Chris Abouzeid's Blog, page 19

Twenty-One Things I Wish I’d Known Before I Started Writing . . .

  By Robin Black Offered in the hope of sparing others some of the bumps and bad moments I have experienced over the past thirteen years. . .    1. Publication doesn’t make you a writer. Publication makes you a published writer. Writing makes you a writer. 2. Your “writer ...

Do You Owe The Reader A Happy Ending?

By Celeste Ng Recently, a friend confessed that she was toying with the idea of a happy ending for her novel-in-progress. She’d put her main character through the wringer, and she thought maybe she owed the reader a little redemption. “Have you ever written a happy ending?” she asked. “I’m ...

My Books Are Not My Babies

By Ann Bauer This post will probably offend a few people and if it’s you, I apologize. It’s not my intent to injure but rather to set straight some of the language I hear around book publishing. Because just as it grates on me to hear someone say “I’m going ...

Top 10 Tax Loopholes for Writers

  By Chris Abouzeid April 15th is approaching, and if you’re like most writers, you haven’t even opened your W-2 form yet, much less bought the new TurboTax. Well for once procrastination and those paralyzing panic attacks you get whenever you look at your Gross Wages have worked out in ...

Going It Alone: Writing Without Community

By Kim Triedman I was never the kid that was supposed to be a writer.  Not much of a reader, I never ran off behind some mythical shed to pen lines of poetry into a dog-eared notebook.  I loved TV and cops-and-robbers.  I was good at math and baking and ...

Respites for Writers: Escaping Tumultuous Scenes

By Charles Garabedian “Everything’s going wrong. My girlfriend just broke up with me, I’m failing classes, and I’ve been smoking weed a lot more to calm myself. I need help Doc. Help me.” I spend over an hour with my patient—listening, asking open-ended questions, counseling, and even more time arranging ...

Inhabiting A Character: The Pantyhose Corollary

by Bethanne Patrick You know the old saw: “You never truly know someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” I’d like to propose a corollary: “You never truly know a character until you’ve helped her struggle into a pair of panythose.” Yes, that’s right. Pantyhose, those relics of ...

Swimming Novels

By    Angela David-Gardner A girl and boy, each dressed in a black tank suit, mount writers’ blocks at the end of a regulation length pool.  The water is blue and flat, a tabula rasa of a pool. It’s the swimming of novels event, no ties allowed.  In case of ...

Revising Your Novel : 10 Steps for Analyzing Plot

By Laura Harrington Congratulations. You’ve finished the first draft of your book. Now what? You know it needs work, but where in the world do you begin? Breaking it down: It can be overwhelming to approach a revision.  How do you take something as large and complex as a novel and ...

Friday Faves: Homes For Books and Writers

  by Juliette Fay Gorgeous book homes: World’s 20 Most Stunning Libraries (Fodor’s Travel) “Over the centuries, kings, presidents, monks, and other luminaries have constructed libraries as more than mere book repositories, but as symbols of knowledge, power, and wealth.” Free writer homes (how cool is that?): Rebuilding Detroit, One House ...