cop shows start with the victim being murdered — and nobody complains. As I said in my blogpost on 8 Ways Not to Start a Novel: “This […]
by Ruth Harris The Tyranny Of The Time Stamp. We all live under the lash of the digital clock and the tyranny of the time stamp. It’s not just us, it’s everyone everywhere — Fast food and even faster fashion. Pro chess players have 2 minutes to make their moves. On each move 12 seconds […]
by Sue Coletta When I wrote my first novel, I had visions of landing a Big-Name Publisher who’d send a limo to wine ‘n dine me to celebrate this amazing accomplishment. Well, of course, that never happened. After writing four more novels, I landed a publisher. Two, actually. One wanted to sign me immediately. Kensington […]
by Anne R. Allen First let me say you can start a novel any way you want in order to get words on a blank page. Anything goes when you’re writing your first draft. I always say the first draft of a novel is for the writer and the final draft is for the […]
by Anne R. Allen As a reader, I’ve recently developed some pet peeves that never used to bother me. Maybe it’s age. These days I find it almost impossible to follow a novel with wild head-hopping, where every spear-carrier is a POV character. I’m also bored by stories where everybody is horrible and there’s nobody […]
