Chris Abouzeid's Blog, page 17

Don’t Mess with Mister In Between: On Agents and Indies

by Bethanne Patrick Sooner or later, every business thinks about “eliminating the middleman” in order to make things more cost effective. It is no surprise that the publishing industry would think about this; the only surprise is that they have, in my opinion, gotten things completely wrong. This is important ...

What Does ‘Women’s Fiction’ Mean?

By Randy Susan Meyers  How good does a female athlete have to be before we just call her an athlete? —Author Unknown When did women’s fiction come to be? In 1956, the New York Times reviewed Peyton Place. It was called lurid, and expose, and earthy.” Grace Metalious is compared ...

How I Squandered My Writing Retreat

By Laura Harrington After finishing The Waves, Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary: “I must hastily provide my mind with something else, or it will again become pecking and wretched.” May I confess to a pecking and wretched mind? I finished my second book and delivered it to my agent on April ...

Friday Faves: Happy 450th Birthday, Shakespeare

by Juliette Fay Was Shakespeare a Good Actor? (The Atlantic) Shakespeare’s 450th birthday, today, will bring an outpouring of written appreciations for his works. Many, though, will likely omit or only fleetingly mention one fact: Shakespeare’s first acts of creation were not poems or plays, but the characters he gave life ...

11 Questions to Ask Yourself When You Reach the End

                  By Kathy Crowley If you’ve just finished a draft of a novel or other work-in-progress, this isn’t the moment to dive into revisions. It’s the moment to stick the whole thing in a drawer (see my post here on the Real ...

All Work and No Pay Makes Jack a Dull Writer: on Literary Citizenship and Its Limits

By Becky Tuch In recent years, many people have been talking about Literary Citizenship. “Are you a good literary citizen?” Roxane Gay has asked on the AWP blog. In a 2011 interview with Jonathan Lethem, David Kipen describes the author as a “model literary citizen.” On her blog, Charlotte Morganti ...

Choose What To Use: They’re Not Just The Facts, Ma’am

By Nichole Bernier When I was in journalism school, in the first week of Reporting & Writing 1, we were given a collection of facts about a fictitious mugging and told to write a story. This is what we knew: It was 1am. She was alone. She was riding the ...

How Repetition Weakens a Story, and What You Can Do

By Ann Bauer There came a moment last week, after days of tributes and banners and slogans, news specials, retrospectives, memorials and vigils, when I began to feel numb. I turned to my husband and muttered, “I’ve been flogged with this endless marathon anniversary to the point where I just don’t ...

Friday Faves: April Is the Coolest Month

  By Chris Abouzeid Why is April the coolest month? Because it’s chock full of literary news and events! (Also, it’s the first month we get to put away the snowblowers.) (Maybe. We hope. Please!) National Poetry Month Did you know April is National Poetry Month? When was the last ...

Brave New World: Adventures in Serialized Fiction

By Rachel Kadish A few years ago, I started writing a novella. I wrote it quickly, fiercely, with a sense of exorcising an alarming dream. That year someone I cared about had been the victim of witness-intimidation–and while her situation had resolved safely, the experience had left me mulling the ...