Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Denise M. Baran-Unland Full transparency: I’m the reluctant co-founder and leader of a writers group. The group wasn’t my idea, and I fully intended to step away after launching it. Instead, the other leader stepped away to start a family – and a newish member at the time stepped up to co-lead until […]
by Debbie Burke For years, I spun my wheels writing mysteries My heroes were interesting, multi-dimensional, flawed yet likable. My novels won contests, engaged two respected agents, made the submission rounds, and… received rave rejections. Something was missing but I didn’t know what. Finally, epiphany struck. If you’re gonna write crime fiction, you need […]
by Yvonne Osborne You can’t blame a writer for what the characters say. – Truman Capote How important is the relationship between a writer and their character? What is the Zone? If you’re a writer, have you been there? If you’re a reader, have you? They are first-cousin related. Let’s go! What is the […]
Note: while Anne is dealing with some health issues, some friends of the blog have stepped up to keep the blog going. This week we have a fun post from one of our favorite authors, Melodie Campbell, “Canada’s Queen of Comedy.” by Melodie Campbell I like to get in the mood, when I’m reading. Here’s […]
Don’t let dangerous critiques turn your novel into a Jackalope by Anne R. Allen This week’s post is an updated version of a post from 2022. I’ve recently seen a number of new writers complain about how difficult it is to please all their beta readers, especially when the readers disagree. So I thought it […]
by Anne R. Allen The mistakes new writers make are pretty universal. I’m pretty sure I made all of them. I foisted my fledging work on everybody, my friends, online acquaintances, and even the occasional date. Most were kinder than they needed to be. But I also lost some friends. So here’s what happens […]
By Anne R. Allen This is an updated version of a post from 2023, but there are so many more scammers approaching us now, writers need to be hyper-vigilant. Unfortunately, a lot of new writers often know very little about the publishing industry and how it works, and they’re usually full of hope and […]
By Anne R. Allen The self-publishing boom of the past 15 years has been a gift to the scam community. Authors aren’t the only targets of scams, of course, but we have become easy prey. I used to say there are twice as many scammers making money off of writers as there are writers […]
by Anne R. Allen It’s the darkest day of the year. Which means it will get lighter from now until summer. 🙂 Should we try to write through the darkness? Sometimes writing can keep you going through the holidays, but treating the rule “Write Every Day” as if it is set in stone can […]
by Anne R. Allen Last month, I wrote a post with tips about how (not) to write a novel opener. Some readers complained that I was “dictating” how people should write. That wasn’t my intention. I only talked about what agents and editors think has been overdone, and what doesn’t work well in an […]
by Alicia Street and Terence Stamp I was so sad to read of actor Terence Stamp’s death this week at age 87. Early in this blog’s history, we were honored to run this interview with Mr. Stamp, who had just launched his memoir, Rare Stamps. Our regular reader, Alicia Street, conducted the interview. So here’s […]
by Anne R. Allen This week I’ve been hit hard by signs that publishing industry bloggers are disappearing into the Substack world of “become a paid subscriber to continue reading this article.” But it’s also obvious the publishing world still needs us! How do I know? This week, I’ve been buried in emails from book […]
Go ahead, write that first draft with a feather. It’s all good. by Anne R. Allen Recently I’ve been looking at comment threads on old posts. Five years ago, people were leaving a lot more comments. But commenting on blogs has faded along with the popularity of blogging, which a lot of people see as […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris