Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Ruth Harris A term used in scoring tennis, “unforced errors” are not caused by the actions of the player’s opponent, but they’re the responsibility of the player him/herself. S/he is caught wrong-footed, out of balance, unable to return the serve, incapable of making the winning shot. The concept of unforced errors can also be […]
by Anne R. Allen I’m not sure anything stings as much as that first bad review. You’re riding high in triumph. You finished the project that may have taken decades to complete. Then you survived the crushing editing/ querying/ rejections/ revising/ editing again process. But now you’re finally a published author. Yay! Whether the publisher […]
Freewrite techniques help process the traumatic times we’re living in. by Marlene Cullen When we experience an emotional event, we tend to replay it in our minds. Sometimes we want uncomfortable situations to disappear, so we try to ignore and suppress what happened. But we don’t forget. One way to manage intense feelings is to […]
by Anne R. Allen A lot of authors get that deer-in-the-headlights look when I mention marketing books online. But it’s pretty much the only way to promote books during this “stay at home” pandemic. So we gotta do it. I understand your reluctance. Social media is full of trolls, scammers, and vast herds of bellicose […]
Success comes from patience, practice, and persistence. by Ruth Harris We’re living in a world where everything—pizza, groceries, shampoo, a barre class, hot sex (or, in these days of Covid-19, a sex toy discreetly wrapped)—is a click away. Even in the midst of a shelter-in-place pandemic, everything anyone—including writers—could want is at our fingertips. We’ve […]
Improve the action and get your characters moving! by Meghan Ward Page-turners aren’t the only books that employ action. In every story the characters’ actions drive the narrative forward. Without action, a book would be a series of scenes full of dialogue and description, a literary Dinner with Andre that would put the reader straight […]
by Anne R. Allen One of my personal writing issues is I tend to pack my books and stories with way too many characters. If a fascinating person walks into one of my stories, I feel it would be rude not to let them join the party. I suppose my inner Manners Doctor takes over. […]
By Melodie Campbell Yes, I’m at that point. The chaos point. Writing to a specific word count, three-quarters written, and my twentieth novel is an unqualified mess. If you are a veteran writer like me, you say it’s not going to happen this time. But it does. EVERY FREAKING TIME. Here’s why: THE LINEAR APPROACH […]
Newbie writers should protect fledgling ideas. by Anne R. Allen You’ve got a fantastic idea for a novel. It’s been hanging around for quite a while, knocking inside your noggin. The idea keeps saying, “Let me out! Release me! Put me in a book!” Maybe there’s a scene in your head that plays like a […]
by Ruth Harris You might have thought because you’re staying at home that you’d have more free time to start/finish a book or take an on-line yoga class. But in reality, because we’re all spending so much time at home, much of that time is consumed by eating which means food prep and cooking (which […]
by Garry Rodgers I was always the weird kid. While other boys dreamed of growing up to fly fast fighters or fight ferocious fires, I wanted to be a writer. It was like a calling. Is that weird or what? But, instead of studying fine arts or going to journalism school, when I turned twenty-one […]
A social media executor will keep you from becoming a social media ghost. by Anne R. Allen We’re living through a time when we’re forced to face something our culture prefers to ignore: our own mortality. We’re discovering, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson, that although we do not stop for death, it kindly stops for us. […]
Collective grief is loud and unrelenting. But there are ways to tune it out. by Anne R. Allen There are a lot of jokes out there right now like the cartoon in The New Yorker showing a young woman saying something like “I couldn’t decide whether to work on my novel or my screenplay, so […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris