Pranjali Wakde, Author at Booked4Books

05 Nov

Romance Microtropes – Let The (Tiny) Sparks Fly!

Pranjali WakdeArticles

From enemies to lovers and grumpy/sunshine to second chance and fake dating, there is no shortage of tropes in romance. However, there exist some elements in romance novels that are recurring enough that everyone thinks they are tropes. But, plot twist, they don’t exactly fall under that umbrella. For instance, the MMC crosses his arms while leaning against the wall, or the FMC tends to her love interest’s wounds. It is clear that these are not substantial enough to be a plot device… but they do give readers butterflies. Well, that’s the job of microtropes! What Are Microtropes In…

16 Oct

Crazy, Dangerous Love – The ‘Romantic’ World of Yandere

Pranjali WakdeArticlesBell, Delusional yandere, Higurashi When They Cry, Sweetest Monster, World of Yandere

Imagine a person who is so in love with you that they can manipulate, bruise, and even kill people… for you. But they weren’t psychopaths since the start – it’s their love for you that makes them controlling, obsessive, and batshit crazy. If this happens in real life, that person will have cuffs slapped on their wrist the moment they act dangerous. But when it happens in books? Well, that’s called Yandere romance. This romance is one of the many Dere types, a Japanese concept that describes different character archetypes of people acting around their love interest. As readers have…

01 Oct

From Draft to Bestseller: What Are Effective Strategies to Market Your Books?

Pranjali WakdeArticlesMarket Your Books

With many authors choosing self-publishing over the traditional approach, the need for marketing has become more important now than ever. Sure, your novel has the best story you’ve ever read (or, if you’re the self-deprecating writer, a good story). But the readers will only be excited to pick up your book if there’s palpable excitement around it. The only way to do that? Effective book marketing. Writing and Marketing – The Double-Edged Sword of Book Publishing In today’s world, where everything is rated and reviewed, writing a book and hoping the readers will pick up isn’t enough. You must…

07 Sep

Horror Comedy– The Stranges Literary Bedfellows

Pranjali WakdeArticlesLiterary Bedfellows

In all honesty, no book nowadays fits in one genre. If it’s a fantasy novel, you’d find splashes of romance, mixed with instances of mystery and even sometimes horror. Such examples of blended stories have given birth to hybrid genres, where two genres are blended – sometimes completely, other times borrowing elements from both. And one of the most unique hybrid genres happens to be horror comedy! What is Horror Comedy? Horror Comedy is a pretty self-explanatory genre; it comprises books that combine elements of horror fiction and comedy. As a 50-50 split between horror and comedy could be…

26 Jul

Why is a Small-Town Setting Perfect for Romances?

Pranjali WakdeArticlescosy atmosphere, House of Salt and Sorrows, It Had to Be You, The Kiss Curse, The Lake House

Romance is one of those fluid genres which you can fit in any setting – and it’d still flourish. You can put your couple in a historical setting, bowing to each other in their gowns and suits. Or you can have them bump into each other in a metropolitan city. Better yet, you can even make the romance bloom on an isolated island, or even on a cruise ship as they sail on clear waters! But one of the most commonly used, yet still underrated, happens to be a small town. What is a Small Town Romance? Small town…

04 Jul

10 Writing Contests to Participate in 2024!

Pranjali WakdeArticlesWriting Contests

Nothing excites a writer more than getting recognition for their poems and stories. Of course, there are ways to achieve that – a personal blog, publishing a collection, or letting your loved ones read what you write. But the best option? Entering a writing contest! A writing contest is the best way to hone your skills, find areas to improve and learn humility in case of rejection. However, there are so many writing contests out there that sifting through them can become overwhelming. That is precisely why we have curated a list of writing contests of 2024. Whether you’re just…

20 Jun

Hanahaki – The Fictional Disease of Unrequited Love

Pranjali WakdeArticlesfictional disease, Hanahaki

Using diseases as tearjerkers of the stories is an age-old practice. Take the greyscale disease, for example, that appears in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. It manifests itself in the form of grey, stone-like patches on the skin. When contracted by children, it leaves them disabled – but it is usually fatal for adults. Another example is the Inferno virus, which was seen in Dan Brown’s Inferno. This airborne virus, once breathed in, can render people infertile. Bertrand Zobrist created it as a way to control Earth’s population! Fiction has no scarcity of diseases –…

17 Jun

The Relationship between Literature and Mythology

Pranjali WakdeArticlesHarley Quinn, Literature and Mythology, Olympians, Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan

Literature is made up of borrowed themes – you’ll find romances depicting everyday relationships to murder mysteries delving into the psyche of real-life villains. But one theme that stands out – and is loved by most – is the use of mythology. Authors, old and new, have eagerly drawn inspiration from mythology to weave their fictional worlds. For instance, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson & the Olympians series is set against the fascinating backdrop of Greek mythology. Guess what? This is just one example in a sea of mythology-based works! When you think of how much mythology appears in literature –…

09 May

Cancel Culture in Literature

Pranjali WakdeUncategorized

Authors like JK Rowling, Roald Dahl, and Dr. Debra Soh come from different sides of literature. But they do have one thing in common – being the target of something called cancel culture! Dr. Debra Soh, in her book The End of Gender, made some unnecessarily condescending statements about the LGBTQ+ community. It led to people canceling her by actually attempting to discredit her professionally. As for Roald Dahl, he was canceled for the controversial content in his books, causing them to go through thorough sanitization. It is evident that cancel culture can have a lot of consequences for the…

30 Mar

9 Fantasy Subgenres You Must Read!

Pranjali WakdeArticlesArthurian Fantasy, Bangsian Fantasy, Comic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Fairytale fantasy, Fantasy of Manners, Fantasy Subgenres, High Fantasy, Low Fantasy, Portal Fantasy

From epic magical worlds to just a splash of magic; from supernatural beings to humans having superpowers; from mythical quests to historical legends. Truly, out of all fiction genres, it is fantasy fiction that offers a variety of literary possibilities! Thankfully, the fantasy genre is further divided into subgenres to keep track of what it offers. While there are many sub-genres (more than fifteen, mind you!), most of them overlap with each other a lot. As a result, I have rounded up the popular yet still fascinating subgenres of fantasy. Interestingly, you might have already read these genres without knowing…