Zeinab Alayan's Blog, page 20

My Biggest Writing Blunder

Writers are vain, no? That’s gotta be common knowledge or something. We’re all very sensitive when it comes to our writing, we immediately feel defensive when someone criticizes us, even if they do have a point, we cringe when we see our mistakes or read stories we wrote in the past… but at one point nearly five years ago, I was too vain and I did something terrible.

Something I still regret to this very day.

I got rid of my old stories.

Yes, you heard me right. One day I sat down to tidy up my...

Fiction vs. Non-fiction

Recently I got into a discussion with a friend about fiction and non-fiction books, after we’d both entered a book store at the same time and walked off to opposite sections. This always happens whenever we go book-shopping; while I will make a beeline for the fiction section, my friend will turn and bury herself between the non-fiction books. At the checkout counter, I was holding a pile of novels and she says, “How can you like fiction so much?” And I counter with, “How can you like non-fic...

Dear Brain, Please Shut up. Sincerely, One with too little time.

Not too long ago, I remember worrying that at one point I’m going to run out of ideas and I’ll run around like a chicken with its head cut off in an attempt to figure out something to write. At that time I was working on just two novels (one that was on hiatus until I could figure out what to do with the main characters, and the other I was struggling to hold it at the seams), and I thought, “Oh god, is this it? After I finish writing these two stories, will I have nothing to write?”

Thankfull...

The Versatile Blogger Award

Well, I can honestly say that I didn’t see this coming. Not only is this blog fairly new, I just didn’t think it was special enough to win any award, and for that I have to thank Lea at Sea – thank you so much! You’ve really made my day. =D Strangely enough, I too was drinking tea when I saw the nomination… green apple-flavoured green tea!

Here are the rules of the VBA:

If you are nominated, you’ve been awarded the Versatile Blogger award.

Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common...

So I tried Häagen Dazs for the first time today…

… and honestly I can’t see what the hype’s about.

I’m not saying that it’s not good, but I don’t think it lives up to all the praise it gets. I tried three flavours today – caramel biscuit and cream, crème brûlée and vanilla caramel brownie – topped with butterscotch sauce. They were good, but not all that great. In fact, I soon found myself getting bored with it, and if it weren’t for the fact that Häagen Dazs ice-cream is a bit pricy, I might have abandoned my bowl. Overall it was a disappoi...

Books as movies.

When it comes to books and their movie adaptations, I’m with the “Books are Better” team. It is rare that I’ll like a movie more than its book counterpart… and I’ll often complain when the movies aren’t true to the books. In fact, I remember complaining so much about Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban so much during the screening that ultimately one employee had to come and told me to hush. I know, I know… I fell into two mistakes there; disrupting the peace of the theatre and breaking...

Publicity is nice. Oh yes it is.

After the initial excitement of publishing your first book wears off, you’re faced with a daunting task: getting people to actually realise that you’ve published a book. It’s not as easy as it seems! In fact, it may be the most difficult of all tasks… especially if you’re only publishing online.

In a bookshop, you can look at a book from all angles, you can flip through its pages and read snippets from any of its parts. But on the Internet, you can take a peek at the first few pages if you’re...

I am now published!

The reading process took longer than I anticipated, but that’s okay, because I’m pleased with my end product and, more importantly, I am now PUBLISHED! I had waited for this for so long, and I’m incredibly excited, albeit nervous, that my book is finally out there for everyone to read.

Puppet Parade is now available in paperback and e-book format. You can buy the paperback from Lulu here, and the e-book from Amazon here (Kindle). You can also find an epub version on the Lulu page. It’s a great...

Sometimes I wish I could live in my books.

Often when I'm describing a setting or a particular place in my book, I try to imagine myself actually standing there and then I write everything that catches my interest or stands out as extraordinary. That's all good, it helps give my reader a clear idea of wha the characters are seeing and experiencing. However, it's bad when I start yearning for those places myself. I love the towns I've created in Puppet Parade so much that I often wish I could live in them, or at least see them in...

The editing process is endless.

Recently I received a review stating that there were mistakes in my novel that affected the person's reading experience. Of course I was sad at first, then I became confused. I know I've done extensive edits on my novel, so how could there be any errors? I asked the reviewer to elaborate on their complaints… and guess what? It turned out that they were right. I had been so proud of the book, that I failed to notice some of the mistakes that were still there.

In a way, that review was the slap ...