Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen Two weeks ago, I posted a helpful piece from children’s author Sarah Allen about using Substack. A Substack newsletter is the trendiest way for authors to communicate with readers right now. But here I am, still blogging, with no newsletter, much less a fancy Substack one. In fact, this is my […]
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 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 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 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 […]
Exterminate, exterminate—the Trollbot Inquisition may be coming for you! by Anne R. Allen We hardly ever write personal stuff here on the blog. I avoid politics and religion in my fiction as well as social media, and I figure nobody needs to hear about my little emotional ups and downs. But a couple of weeks […]
by Anne R. Allen For the past few years, authors have been urged to give up blogging for newsletters, especially using the trendy Substack. Substack encourages users to put their good content behind a paywall, so only elite readers have the privilege of reading the entire newsletter. I was going to write a whole post […]
by Anne R. Allen It’s been said that if writing advice were classic rock, “Show Don’t Tell” would be “Stairway to Heaven.” But is it always good advice? Of course nobody wants to read a novel that tells a series of incidents. That can sound like a four-year-old recapping his day. “I had Froot […]
By Anne R. Allen Recently an article in The Cut by finance writer Charlotte Cowles shocked her readers with the story of how she was robbed by a gang of con artists. She admitted she ended up giving these crooks $50,000 in cash in a shoe box. Like many other readers, I wondered how […]
Dialogue is fun in fiction, but too much can be exhausting by Anne R. Allen Yes, I’m quoting an Elvis song (actually by his songwriters Mac Davis and Billy Strange) in a writing article. But the title is a good thing to keep in mind when you’re writing fiction. I recently paid money for a […]
by Anne R. Allen In a workshop I attended recently, several people criticized an author’s work because they didn’t approve of the way the protagonist behaved. They thought the character was morally deficient. First, this wasn’t good critiquing. It’s not the critiquer’s job to make moral judgements about another author’s characters. A novel full […]
by Anne R. Allen Talk about self-publishing has diminished in the last few years. Most of the “Kindle Millionaires” that surged onto the scene a decade or so ago have evaporated from indie writing communities. Some of them are, of course, busy writing their next bestseller. But a lot either got traditional publishing contracts, […]
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 […]
