Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:41:50 +0000 Maine, digital photography, www.carolineallen.com I have a client who came to me to coach her in the writing of a nonfiction book about kids in foster care, their trials and tribulations, our misunderstanding of at-risk youth. I knew in my gut this client was also a writer of fiction. I'm not sure she knew it yet, though. People will often come to me with a…

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 11:06:10 +0000 Mural detail by Karolline, 16, in the teen art program in Lowell, MA. After writing the blog From Neglect to Nurturing, I started thinking about how one goes about finding creative nurturing. The concept of that blog was that when as writers we are stuck, 99 percent of the time it is because of neglect we suffered as children. I received a lot of emails…

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:44:38 +0000 Tokyo on Ecstacy, tempera paint on canvas, www.carolineallen.com I'm lying on my sofa at about 10 Sunday morning with a hangover. I went to a party last night where the host, a man, brought out a paper mache giant pink penis and hauled it up the branch of a Maple tree in his driveway. He made a list of the women who wanted to thwack…

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:58:16 +0000 Maine sunflower, www.carolineallen.com I read an English translation of the I Ching almost daily. I find the ancient Chinese way of putting things quirky and exotic. "The penetrating (wind) moves above the profound (water) forming the condition for Reuniting." I mean, ponder that for a while and see where it puts your mind! My favorite paragraph in the translation by R.L. Wing is this: "Those…

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:22:53 +0000 www.carolineallen.com All writers have to learn to live in the place of "I don't know". Novels are complex unweildy animals. If you know how every scene is going to unfold, you're being too controlling. Perhaps you have a general idea of where the novel is going and that's fine, but to know too much is a sure prelude to writer's block. If you think you…

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 16:04:00 +0000 I had a great coaching session this morning with a woman writing a memoir, a therapist. She's on vacation from her tough job, and she told me that even when she's off work, people naturally open up to her and start talking deeply about themselves. She said, "There's just such need in this country. We have no one to talk to. We've lost our extended…

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:02:38 +0000 Overwintering, San Juan Islands, Pacific Northwest, www.carolineallen.com After posting yesterday's blog Just listen to me, I couldn't stop thinking about all the people who refuse to listen to our stories. Example after example came to me. I work with a lot of clients who had difficult childhoods. Many have had trouble in writing groups because some of the members refused to listen. Even in writing…

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:49:28 +0000 www.carolineallen.com My primary care doctor is Czech. I had my yearly physical last week. The doctor is always interested in talking to me about writing. I was in a mad hurry because I had a life drawing session right afterwards, and I couldn't get out of his office for all the stories he wanted to tell me. Meanwhile, for weeks I've been doing a self-study…

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 12:22:29 +0000 London Reflections, Southbank, www.carolineallen.com I have a friend who's a journalist, a genius of a guy, who's writing a novel. I read parts of it and realized it was in the realm of a post-modern author I'd studied in school. I got the guy the book as a gift. I was amazed that as my friend opened his gift, his face fell. I asked him…

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:03:26 +0000 Traffic in Costa Rica, www.carolineallen.com When I speak to new or want-to-be writers about any successes I have had as a writer, whether as a journalist or a fiction writer, some will interrupt me, talk over me, change the subject. This often happens even after I have been deeply supportive of their writing. I understand that the subject makes them uncomfortable, that perhaps they wish…