Alexander M. Zoltai's Blog, page 127

Will Public Libraries Ever Just Disappear?

Many blogs have a Top Tags Cloud—a widget that gathers the keywords the blogger’s given to posts and displays them—larger words for more posts, smaller for fewer—often, hovering your cursor over them shows the number…

Image Courtesy of Holger Dieterich ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/holger

This blog has a Top Tags widget, further down on the left side-bar—condensing over 1,100 posts into clickable topics; and, “Library” has 36 posts (including this one)…

I’m sure there are folks who have...

Unlikeable Characters

Alexander M Zoltai:

Yesterday we looked at the potential problem of too many main characters in a story…

Today, I’m re-blogging an article about those characters—often necessary—that you may not like…

Originally posted on Eleventh Stack:

I recently read a book that I could barely finish because I hated the characters so much. The only character who seemed even slightlyinteresting in her dysfunction was a minor character who never felt fully developed.Themain characters were all boring or snobb...

Three signs that your novel has too many main characters – and what to do

Alexander M Zoltai:

This past Monday, I published a post about Roz Morris’ book, “Nail Your Novel”.

Today I’m re-blogging one of her posts about main characters :-)

Originally posted on Nail Your Novel:

This is another interesting question from my postbag:

I’m writing an adventure story that takes place over a journey, and we meet many characters. I’ve been told my novel has too many, but when I look at comparison titles, big casts are de rigeur. Kidnapped has 15 named characters, though some...

Let’s All Help Independent Authors

There are many posts on this blog about the difference between self-publishing and traditional publishing.

But, you might wonder how independent authors could ever make waves in a world where traditional publishing has such a foothold and most of the money…

Ever heard of Change.Org?

Here are a few things that organization has helped to make realities:

NFL drops nonprofit status after major national outcry Kraft removes controversial “Kids Eat Right” label from packaging Student freed from Ir...

Who is a Book for Anyway? by Cassie Beasley

Alexander M Zoltai:

Ever had someone say that certain books aren’t “right” for certain people?

What if someone said a particular book wasn’t right for your child?

Originally posted on Nerdy Book Club:

My parents never said no to a book.

Every year they said, “No, we can’t have an extra week of vacation.” (You’d think they would have given in at least once.) And they said, “No, you can’t stay up until midnight. You’re sleepy.” (I wasn’t.) And on one memorable occasion my mother shouted, “NO! D...

Should Fiction Deal with How Our World Could Be “Restructured” to Eliminate All Our Crises?

It would be hard for anyone to provethat our world isn’t embroiled in multiple, interwoven crises…

Image Courtesy of ilker . ~ http://www.freeimages.com/profile/ilco

Do you think fiction writers should deal with this in their work?

Certainly, there have been plenty of dystopian novels and novels that create a new, fictional ordering of our world.

The question is:

How many novels deal directly with the “multiple, interwoven” crises we’re actually having?

Here are a few of the major ones:

Clima...

It’s Now a Single-Spaced World

Alexander M Zoltai:

O.K., raise your hands—how many of you learned to type when the rule was two spaces after a sentence ended?

Think it’s always only one space now?

Read on :-)

Originally posted on Live to Write - Write to Live:

Show of hands. Who learned to type on a typewriter?

Now keep your hand up if you double space between sentences.

Wow. Quite a few of you!

I hope this news isn’t a surprise, but double spacing is virtually no more when writing for publication. A single space is all tha...

Ever Wondered How An Author Actually Writes A Novel?

Many will think today’s post is only for writers; or, those who wish they were…

I think many readers could profit from this post—especially if they’re avid readers—people like that often turn into writers…

This post could also be valuablefor publishers who really don’t understand what writers do…

And, since writers are readers and many readers turn into writers and self-publishing is so popular, many people wear all three hats.

So, I think most anyone should keep reading :-)

Yesterday, I re-b...

Storytelling in literary fiction: let’s discuss

Alexander M Zoltai:

Here’s a Sunday Re-Blog from one of my favorite writers :-)

Originally posted on Nail Your Novel:

There’s a tendency among many writers of literary fiction to opt for emotional coolness and ironic detachment, as though fearing that any hint of excitement in their storytelling would undermine the serious intent of the work.

That’s Husband Dave last week, reviewing Kazuo Ishiguro’s latest novel The Buried Giant on his blog and discussing why it failed to grab him .

An anonymo...

Self-published books and book shops don’t mix…

Alexander M Zoltai:

Saturday Re-Blog Bonus:

Since I already re-blogged something today from a company I use to self-publish, it only seems fitting to re-blog an article about bookstores and self-pubbed books………

Originally posted on The Writing Hall:

Before I start explaining, when I say ‘book shops’, I’m not talking about one-store indies, but chains such as Waterstones. And although it’s fairly easy to have your book displayed on a local level, it’s much harder to get your self-published book...