Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:12:32 +0000 Window view, Haverhill, MA 1. Write chronologically. On revision you can choose to mix things up, but for the rough draft, write your memoir chronologically. It's so much easier to write that way, to remember the details. And you'll be amazed by what memories come to you as you unfold the map of your life, year by year. 2. For the traumatic events, GIGO, Get…

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:44:06 +0000 Angel at Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest, Hungary, www.carolineallen.com It's more difficult to sum up writing fiction than it is writing memoir. Fiction can be too amorphous, too soulful, to be forced into linear alignment. However, there are a few guidelines you can follow for writing good fiction. 1. Start with character. Spend time really getting to know the peoople in your story, their childhoods, relationship…

Fri, 18 May 2012 00:25:31 +0000We're hiring a professional writing coach/editor to work with clients of novel, memoir and nonfiction books on an as-needed basis. Must have 10 to 15 years’ experience in a professional writing/editing capacity. Must be a writer of your own books, whether fiction or nonfiction. Must have been published in some capacity, in newspapers, magazines or books. Must have a proven track record of working with other…

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:03:20 +000015-minute painting series, self-portrait, oil bar on paper, 12x12, www.carolineallen.com Many people have a profound need to write. Telling their story, whether through fiction or nonfiction, feels as essential to them as eating or breathing. Are you a writer? Do you want to see how other new writers tackle the soulful and practical aspects of writing? Six writers will be reading from their memoirs, short stories…

Sat, 30 Jun 2012 23:16:05 +0000 Sing it, sister, oil bar on paper, 15-minute painting series, www.carolineallen.com ALL WEEK, the theme with several clients has been letting go of control, not trying to be perfect, letting the words flow, or as one client put it "just slapping the writing down". I've spent more time this week discussing the process of writing than actually focusing on the written word. Coaching usually works like…

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 18:52:23 +0000 Missouri backyard after hunting season. Famous spiritual healers past and present talk about “letting go” of the past. Holding on to traumas of the past is like holding onto a hot coal. Just drop the hot coal, they say. How can a writer reconcile this with spending years writing a memoir or semiautobiographical novel? Not only are you not letting go of the hot coal,…

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 21:50:17 +0000 On June 9, 2012, I hosted a reading of six memoir and fiction writers at Santoro's Bookstore in Seatte. My father is dying of Parkinson's. One evening I was thinking about how at his funeral all the eulogies would be cleaned up, politically correct versions of the truth. Why couldn't someone tell a real story, I thought, about this difficult man's life, just one real story? It wouldn't…

Thu, 19 Jul 2012 22:26:59 +0000   Welcome to the first in a series of essays on writing by guest bloggers. Today's blogger is Marni Graff. A former writer for seven years with “Mystery Review” magazine, Graff has interviewed Ian Rankin, Deborah Crombie, Val McDermid, and her mentor, P. D. James, amongst many others. A member of Sisters in Crime, she runs the Writers Read program in NC, and is a founding…

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 22:14:58 +0000 In Art of Storytelling's ongoing series of essays by guest bloggers, Russian novelist Nadia Clifford explores writing a novel in English when English is your second language. Nadia, who is working on her first novel, grew up in Moscow and now lives in the Boston area. Art of Storytelling is offering an E-Course entitled International Novel/Memoir: Writing in English when English is not your first language.…

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 19:24:17 +0000 Guest blogger Julie Mannina discusses her novel about past and present lives, Rhamanta, in this ongoing series of essays on writing by guest bloggers. Read more about Julie on her blog http://juliemannina.wordpress.com/. As a child welfare attorney, I see compelling stories every day. Several years ago, I decided to try to record those stories that really moved me.  But at one point, I realized the timing…