on Anne R. Allen:

You’ve kinda/sorta finished your book/first draft/whachamacallit.

In drastic cases, it could even be an outline that’s gone off the rails and landed in a ditch.

But.

• Your original brilliant idea is drowning in a sea of ugly clutter.
• There are dust bunnies in the corners.
• An overflowing laundry hamper in the hall.
• First chapter is suffering from ring-around-the-collar.
• Inciting incident is ho-hum and forgettable (even by you).
• Plot has more holes than plot.
• Characters have mutated into unrecognizable forms (and you’re not writing sci-fi or alien invasion fiction).
• Verbs are passive, the nouns flabby and adjectives rust in the front yard.
• Ending limps to a conclusion.

You’re asking yourself: Did I write that?

More often than we might wish, the answer is yes. What we’ve written is an endangered book.

So Now What? How do we Fix this Endangered Book? 

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