Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen As a reader, I’ve recently developed some pet peeves that never used to bother me. Maybe it’s age. These days I find it almost impossible to follow a novel with wild head-hopping, where every spear-carrier is a POV character. I’m also bored by stories where everybody is horrible and there’s nobody […]
by Anne R. Allen Here’s more about the mistakes I made so you don’t have to. If I had worked harder on these things instead of doggedly piling up wordcount without having a clue what I was doing, I’d have saved myself a lot of time and heartbreak on my road to publication. 1) Come […]
by Anne R. Allen One of our most popular posts in recent years has been a guest post from mystery author Sue McGinty. She wrote about Hometown Marketing, and the importance of getting our books known in our own communities. It helps if you’ve written those books with that community in mind. Not just to […]
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 […]
Peggy Cass as “Agnes Gooch,” a memorable character name by Anne R. Allen “Agnes Gooch,” “Mr. McCawber,” “Albus Dumbledore”: memorable names of memorable characters. How can writers come up with character names that readers will never forget? In his painfully funny 2006 book, Famous Writing School, a Novel, Stephen Carter’s writing teacher-protagonist advises his students to […]
Start your novel any way you want when you write your first draft, but keep your reader in mind when you edit. by Anne R. Allen There are as many ways to start your novel as there are writers, so be aware that these are not hard and fast rules. But newbies tend to fall […]
by Anne R. Allen NEVER GIVE UP ON YOUR DREAMS! Recently, my publisher, MWiDP, relaunched Shirley S. Allen’s cozy mystery, ACADEMIC BODY as an ebook. Sales had slowed for the print version published by Mainly Murder Press in 2010, but Mark Williams saw my ad for the book on this blog, read it and loved […]
by Ruth Harris Are your Rejection-levels too low? Is publication coming too easily? Did your publisher’s promo/ad campaign turn your book into an overnight blockbuster? Did that mega-million movie deal just fall from the sky into your lap? If the answer is yes, if you feel you are not paying your dues, if you […]
by Anne R. Allen You know how everybody keeps telling you to keep sending out those queries in spite of all the rejection? How it pays to persevere? And the only way to fail is to give up trying? Now I have proof they’re right. You’re never too old for success. My nearly 89-year-old […]
