Caroline Allen
Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:03:04 +0000 Rough draft, acrylic on canvas, London 2007 So many people come to me terrified of the writing process. They are so terrified their creativity is a block of ice. Their artist’s soul is a petrified forest. Even after we start working together, even after they've been writing for a few months, the old terror re-appears and they stop writing; they make excuses; they take up…
Wed, 25 Jul 2007 12:17:48 +0000 Crocuses, Seattle, WA, Photograph by Caroline Allen Creativity requires an influx of the sensual. In modern office buildings, malls and homes, we've moved far away from the organic sensuality of the earth, of farm and forest, of river and mountain, that so fed human creativity in the past. Engaging all of the senses is crucial to powerful writing. But to engage those senses in our…
Thu, 26 Jul 2007 10:43:28 +0000 Wheel of Fortune, Mural, 10 feet high, Budapest, Hungary, housepaint on wallpaper Years ago a friend of mine in London, a woman I honoured and admired who wrote monologues for the BBC, suggested I “set my intent”. What she explained to me was this: everybody lives their life on soulful assumptions organic to their nature, organic to their purpose on this planet. We do this…
Thu, 30 Aug 2007 13:54:39 +0000 Click here to order the book You're thinking, I'm tired of just working and not doing anything creative. I want to do Art, be it writing, photography, visual art, music, or dance, or anything that excites the artist within. Why is it so hard to begin? Why is it so hard to maintain the process once you do begin? Why do you do some artistic…
Fri, 05 Oct 2007 14:56:16 +0000 Poster for a reading held at a fantastic independent bookstore, Santoro's, in Seattle in 2005. Artwork, oil bars on brown paper, by Caroline Allen. www.carolineallen.com When coaching writers, I begin by asking new clients to create a Writing Commitment Statement. In it, they should address their commitment to the process, specifically: -- How many days will they write a week? -- How many hours each…
Tue, 09 Oct 2007 12:46:46 +0000 Man in sunny courtyard, Budapest, photograph by caroline allen, 2007 How do you begin a story? There are lots of ways writers throughout time have used to build a story. You can begin with a concept, a philosophical idea, a sketchy plot. You can start with a newspaper clipping, a story from your childhood, gossip you’ve heard. A lot of authors begin by developing character,…
Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:50:02 +0000 Angel, Budapest Cemetery, 2006, photograph by caroline allen I would especially like to re-court the Muse of poetry, who ran off with the mailman four years ago, and drops me only a scribbled postcard from time to time. -John Updike I am in the very final throes of finishing Earth. Most agents and small publishers who accept manuscripts expect only the first three chapters. You…
Mon, 29 Oct 2007 21:02:08 +0000 Black and white nude, Seattle, 2006, by caroline allen. www.carolineallen.com My entire life as an artist, as an adult, stems from the moment when I became psychic. Many many people ask how psychicness fits into the role of Artist. I wrote about the sudden opening, my initiation into becoming a channeler in my book, Yes this journey is absolutely necessary. In 1993, I was a…
Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:27:02 +0000 Newburyport nude, 2007, pencil on brown paper sack, www.carolineallen.com A lot has been written about how to get your short stories out to literary magazines, how to polish the stories for final version, how to find mags, how to write a query. Because over the past two weeks I've had the honor of helping two clients polish a story/essay, write queries, find literary journals, and…
Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:16:45 +0000 Mystical sole, collage on board, caroline allen, 2005 I want to ask my writing clients, and all the writers I've worked with, and anyone out there reading this who is a writer, I want to ask each of you a question: Do you need your own writing website? Is it time? Sometimes it can be extremely helpful to put a presence out there, and even…