Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Ruth Harris We all know the pleasure of getting lost in a book. We have all experienced that compulsion to turn the page to find out what happens next. In fact, that irresistible urge to keep reading—to turn the page—might be one of the reasons we wanted to be writers. Just one more. Just […]
Rejections hurt. And all writers get them. But you can reduce the number. by Anne R. Allen I’ve been perusing some agent sites recently to see if their advice has changed since I was on the query-go-round a couple of decades ago. But things seem to have remained much the same. The top reasons for […]
by Anne R. Allen Recently I’ve seen sad posts by a number of new writers who are having trouble marketing a self-published debut novel, or are discouraged by numerous rejections. Some are furious at the world for not loving their stuff. In a lot of their work, I see the same problem. It’s usually right […]
by Ruth Harris From the fairy tales read to us when we were children to the latest bestselling thriller, rogue characters are what keep us enthralled. From the Wicked Witch to the Superhero. Cinderella to Gone, Girl. Christian Grey to Lisbeth Salander, the girl with the dragon tattoo. The Black Swan—or the Black Sheep. He/she/they/it […]
Don’t make these punctuation blunders. by Kathy Steinemann Are you guilty of these punctuation mistakes that confuse readers and drive editors batty? Someone told me recently that about 90% of writers need the information in this post (no names mentioned, but she runs a popular writers’ blog, the one with the green-on-green color scheme). Are […]
A writing template codifies a story pattern like The Hero’s Journey. by Janice Hardy There’s more to writing a great story than just ticking off plot and character boxes. Template is an ambiguous term in writing. It can refer to a writer’s personal style sheet used when developing a story, tools for brainstorming, or worksheets […]
Clichéd emotional responses like the single tear can bore your reader by Becca Puglisi The single tear trickling down the cheek. A kiss that leaves one’s knees weak. The grin that stretches from ear to ear. *Yawn* Oh, excuse me. I almost fell asleep there. Why Readers Hate Clichéd Emotional Responses Clichés in writing are […]
How to avoid boring your readers following “what you know” writing rules by E. J. Runyon I just finished reading Anne’s March post about how you don’t always want to follow the rule that advises, ‘Write What You Know’. It made me wonder how many writers understand that it’s only a ‘Writing Rule’ for getting […]
by Anne R. Allen In a much-shared article titled “Why Your Memoir Won’t Sell,” former Writer’s Digest editor Jane Friedman listed the things that will trigger an agent or publisher to reject a memoir by a non-celebrity. A lot of people working on memoirs have been pretty discouraged by it. But you don’t have to […]
Are you procrastinating, or nurturing your creativity? by Ruth Harris Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration—at least according to Thomas Edison. The point is that writers (and geniuses) don’t work only when inspired. Much of the time, the reality is that writing a book or parsing the time-space continuum is a day-to-day […]
By William L. Hahn There are only two mistakes you can make with world-building in your genre fiction tale. Believing you can’t do it is the first, and the second is betting that you don’t have to. As a lifelong fan of epic fantasy (and a history teacher here in the Alleged Real World) it’s […]
Mary Sue is not your friend. No matter how much your Mom likes her. by Anne R. Allen. You can learn all you want about writing powerful prose, well-planned story arcs, lyrical descriptions—or any other aspect of fiction—but if you don’t have a protagonist your readers care about, none of the rest matters. But “caring […]
Good Web content attracts those search engine spiders. by Anne R. Allen These days, pretty much all writers need to learn to write Web content. Yes, even if you’re a Victorian romance author whose readers care more about reticules and spatterdashers than retweets and SEO. Even if you don’t have your own blog. Any website […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris