Writing about writing. Mostly.
Happy New Year from Ruth and Anne! It’s been a great year here at the blog. We’ve had wonderful guests who’ve written posts on everything from the nuts and bolts of Becca Puglisi’s how to write a “redeemable” villain to Jim Denney’s inspirational piece on why AI is not going to replace human creativity. Ruth […]
by Anne R. Allen Merry Yuletide! Every religion in the northern hemisphere celebrates the Winter Solstice in some way. Usually with lights to illuminate the darkest time of year, like the festival of Hanukah. In the snowy north, the European ancestors of many of us were cold and hungry, so they invented holidays to […]
by Anne R. Allen So you won NaNoWriMo! You had to skip Thanksgiving dinner with your brother-in-law’s fabulous spatchcocked turkey, and watching the game with your favorite cousins. Plus your houseplants died, your cat evaporated, and you still have your Halloween decorations up. Tip: Make some Santa hats for all your bats, witches and […]
Rudyard Kipling needed a literary agent by Mark Williams As last September ended, a report from the Association of American Literary Agents painted a bleak picture of the American literary agent — working long hours and struggling to pay the bills, worrying for their future. Among the members of the author community who had ever […]
Is your query letter the problem? by Anne R. Allen I’ve often wondered why some wonderful writers never get a nibble from an agent, and others get a request for a full manuscript after a handful of queries. I had an insight into the issue this week when I heard from a friend of a […]
Writing advice to keep the turkeys from getting you down. by Ruth Harris Helpful writing advice— “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” — Somerset Maugham “Writing has laws of perspective, of light and shade just as painting does, or music. If you are born knowing them, […]
by Anne R. Allen What’s over-workshopping? It’s what happens when writers attend too many writing workshops or critique groups where they’re fed dogmatic, my-way-or-the-highway rules. Following rules too closely can slow down your story (and your career.) It can also eliminate what’s creative and original in your work. You can spend years schlepping that […]
by Becca Puglisi Have you ever fallen in love with a story villain? Or at least found yourself liking them somewhat against your will? Seems a little weird, experiencing all the happy feels for this character, but I think we’ve all been there. When a villain is well written and well rounded, they can tug […]
by Anne R. Allen I’m sure everybody remembers the teacher or parent who told you they didn’t like your “tone” when you were being a snarky adolescent. Or a whiney brat who wanted a cookie right before dinner: “Oh, right. I’m going to ride my bike to the dance? Like I’m 10 years old?” […]
by Ruth Harris The lights are red. All signs are Stop Signs. That stack of pages you thought was going to be a book? You know, with characters, a setting, maybe even a plot? Somehow, it vanished in a wasteland of false starts, dead ends and dead darlings. Why? What happened? You’re the author — […]
by Anne R. Allen A “creativity wound” is the psychological injury we feel when someone we trust says harsh, negative things about our creative work. Executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) Grant Faulkner explains it like this: “We put our souls, the meaning of our lives, into the things we create, whether […]
by Anne R. Allen Social media etiquette? Does such a thing even exist anymore? When on any given day your eyeballs can be hit with posts glorifying genocide, disinformation, and alpha-thug rapists and traffickers? The answer is yes. Even though social media feels more and more like an airplane headed for a large mountain, […]
By Gary Braver Like other crime novelists, I keep a file of real cases. Not only do these serve as ideas to draw from, but they give authentic grounding while inspiring me to learn more about the perpetrators and their victims. What caught my attention at the onset of my latest novel, RUMOR OF […]
