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About Allie Larkin

Allie Larkin is the internationally bestselling author of the novel Stay (2010), and Why Can't I Be You (2013). She has never ordered a dog off the internet or assumed a new identity to attend a high school reunion. Allie lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, Jeremy, and their German Shepherd, Stella.

Recent Posts by this author:

  • Refilling the Well
  • Wants vs. Shoulds
  • Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?
  • Don’t Picture Your Readers in Their Underwear: Writing Stage Fright
  • Not Writing for Writers
  • Beyond the Notebook – Gift Ideas for Writers
  • Finding Confidence
  • Organizing a Second Draft with Notecards and Tom Petty
  • All the World’s a Book: Acting for Writers
  • Extroverting for Introverts
  • The Myth of Balance
  • Don’t Go on TV with Your Fly Open

    • Refilling the Well

    By

    Flickr Creative Commons: Boxer Bob

    I needed last Friday to be a great writing day. I knew exactly where to start. I was going to get up early, make my meals for the day, and write Pomodoro style all the way through to evening. I’d ignore social media. Wouldn’t even read the news.

    Just a quick peek at the headlines to make sure the world wasn’t ending and then…holy hell, how was it two PM? Because, of course, history making news days are never really convenient to one’s writing schedule.

    By two-thirty, frayed and bleary-eyed, I felt like I’d read the entire internet. Surely my writing day was toast. But I also recognized that I needed a break from news updates. There was a new season of Broadchurch up. I’d been saving it for the end of my project, but I decided to let myself watch twenty minutes.

    One of the things I love about Broadchurch is its narrow focus. The small town. The lives of a few families. The setting, the mood, the music, the careful words. Every element carries weight, and watching felt like satisfying a gnawing hunger with exact food I’d been craving. Once my mind had been drawn away from the entire internet to something small and beautiful, I was ready to write. [Read more…]

    Wants vs. Shoulds

    By

    I fell in love with a running trail. It’s shady and cool, even on the most relentlessly sunny days. There’s a creek to cross by jumping across rocks. The trail changes from gravel to sand to stone and back again, and the hills are a good challenge. Chubby California voles scurry around, and on two occasions, I even saw them swimming in the creek. You might be all, “Ew! Rodents!” but they look like tiny teddy bears and watching them swim seemed magical. Every trail run felt like the kind of … [Read more...]

    Who Knows Where Thoughts Come From?

    By

    “Who knows where thoughts come from? They just appear.” ~Lucas, Empire Records When I think about thinking, that line from Empire Records pops into my head. But do you ever wonder if it's possible to reverse engineer the appearance of ideas to figure out a way to keep 'em coming? Is there a secret to making thoughts appear better/faster/more reliably? The main character in my first book evolved from a writing exercise in Advanced Creative Writing during my senior year in college. A book … [Read more...]

    Don’t Picture Your Readers in Their Underwear: Writing Stage Fright

    By

    While touring for my first book, an older gentleman I knew sidled up to me to ask about my main character’s love interest. He said, “So who’s this Alex guy?” in a wink wink kind of way and it ruined me for writing for awhile. Writing STAY wasn’t part of a master plan to be published. I was about seventy-thousand words in before I even admitted to myself I was writing a book, so I hadn’t thought through the idea of PEOPLE I KNEW READING SEX SCENES I WROTE. “So, who’s this Alex guy?” and I … [Read more...]

    Not Writing for Writers

    By

    The best idea I had for my first book came while I was raking leaves the backyard with my dog and realized that my main character also needed a dog. And then, to the soothing sounds of my rake scratching through the grass while I gathered cottonwood leaves into piles, I worked through the all the ways my character could and couldn't acquire her new best friend. When I sat down to write, I knew exactly what she would do. Back then, I had lots of time to think things through. Social media … [Read more...]

    Beyond the Notebook – Gift Ideas for Writers

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    I think it's natural, when you spend a huge chunk of life working at something, to develop specific preferences about the tools you use to make your work easier and/or a little more delightful. Since we're in the holiday season, I thought I'd ask some of my favorite writers about their writing must-haves (anything from paperclips to creature comforts). Maybe one of their favorite things will give you an idea for your own wish list, or inspire the right questions to ask a writerly loved one in … [Read more...]

    Finding Confidence

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    Recently, a friend mentioned that writing a novel must take an enormous amount of confidence. He said it like it was a given, and I was stunned by the concept. I have published two books, I’m editing the third, and there’s another I’ve been working on in stolen moments for several years. But if you asked me to list words to describe myself, confident would not be in the top ten, or twenty, or even the top hundred. I should probably only speak for myself, but I always consider writing to be … [Read more...]

    Organizing a Second Draft with Notecards and Tom Petty

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    I got some amazing feedback on the first draft of my latest project: Axe one of the storylines! It was unnecessary. I didn’t need the characters that went with it, and I could use the space to deepen the stories of the important characters. It made so much sense. Light bulb over my head! Joy in my heart! I was ready to second draft the shiznit out of this book! I sat at my computer and opened the first relevant scene. The vital information was tangled in with the stuff that needed to go. I … [Read more...]

    All the World’s a Book: Acting for Writers

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    I was a theatre major for my first two years of college. I went to school with some supremely talented people who were completely in their element. It was thrilling to watch the ways their performances fueled them. It also left me painfully aware that acting was not really my thing. I didn’t feed off the energy of performance the way my peers did. Turns out it’s kind of hard to be a theatre major and also a pathologically shy eighteen-year-old. Do you know that when you study theatre they … [Read more...]

    Extroverting for Introverts

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    The writing life can be the strangest swing from hyper-solitary to hyper-social. I’ve touched on this before in a guest post on Writer Unboxed, but it seems like a shock to the system every time I come up for air from a draft. I spent November through the end of February knee deep in my book. In March, when I took a break and dropped a little social activity into my life, it felt weird. Vocal tics ran wild. My voice went horse quickly. I struggled to turn my thoughts into conversation. Much … [Read more...]

    The Myth of Balance

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    Therese butting in for a moment to introduce you to our newest contributor here at Writer Unboxed: internationally bestselling author of two novels (Stay; Why Can't I Be You?) and awesome human, Allie Larkin. Please help me welcome her to the team! I’ve been grounded since November. It’s self-imposed. I deserved it. I’ve had a few short furloughs for important occurrences, and I’m allowed long weekend hikes with the husband, but right now, when it comes to adding events to my schedule, I’m … [Read more...]

    Don’t Go on TV with Your Fly Open

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    Therese here. I'm so pleased to introduce you to today's guest, author Allie Larkin. I've been lucky enough to meet Allie in real life (IRL!), and I can tell you she is down to earth, extremely funny, and a true storyteller. Her second novel, Why Can't I Be You, is as entertaining as Allie herself. It's the story of a woman who is mistaken for another person, who then decides to slip into that person's skin for a while before ultimately recreating herself. Said Romantic Times Book Review: This … [Read more...]