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Category Archives: Trends in books
A Likable Villain?
Authors sometimes seek villains that their audience can identify with because they want the readers invested in the villain. This helps to propel a person to finish a book if they really don’t know what is going to happen to … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Creativity, Literary devices, Literature, Trends in books, Writing trends
Tagged sympathetic villain
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How Does Literacy Change Books?
The title may seem like a curious question. However, I wanted to trace how the increasing percentage of people who could read changes the publishing business. Do the types of books favored by the public change as a population becomes … Continue reading
Posted in Literature, Trends in books, Writer's resource, Writing trends
Tagged Literacy
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Who’s the Real Villain?
As a legend Robin Hood represents the kind of principled nonconformist on which many heroes are based. We love to read about people who confront government wrong-doing even in a criminal manner as he did. But, if a similar character … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Literature, Story structure, Trends in books, Writing trends
Tagged fairy tale, gray hero, legend, principal nonconformist, superhero
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When Do the Ghosts Show Up?
According to my friends I read depressing books, such as Cry the Beloved Country and Crime and Punishment, and actually enjoy them. What kind of books do I avoid reading because I find them depressing while others seem to relish … Continue reading
Posted in Characters, Creativity, Literature, Psychology, Trends in books, Writer's resource
Tagged edgar allen poe, fictional monsters, Henry James, horror
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Dueling Detectives
When Edgar Allen Poe published Murders in the Rue Morgue in 1841 the murder mystery was a relatively new genre. He wrote a few more of these increasingly popular detective stories. However, In 1849 he was found wandering injured and … Continue reading
Getting the Utopian Novel Right
H.G. Wells kept trying to get the utopian novel right. His novel A Modern Utopia has a fictional framework–the protagonist meets a man from a perfect society on a distant island. The book is really a philosophical essay describing the … Continue reading
Dystopian Entertainment
The plethora of dystopian novels that involve putting teens into deadly trials has begun to disturb me. Starting with Hunger Games, which was similar to a YA version of the Running Man, the stories read like athletic competitions run amok. … Continue reading
Fairy Tale or Dystopia?
The desire to be considered superior and above the crowd exists in most people. We try to ignore the fact that the majority of us are commoners. From time immemorial stories arise with the promise of reaching status by marrying … Continue reading
Emotionally intelligent characters?
Readers may seek out stories with a hero with greater than average athletic ability and high intelligence because they are drawn to the larger than life character who is strong or ingenious. However, when a reader asks for a character … Continue reading
