Conclusion

It's been great fun to write this blog as part of my Effective Writing project and assignment. I was glad I get to share a bit of my writing with my coursemates and lecturer. Although I wasn't able to share my other writing pieces such as my fictional writing (those are available on another website, for free! Shameless promotion hahaha).

Thank you Dr. Sheena for giving us this chance to write blog posts and share our writing with the world, and thank you for guiding us in writing throughout these 14 weeks, you're the best!

Reflections on Writing Activities

I'm a great fan of writing prompts, they're great to generate ideas from. Writing activities are no different. When pitched with like-minded people, it can develop into something bigger and far more creative than we can ever expect.

All the writing activities done in class, from academic writing to planning out a research paper has given me an insight on how formal writing is done, and will help me greatly if I ever have to write a research paper in the future.

e-Learning week

I was actually looking forward to e-learning week, for I much prefer learning from the comfort of my own home than to spend time in a classroom. We were supposed to log onto our Spectrum accounts and open the chatroom of our respective classes.

I went home for e-learning, as a continuation to our mid-semester break. My mother didn't understand the definition of e-learning week, so she was screaming lists after lists of chores for me to complete although I kept reminding her that I have classes.

Spectrum hung and crashed the moment I entered the website, most likely due to website database overload because there are at least 7 faculties carrying out the e-Learning week, and more than hundreds of students are trying to access the website as well.

My lecturers prepared videos for us to learn, as well as different exercises which I found helpful in helping us understand a new topic. Overall, if the website would stop crashing, e-learning week would be a wonderful opportunity for the students to use technology to is fullest.

Dear Abby

Dear Abby,

What do you think is more important? Family, or love? My parents wants me to marry a man named P, but I have no love for him, my eyes are on the man I met during the masquerade party, his name is R. He was so charming and beautiful, nothing like all the other men I have met in my life! Although I don't know him, he kissed me. I thought maybe we could get to know each other and eventually marry, but then I found out he is the son of my father's greatest nemesis. This means we can not be together.

What should I do? Should I run away and marry him or stay and honor my family's wishes?I don't want to spoil my family's name, yet at the same time my heart tells me to go to R. Please advice, Abby.

- BROKEN GIRL

Online Shopping

I started online shopping in 2014 when my American friends introduced me to Amazon.com. At that time I was living in the States, and shipping was close to free. That was when I started to get addicted. I bought a lot of books, franchise goods like the Mockingjay pin, crystals and jewelry. After I returned to Malaysia, shipping from Amazon.com was extremely extravagant in which I couldn't afford, even till now, so I switched to ebay.com.

I consider myself an online shopping addict, and sometimes I hate myself for it. One item leads to another, and soon you'll end up with a bunch of things you really like but don't really need. I usually buy crystals, Pagan jewelry and anything whimsical or antique-looking in general, and I have this obsession with jewelry, although I only wear one or two of them, or certain ones based on the Sabbats and seasonal festivals.

I get most of my stuff from ebay, Amazon, lazada (mostly ebay because they're crazy cheap). Below I have disclosed a picture of my witchy jewelry which I shall remove later because it's rather personal.

Crystals are exceptionally great for attuning your energy, storing them and then bring them with you on the go. I have a lot of crystal rings, and my favorite is amethyst and blue fire labadorite. Some of the jewelry I bought are only to be photographed as stocks to use in my own artworks or sell them for commercial use.

I also own headdresses, headpieces, dangling earrings, pendulums, tarot cards, crystal balls, Spirit vessels and many other Pagan related items which I bought all online as they are impossible to find in Malaysia. For instance, I will not be able to find a statue of Anubis here, but I can buy it at factory price, or commission an artisan to carve a custom one through their etsy shops.

On reading and writing

It's been a very hard two weeks for me. My anxiety levels are on an all time high and I almost had a panic-attack all too recently. I've decided that the best way to keep my ADHD from annoying others is to refrain from speaking or basically not react too much. As a compensation, I've went and brought four amazing writing guide books which I thought would be a great addition to my collection. 

These books most definitely cost a bomb, as they are around $20 each, not to mention I purchased around 4 other books on digital painting which were $33 each. It cost me more than $250, but it was totally worth it. Instead of spending my time trying to fit in and be someone that is not me, I might as well invest my time in something more productive.

I blame my friend, Emily Godhand on making me go on a binge book shopping session. She piled all these amazing sounding and looking books on me and I cannot resists the temptation to do so. Deborah Chester's book is highly recommended for those who want to delve deeper into building the intriguing fantasy world with I most definitely need. I already have a complex world, but it is the layering and sorting that is hard to pull off.

Well, there goes my plans to stop spending too much on books, or splurge it online (no regrets here). On the bright side, I've found that a writing schedule is super important. Before, I keep on giving myself the excuse for not writing, such as writer's block, flat inspiration, or plain lazy. Now, I take my laptop with me wherever I go (unless it involves physical stress) and try to get writing done whenever I can. As a result, I'm almost at 50,000 words at my newest story rewrite and I plan to hit that sometime this week. My aim is to finish this draft before the semester ends so I can commence editing and rereading.

Another aim of mine is to get a kick back into digital painting. Those books cost me an arm and a leg and I am not going to let them go to waste. If I can do heavy photomanipulation in less than a year, I must be able to master digital painting too.

Okay I guess I'm done writing blog post. Peace out and may the odds be with you. I'm off to drown in a kickass Two Steps From Hell album.

The Final Empire Book Review

The book review I am going to do today is a wonderful masterpiece from the International Bestselling, #1 Sunday Times Bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. He is my far my favorite author and is my king. 👑



The Final Empire is the first installment in a 7 book long series titled "Mistborn". The first three is considered a standalone trilogy while the remaining books take place in the same world but 200 years later.

We follow Vin, a skinny, misunderstood, hungry Skaa girl who stuck to the side of a villainous man who was trying to weasel his way a large fortune. On a most important trip to convince a merchant to work with him, he brought Vin with him, for he considered her his lucky charm. Vin has special powers, powers that she considered as 'luck', which she had trouble controlling and its discovery will lead to her death.

That was when she met Kelsier, the smart, sassy, notorious leader of the rebellion against the Final Empire and its cruel and immortal king, the Lord Ruler.

Kelsier is a Mistborn, someone who possesses the abilities to manipulate the different metals of the earth. However, he first needs to ingest a small amount of the metal before he could do so. For example, but ingesting tin, his sight and hearing becomes enhances. If he ingests pewter, he gains extraordinary strength and durability for as long as the metal inside him lasts before it burns out.

There are only three Mistborns left in the world according to Kelsier--him, Vin, and the Lord Ruler, with the latter being the original and the most powerful of them all. Kelsier and Vin, like the many others, are Skaas (also known as slaves) who led a life of pain, starvation and hardship. In a world where ashes rained from the sky, the grass were brown and you serve your entire life away, Kelsier decided to bring together those who would stand up and fight and led the ultimate rebellion against the Lord Ruler, ending his reign once and for all.

Everything seemed easy, innocent, for Kelsier claimed he had a weapon called the Eleventh Metal that could end the Lord Ruler. However, his trusted friends weren't convinced. I wasn't convinced either, because there was no way a metal could bring someone so ancient and powerful to his knees.

The Final Empire is a story that brings out the best in modern high fantasy. There are tears, anger, heartbreak, death, love and SO MUCH TEARS. SO MUCH. Every single page and twist of the story is unexpected. The foreshadowing is so well done it keeps on coming back and slapping me in the face with every progressing chapter. The prophecies, the religion, the world building, everything is WELL DONE.

Reading Mistborn is probably the best decision I have made in my entire life. This book just broke the scale of awesomeness.

And the ending.

I can't.

*weeps and throws a city at the author*

Ways I can improve my writing

As stated in my previous blog entries, my main focus in on creative writing. Over the past few years, I have went and researched on a multitude of websites, articles and reading materials that can help me improve my craft. However, most of the advice given on the websites on writing are pretty much the same. Avoid using adverbs, avoid passive voice, avoid using action-dialogue tags, use action to show feelings, show and not tell, etc. The advice I found the most practical and useful is this: "Read."

The more you read, the better you write. You cannot write if you don't read. Those authors who claim themselves as more of a writer than a reader can never improve themselves. I have put this theory to the test. An acclaimed novelist once said, read everything. Read in the genre you wish to write and read outside the genre of your comfort zone. Reading all genres will widen your writing perspective and enables you to become a versatile writer. I cannot claim to be a versatile writer yet, because I have issues writing non-fiction, academic papers as well as stories in the teen fiction genre. Initially, the only genre I am comfortable in writing is the fantasy genre, but the more I have read, I found myself to be able to express my thoughts and flex my writing skills in other genres such as paranormal, adventure, science fiction and horror.

I brought several writing help books last year. They're very pricey, around RM150 each, but it was an investment that taught me writing techniques and character expressions that I haven't thought of before. If it helps, here are the titles:

1. The Emotion Thesaurus
2. The Urban Settings Thesaurus
3. The Rural Settings Thesaurus
4. The Positive Traits Thesaurus
5. The Negative Traits Thesaurus

These are incredibly insightful if you're writing creatively. If you wish to use these in academic writing, I think that the only ones that would come in handy are the Urban and Rural settings thesaurus, where different places and environments are listed and explained in detail.

Another way I try to improve my writing is to write every damn day. It doesn't matter if you hit only 100 words on the laptop, or you binge write 3000 words in one go. My own personal record was 30,000 words in one week. The more you practice the craft of writing, the better you get. It is like learning an instrument, or taking your baby steps in acquiring a new skill. Everything is better once you get used to it.

Rereading and dissecting books also helps you to become a critical thinker and writer. You will be able to spot foreshadowing, plot holes, character growth and development in any book at any given time once you have read enough books and cut them open. I have a journal by my side where I record the vocabulary of creative prose I find intriguing or unique in a book and I would write them down. Then, I would study them and try to get something inspirational from them.

These are the methods I use to improve my writing. I usually write at midnight, or possibly a bit earlier, like around 11pm till midnight, something around that time because that's when the *darned* muse is awake.

The Kind of Writing I Like

The kind of writing that I like are mostly creative writing and the occasional poetry. Although I have tried my hand at writing formal essays, advertisements and whatnot, the formal language comes harder to me compared to writing fictional works.

Writing fictional works allow met to create new worlds where I am the creator, the person who dictates the living and the dead, the surroundings and its laws. I am able to explore various personalities of my characters through writing, put down their story into ink and paper. I can make up languages used by only the people in my story, draw up conflict and watch my story and character grow.

Sometimes it is like my characters have a mind of their own. Although I have plotted out most of the story line, there are a few occasions (Okay, I admit it, all the time), they like to take their destiny in their own hands and spin their own tale without sticking to the plot outline that I have laid out beautifully for them. There is this elation when you finish a story, even if it is only around 100,000 words, that swelling balloon of happiness in your stomach and the tears flowing from your eyes when you read the story that your characters have chose to tell. This is why I love fictional works. They are original, and they contain a piece of your soul, something that can trigger emotions in readers when they read your story. Their laughter, their tears, their frustrations at the character's obstinacy and faults, it fills the gap in your soul where you have poured into the story.

If given a choice, I'll go for the fantasy genre all the time. Paranormal comes as a close second, for the paranormal word can be as flexible as the fantasy world. The fantasy I love are epic-fantasy, high-fantasy and contemporary fantasy, although urban-fantasy can be interesting as well. When writing paranormal stories, I tend to stay out of horror, and delve into the romantic aspect of the genre.

Writing Reflection

I'm a writer. At least, I like to think of myself as one if you assume procrastinating and not writing to be a part of being a writer. I'm more of a fiction writer, dwelling in fantastical realms where my imagination can run free. Animals that speak, topsy-turvy worlds, magic, battle to deaths and corundums exists in fictional writing. Over the years and writing more novel drafts that I can remember, I have come to know that world-building is my strength. Whipping up an entirely fictional world, entire civilizations, languages and religion is of no problem to me. I've often swapped between first person and third person POV in writing and I'm more at ease when I'm writing in third person as there is more room to explore than being confined in my characters thinking. I've had a hard time writing convincing characters but that has changed after I watched a lot of TV series such as Supernatural that explores the complex arcs of characters and their personalities. Although fantasy is my main jam, I dabble in paranormal and sci-fi stories as well, although I much prefer the former.

My main weakness in writing is factual or rigid writing. I hate rules,  even fiction writing rules. To the hell with a complete drop of adverbs, no passive voice in writing and head hopping. Omniscient POV is hard to pull off sometimes, but when it is done right, there's a whole new world to explore. I tend to use metaphors, abstract and indirect terms when it cokes to academic writing, so I avoid it at all costs. However, that's going to change because UM offers a course in academic writing. I know it's going to be hard, but the end results will benefit me more than I can imagine.