Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:47:36 +0000 What was that noise, acrylic and modeling medium with palette knife on canvas, 24x36, www.carolineallen.com As a writer and writing coach, I stress the importance of well-written, well-integrated setting. Afterall, settings are people, too! Good setting adds to characterization, it grounds the story and people in it in a place and time, and it provides a solid structure for the reader to depend upon. Minimalist…

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 14:09:25 +0000 Mystical Hand, FRONT and BACK, Reminding Myself Not to Forget, 2008, www.carolineallen.com I have just gotten my first art studio. Images are on my website www.carolineallen.com/arthome.html. The studio is in a large textile factory in Lowell, Massachusetts, that housed hundreds of girls, some as young as 13. Some were orphans, others came from impoverished countries in East and West Europe. They came across the Atlantic…

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:28:51 +0000Pearl, pre-fleas, 2008 My kitten contracted fleas from god knows where (she's an indoor cat and has not been outside, nor has she had any kind of contact with other animals). At any rate, I had to take everything I own to the local laundromat. I sat in the nondescript laundromat in a strip mall that boasts a Walgreens and an auto parts store, and read…

Thu, 01 May 2008 15:55:23 +0000As a writing coach, I often work with writers to increase the conflict. Fiction isn't just about creating a situation that might seem likely in real life; it's about UPPING THE DRAMATIC ANTE. Conflict is tougher, characters are more intense, the environment is more formidable than normal life. It's a very interesting process to get people to this level in their writing, taking normal scenes and…

Thu, 08 May 2008 13:58:27 +0000 Budapest, 2007, www.carolineallen.com As Mother's Day approaches, I'd like raise my glass to all women who are not mothers, all those in their 40s and 50s, and older and younger, who chose not to have children. I am 44 and do not have children. I have many women friends, single and in relationships, who are like me. What does this have to do with writing?…

Sat, 17 May 2008 14:49:01 +0000 self portrait, acrylic on canvas, www.carolineallen.com You want to write, but you're staring at a blank screen, and you don't know where to begin. Or, you keep rewriting the first sentence over and over and over again. Stop. Think rough. Think rough draft. It's impossible to edit something that isn't yet on the page, and that's what most new writers do. They self edit before…

Mon, 19 May 2008 14:22:24 +0000 village, acrylic on canvas, www.carolineallen.com I'm trying to get Earth published, my novel, and I've joined the ranks of the first-time novelists trying to get noticed in the sea of submissions agents and publishers receive. I had this dream around it: the fact that you are different is what will sell this book. In the book, Pearl Elizabeth Swinton, the main character is "different". She's…

Fri, 23 May 2008 14:44:46 +0000 Long Hill Estate, Beverly, MA, www.carolineallen.com I've just bought and studied NewNovelist 2.0, by Creativity Software. You can use the software to help you write your existing novel, or even, according to the reviews, write the novel you've always wanted to write. I cannot recommend it enough. It's blowing my mind and blowing my writing open. Run, do not walk to buy it. (I got…

Fri, 30 May 2008 13:31:36 +0000 Chains that bind, digital photography, Lowell, MA, www.carolineallen.com, part of Dirty Smelly Noisy Exhibit, www.dirtysmellynoisy.com I'm a writing coach now, but used to be a tarot reader/healer and I still give tarot readings upon ocassion. An artist in a nearby art studio, D, asked me for a reading recently. The information in her reading helped me understand why as writers we feel stuck; we feel…

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 12:53:32 +0000 Burying the hatchet, 2002, www.carolineallen.com After writing the blog "It's not laziness", I was hit on all sides by emails and personal epiphanies and I knew I'd struck a universal chord. Afterwards, I felt a heaviness in my body, a familiar black rock of apathy that I hadn't felt in at least the past year. I thought it had cleared out after I finished my…