Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen I’ve been going through my blog archives, and I found one of the first pieces I wrote for the blog—15 years ago. This was before the “Kindle Revolution” had really taken hold, so almost all beginning writers were desperately trying to “land an agent.” (We seemed to treat agents like some […]
This week I’m visiting the Sleuthsayers blog, with a blogpost about why murder mysteries are so popular in times of chaos and upheaval. Here’s the opener. Why Do We Read Murder Mysteries? By Anne R. Allen I once met an aspiring writer who been forced to move in with Mom after a year of […]
by Melodie Campbell My friend and colleague John Floyd, on the blog Sleuthsayers, recently featured a fun post on movie sequels. (Are any sequels better than the original? Yes! We agreed that A Shot in the Dark is better than The Pink Panther, but I love both.) That got me thinking about writing series books, […]
by Ruth Harris The clip file. Remember those? Gone are the days of messy, torn-out newspaper and magazine articles jammed into over-flowing, disorganized files. Those ancient artifacts have been replaced now by their neat and spiffy digital counterparts. Writers are readers and what we read is (or should be) a rich mine of ideas. […]
Bad advice and false friends can destroy a career before it starts by Anne R. Allen Happy Easter! I hope everybody is enjoying biting the ears of chocolate bunnies, eating expensive hen’s eggs you’ve dyed garish colors, and other fun seasonal rituals. Yes, I love them all, and I admit to nearly decapitating a chocolate […]
by Anne R. Allen Last July, I put this blog on hiatus after 15 years because I had a novel to finish and blog business seemed to be taking all my time. I also felt worn down by the daily disrespect from the 1000s of wannabe guest bloggers who will not read or follow […]
by Anne R. Allen Happy New Year everybody! Yes, I’m back. Sort of. I won’t be posting every Sunday morning like clockwork the way I did for the fifteen years before I paused the blog last July. That rigid schedule was becoming a burden, and I’ve decided to unload some of my burdens this […]
by Anne R. Allen Yes, Ruth and I are taking a break. I’ve kept this blog going for fifteen years, posting every Sunday morning for most of that time, except the 5 months in 2020 when I was hospitalized. During that tough time, Ruth took the reins and kept the blog going with great […]
by Anne R. Allen Whenever I teach a writing workshop, the hardest concept to get across is point of view. Almost every new writer wants to “head-hop”— that is, describe the thoughts of every character in the story — “hopping” from one head to another. This is why head-hopping is considered the mark of […]
by Anne R. Allen What should a new writer do when friends or family members ask to look at your fledgling WIP (work in progress)? We’re usually eager to share our work, and want to hear if we’re on the right track. The problem is, over-exuberant praise can keep us from polishing a draft, […]
by Anne R. Allen How do you plan an in-person book event that people actually want to attend? That is — people who are not your family, friends, or coerced co-workers? Should you sign books, maybe while offering coffee and cookies? Or should you offer a reading, where you read aloud from your book? […]
by Ruth Harris Style was once described as “looking like yourself on purpose.” I don’t know who said it but the words and the idea behind them always made sense to me. Certainly Barbra Streisand, Audrey Hepburn and Tilda Swinton are examples. So are Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol. They don’t look like anyone else and are instantly […]
by Anne R. Allen Unless you’ve chosen to write in a specific genre from the get-go — and you’ve purposely written Romance, Mystery, Sci-Fi, etc, one of the toughest jobs for a new writer is figuring out how to categorize your book. I spent years querying an uncategorized book, and many of my books […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris