Zeinab Alayan's Blog, page 17

A Reader’s Pet Peeves

I read a lot of books. I don’t stick to a particular genre or the authors I know about; rather, I go outside my comfort zone and pick books that seem to promise a new experience. However, I do avoid certain things when picking out my next read, and there are some aspects that undeniably turn me off… my pet peeves, if you may. In no particular order, here are some of them:

Widows and orphans -No, no… I’m not talking about real widows and orphans. In typesetting, widows are the lines which are s...

So I’m going to be honest with you here…

I’m not really all that fond of classics, and I’m not ashamed to admit it. The general notion seems to be that you’re supposed to like classics, and that people who don’t are either (a) dumb, (b) not smart enough to understand them, (c) breaking some unwritten code of literature, (d) don’t know how to read, or (e) all of the above.

Now that’s just silly. There’s no rule that says that you have to like classics before you can be taken seriously as a reader/writer/person. Classics were written i...

N-no, that’s not a tear… oh, who am I kidding?

A cookie and a toughie I am not.

I’m a sap, I won’t deny it. I’m a sucker for touching tales and tearjerkers, even though they turn me into a blubbering mess and help me waste a number of tissue papers. I never bother telling myself not to cry anymore, because I know I will cry or get teary-eyed regardless. It’s something many people make fun of me of because I’m supposedly one tough cookie, and yet I cry buckets when I watch a touching scene.

I don’t think it’s bad, personally… hey, we’re all...

Curse you, Insomnia!

I was dead tired last night. The weather has been terrible lately, and electricity outages have been frequent so the AC was barely managing to cool my bedroom. But I thought, hey, I didn’t manage to nap in the afternoon, so I’m probably going to conk out immediately in the evening! But as I lay wide awake in my bed later on, I realised just how wrong I’ve been.

Insomnia decided to make an appearance the moment I lay my head on the pillow, forcing me to think about my novels while playing Mambo...

I’ll kill you in my book!

Don’t cross a writer. If you make them angry enough, they might just include you in their book and give you a horrible death or put you in nasty circumstances that will haunt your nightmares… or something like that, haha.

Have you heard someone say that before? I remember reading something similar the other day, and it made me chuckle for a moment before I realised that, hey, it could happen. Many people pour elements of their own lives in the books they write, so what’s to stop them from inco...

ASPIRING WRITER: The User Guide and Maintenance Manual (3)

I trust that by now you’ve become well acquainted with yourASPIRING WRITER™ units. But like every other new things, problems will eventually surface and for that you need to read the FAQ and Troubleshooting tips, then see what the warranty can cover.

You can find the first part here, and the second part here.

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Troubleshooting

Problem: Your unit is no longer able to write.

Solution: This is a common problem with ASPIRING WRITER™ units, and it’s widely known as Writer’s Block. To cure your uni...

Write me a meal.

I love descriptions of food. There are so many ways by which you can describe its appearance, flavour and smell, and when done well, a description can enable you to taste what you’re reading about. Just like it can make you picture a scene in front of you or experience a certain emotion. I want to write a novel about food someday, if only because I know I’d have a field day researching different meals. And I will. I’m already playing with a few elements in the back of my mind.

We start with ap...

Pulling a Fifty Shades of Grey.

Many people by now have heard of the piece of fanfiction turned bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey, and I know that currently many people are hating on E.L.James, either for her success, the fact that her writing is terrible, or that she got successful by using someone else’s characters.

I want to touch upon the last point actually. To begin with, there should be no shame in writing fanfiction. I know it receives a lot of negativity, but there’s nothing wrong with writing these stories. As long a...

ASPIRING WRITER: The User Guide and Maintenance Manual (2)

This is a continuation from the first part of the user guide, which you can find here. In the second part, I’ll be discussing your unit’s functions, relationships with other units and maintenance! I must say, writing this has been fun, and it has made me prob myself from all angles (not physically!) to describe how a typical writer is.

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Programming

Your ASPIRING WRITER™, with enough motivation and persuasion, can perform as follows:

Writer: Your ASPIRING WRITER™ is first and foremost a writ...

An Update of Sorts.

To begin with, I’m having a new giveaway on Goodreads! The winner gets one free copy of Puppet Parade, and the giveaway is international (with just a few exceptions), but I think most of you would be able to enter. Just go here and make an entry! The giveaway is open till the 9th of August. Good luck!

Next, I’ve received three blog awards, and some of them have been long overdue! Thank you, byamadaleigh, for the One Lovely Blog Award; NMNPHX for the One Illuminating Blog Award; and Tiffany N....