Anne R. Allen's Blog... with Ruth Harris
Writing about writing. Mostly.
by Ruth Harris The muse (also referred to as intuition, instinct, the subconscious, a superpower, the Spidey sense) is generally a friendly and cooperative breed. By nature, the muse tends to be bright eyed, curious and energetic. However, ignored or poorly-treated the muse can be become depressed and mopey and will not function effectively. […]
by Anne R. Allen So you think you want to write a novel? You’re not alone. According to a New York Times study done a decade ago, 81% of Americans “think they have a book in them”. With the indie ebook revolution, I’m sure the percentage has grown. Of course, most of that 81% won’t ever write […]
by Anne R. Allen I’m not going to pretend that picking a title for your book is easy. In fact, it gets tougher all the time. We have to consider a lot more than how grabby a title looks on a bookstore shelf these days. In choosing a title now, we have to think […]
by Dr. John Yeoman Have you ever entered a short story contest and failed to win? And wondered why? You may have made one or more of these seven ‘killer’ mistakes. How do I know? Since 2009, I’ve judged more than 6000 entries in the Writers’ Village short story award. And I’ve given every […]
by Editor Jodie Renner Writing short stories is a great way to test the waters of fiction without making a huge commitment, or to experiment with different genres, characters, settings, and voices. Even if you’ve published a novel or two, it’s a good idea to try to release a few high-quality, well-edited short stories […]
by Anne R. Allen You can learn all you want about writing powerful prose, well-planned story arcs, lyrical descriptions—or any other aspect of fiction—but if you don’t have a protagonist your readers care about, none of the rest matters.I don’t think it’s terribly relevant to talk about character “likability” in the sense of “niceness.” The […]
I’m so jazzed we’re hosting Nathan Bransford this week! Mr. Bransford—who is a children’s author, former literary agent, and blogging legend—gave this blog its start when he offered me a guest spot on his blog in 2010. I wrote a piece on why you should keep writing, no matter what, called You May Be a Bestseller on Trafalmadore. […]
This week we have some serious nuts-and-bolts advice from our own Ruth Harris. Ruth learned this stuff from both sides of the editorial desk, as an editor at Bantam & Dell, publisher at Kensington–and as a New York Times bestselling author of women’s fiction and thrillers. Since I’m in the middle of editing my […]
by Anne R. Allen I’ve been looking over some of my much-rejected early novels recently and discovered they have something in common with a lot of other unpublished fiction: way too much dialogue. They’re too LOUD. The characters need to shut up already and get on with the story. And yet, in all the […]
Anne R Allen’s Blog With Ruth Harris