Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Tara Sparling Introduction: Ever wonder what it would be like to live with a well-known fictional character stereotype? At Christmas? Well, wonder no more, and count your blessings that you don’t… It’s December the Somethingth. You come home from a long day at work. You were supposed to buy Christmas gifts, but the traffic […]
Writing your final chapter can be tougher than writing the first. by Anne R. Allen A new book by Patricia Cornwell, of Kay Scarpetta fame, has had 100s of scathing reviews on Amazon. Not only has she strayed from the mystery genre into scifi, but the book did not come to a satisfying conclusion. Readers […]
by Anne R. Allen I’ve had questions from several writers recently about how to approach a first chapter. New writers hear so many rules about what they must do in the first line, first paragraph, and first chapter that they can feel paralyzed, afraid to write a word. Let’s hope that NaNoWriMo is helping some […]
by Anne R. Allen Anton Chekhov, the Russian playwright, also wrote short stories, essays and instructions for young writers. Probably his most famous writerly advice is this admonition: “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 […]
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 […]
