Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Anne R. Allen Song lyrics inspire a lot of writers. Often a song that means a lot to you may be what inspired your book in the first place. Or you may need to quote those Garth Brooks lyrics to give an authentic tone to that bar scene in your memoir. The band played […]
by Anne R. Allen Secondary characters are often glossed over in popular fiction. They’re in the story to further the plot, and can sometimes devolve into broad stereotypes or cardboard cut-outs while the protagonist (and maybe love interest) dominate the story. You can avoid the problem if you think of the secondary characters as […]
The Sensitive Plant (Mimosa Pudica) by Anne R. Allen A friend recently hired several sensitivity readers to review his YA novel, which features characters of diverse ethnicities. He’s about to get on the query-go-round and wants to make sure the book won’t be found insensitive to those minorities. This is becoming increasingly important to the […]
by Anne R. Allen Publishing Scammers get more brazen all the time, and there seem to be more of them every day. Sometimes I wonder if all those people who have mysteriously quit their jobs aren’t now working as con artists and phone scammers. Just recently, the respected site Wattpad ran a contest that involved […]
Dangerous Critiques can Turn Your WIP into a Jackalope by Anne R. Allen One of the most damaging things a new writer can do is try to please everybody who beta-reads or critiques their WIP. I’ve seen a novel turned into a kind of jackalope of unrelated parts. If you tend to be a “people […]
by Anne R. Allen When a writer complains that everybody in traditional publishing is crooked, or that the whole industry is rigged against new writers, you can usually be sure the author’s manuscript needs work. But it could also be that he doesn’t know how to write a query. I know some excellent writers who […]
from Ruth Harris Anne and I wish happiness, health, and all the season’s blessings to our cherished readers and commenters. With the appearance of a new variant called Omicron, Covid has staged a resurgence. It feels to me as I write this from New York a few days before Christmas that we are living […]
By Anne R. Allen Ruth and I write this blog to give back to the writing community we’ve lived and worked in for many decades. We offer warnings about scams, plus tips and helpful suggestions for writing fiction and creative nonfiction that contemporary readers will want to buy. We say “we made the mistakes so […]
by Anne R. Allen Early in my writing career, I wrote in secret — and hardly ever finished anything. If I got to the point where I could write “the end” on a piece, I’d bury it in a drawer. I was incapable of writing a whole novel. I always stopped after the first 40 […]
by Anne R. Allen “Chapter titles!?” sez you. What is this, the 18th century? What am I supposed to write? Something like this? Chapter the first, in which our hero is born, discovers that fire is hot, learns to pull up his own breeches, and slays a smallish dragon. Hey, those 18th century writers knew […]
By Anne R. Allen Most writers have probably heard of “Upmarket fiction.” But you may have questions about it. Like, when should you use the term? And how do you figure out if your novel fits in the category? Is it considered a genre, like Romance or Mystery? And is it the same as “Book […]
by Anne R. Allen On Friday morning at 7 AM a couple of weeks ago, the landline phone woke me with a call from a woman who wanted to know if I was the author of Food of Love. I said yes, it’s one of my titles, along with 14 other books. Why did she […]
by Anne R. Allen Clichés exist for a reason. A whole lot of people like them. That means they get over-exposed. Clichés represent a natural way of thinking. So don’t feel bad if your first draft has a clichéd opener. It’s part of the process. Here’s the most important thing for a new writer to […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris