Dirty, Smelly, Noisy

Just after I got my first art studio in a large old Massachusetts factory with 190 other artists, they posted the above postcard. They were having a Dirty, Smelly, Noisy show. Only 24 hours were left to submit art. I remember standing for whole minutes at a bulletin board staring at the postcard and the […]

Bare branches

I wrote a short story in Seattle years ago called “baby cow, baby cow”. That morning, I rotated the ficus. Bony branches bearing withered leaves snaked out into the living room. On the branch tips here and there healthy growth surfaced in irregular bursts. The tree’s lush side hugged the living room corner. I’d let […]

You don’t need to fix anything

Thermal Self Portrait, acrylic on canvas, 22×30, http://www.carolineallen.com I was talking to a client the other day about being an Artist. I use the term Artist as in capital “A”, as in writer, dancer, singer, actor. I was talking about being a journalist and how I felt throughout my career that I was working exceedingly […]

Andre Dubus and the Healing Power of Memoir

The town I live in in Massachusetts has a reputation. For decades, Haverhill has been known for its petty crime, domestic violence, its unemployment and poverty. Walk the streets late at night or too early in the morning (I was up at 5 to do a photo shoot of the downtown once), and you’ll run […]

Fractured Brilliance

Fractured Brilliance: Styrofoam, paper mache, shattered mirror, and grout. http://www.carolineallen.com Over the past month in my studio, I’ve been working on a mosaic (see picture above). Usually I build the structure from scratch, but have been overwhelmed by world events, emotionally and psychically, and after writing my own novels and coaching clients on their books, […]

Memoir Lessons for just $25

Want to learn how to write a memoir from the comfort of your own home? I am now offering 10 email lessons for just $25. The lessons include: clarifying memories and organizing your stories creating vivid description writing engaging dialogue developing strong characters expressing setting doing research Each lesson has been developed over 10 years […]

Riversong’s journey

Women’s writing class in Seattle. As a coach, I’ve worked with clients sometimes for years on their novel and memoir. Most clients look forward to the day when all their hard work will pay off, the day their books find a publisher. One such client, Tess Hardwick has seen her dream come true. I worked […]

Writing Basics: Theme

Market in Yerevan, Armenia, http://www.carolineallen.com This is the second in a series on Writing Basics. Each week I’ll cover a different element used in both fiction and nonfiction — description, setting, plot, theme, characterization. Today, we explore Theme. In the previous blog Writing Basics: Short Story, I described one method for writing a short story. […]

Write Love

Maine sunflower, http://www.carolineallen.com I work with memoir writers who are dealing with some pretty heavy material. Day after day, week after week, month after month they remember neglect and abuse, write about it and revise it. It can be tough for even the strongest survivor out there. Or fiction. Many writers I’ve worked with use […]

Revision, trying something different

Detail from a new painting The French Circus, http://www.carolineallen.com Over the past couple of years, a client and I worked together to write the rough draft of her memoir. When it came time to revise the book, she was too busy at her job to give the book the attention it needed. She came up […]