2017-03-27 00:02:50Mon, 27 Mar 2017 00:02:50 +0000 The book coaching process, especially at the beginning, can be a very safe space. The coach is there to nurture the new writer, to allow experimentation, offer inspiration, provide support, and pass on constructive advice. We aim to OPEN the writer, and that only happens with unconditional love for the person and the creative process. I've coached hundreds of people on book, script and…

2017-04-29 17:15:20Sat, 29 Apr 2017 17:15:20 +0000 What is your "personal mythology"? How can you tap into it, access the core of your beliefs, and unleash the energy to drive your novel or memoir? I came up with the term “personal mythology” when I was teaching writing workshops in Seattle. I found the easiest way to teach techniques like characterization, setting, and theme is to have new writers start by evolving a…

2007-08-01 09:48:30Wed, 01 Aug 2007 09:48:30 +0000 Budapest Cemetery, photograph by Caroline Allen, 2006 As a teacher of writing, a writing coach, and a writer with her own personal trauma, I am deeply interested in how one finds the balance between their memories of trauma and putting them into memoir or fiction. How do we hold the awful memory with integrity, write it down when it’s so painful to do so,…

2008-05-04 14:16:19Sun, 04 May 2008 14:16:19 +0000 Chevelle, Lowell, MA, Digital photography www.carolineallen.com Again and again when I'm coaching novelists, I notice that new writers are unwilling or unable to draw from the great writers of the past. Oh sure, they read a book here and there and like it, but they don't really turn and honor this long line of tradition that stands behind them, that supports them. They are…

2009-01-02 15:05:14Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:05:14 +0000In the Stream of Consciousness Series above, I dribble house paint randomly on a five-foot canvas and then see what kind of image speaks to me and paint it in. Boy on Bike (left) and Will No One Listen (right). www.carolineallen.com I'm coaching several clients on memoir. One of the single most difficult aspects of writing memoir is writing about childhood events in scene rather…

2009-04-10 14:05:50Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:05:50 +0000 Flower dribble painting done by a middle school girl in Lowell, MA, public schools. A week before posting the blog Just Be Yourself, I was speaking excitedly to another artist about the artwork I was doing with kids in public schools. When I saw her again a few days later, she'd processed the information, and she told me what I was doing wasn't such…

2009-07-27 17:38:54Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:38:54 +0000 Strawberry medley, mosaic in paper, work in progress, www.carolineallen.com I've hit a wall with writing. It's not writer's block; I'm bombarded moment to moment with ideas for working the plot and characters of the novel, on both a spiritual and practical front. I simply cannot write. I'm too tired. As an artist, I've found the notion of taking breaks, having downtime, to be extremely…

2009-08-15 20:02:15Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:02:15 +0000 www.carolineallen.com Plot is a verb. Often new writers will wax poetic about the internal working of their characters, an example is a character who hates mirrors. Hating mirrors is not an action. Hating mirrors is an internal emotion, a passive thing. To bring your novel to the next level and sell it to a publisher, you need to take the passive in your book…

2009-08-28 11:42:13Fri, 28 Aug 2009 11:42:13 +0000 Morning grass, New Sharon, Maine, www.carolineallen.com I'm reading Plot & Structure by James Scott Bell (I'd recommend it for practical advice on novel writing), and he discusses how to know when a story idea is too mediocre to pursue. He writes, and I agree, "Not every idea is of equal value." It is extremely difficult to explain to a writing student why NOT to…

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:02:10 +0000 nude, oil bar on paper, www.carolineallen.com In the film Batman Begins, a theme that fascinated me was how to create an aura of superhero around the man Bruce Wayne, so he'd become the superhero Batman, so that he'd be respected, feared, left alone, taken seriously and finally, be a successful crime fighter. I thought this is what a writer needs to do to become an…