#WatchMeWrite [4]: A Shadowplay Spin-off

Note to all: I just changed my Twitter handle from sisterofsilence to @AlyssaC_HK.

According to my end of 2014 survey, your favourite posts of the year was, overwhelmingly, #WatchMeWrite videos, so all hail the first one of the year!

#WatchMeWrite is a campaign started by E. R. Warren and Samantha Chaffin, wherein writers record their process, speed it up, add music, and show it to the rest of the world. Past #WatchMeWrite videos can be found here. Writers, I highly recommend making a #WatchMeWrite (instructions here); it's all levels of awesome and addictive.

Some of you might know my previous novel, Shadowplay, was completed a while ago, but I'm considering shelving it because now I look back, it's just not there yet. Anyhow, I'm writing a short spin-off from that, and here's a sneak peek at the first few hundred words :)

click me to view in new tab.

This #WatchMeWrite was only sped up 5x or so -- the slowest I've ever done! What did you think of my process? Have you done a #WatchMeWrite yet? Drop a note in the comments to make my day!

Click the links to Tweet about this #WatchMeWrite video:

• Vendettas and waking up and #WatchMeWrite on @AlyssaC_HK's blog.
• .@AlyssaC_HK revises a short story on her blog in form of #WatchMeWrite.

    

TCWT: Worldbuilding and WNDB

The TCWT blog chain, by John over at Teens Can Write, Too!, explores a different question each month, and for January, it's:

What is something you feel is generally written well in fiction? What is something you feel is generally written poorly?

I ran out of clever headlines, so let's get right to it:

Written well: worldbuilding

I rarely fail to get absolutely sucked into fictional worlds. Or even fictional depictions of our world. There is obviously the ultimate worldbuilding master, Tolkien, wherein Middle-earth is mind-bogglingly complicated, but I honestly rarely read books where the worldbuilding was shallow that it detracted the story.

Some of my favourite worlds, other than LotR: A Song of Ice and Fire, the Night Circus, His Dark Materials, the Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, Gates of Thread and Stone. Goodness me, I spent weeks after finishing them just imagining the entire world and searching for fanart and aargh.

Written poorly: diversity

This is actually improving by a lot - the rise of movements like #WeNeedDiverseBooks has led to much more awareness on this issue. Whether as writers or readers, I feel we should keep in mind the importance of diverse representation. As an Asian (which, I admit, is technically not a minority), it makes me really happy to see Asian characters.

x

But one of the things I wish would be more prevalent is diversity in setting. When I was starting my writing life, I couldn't figure out for the life of me why the worldbuilding sucked. And it's because I based my stories off other books I read - set in America or Western Europe - while living in an Asian city. I wish so desperately we could see stories set not just in the West, but also in Asia. And not just our capitals, our ports. 

Showcase Chongqing, Tianjin, Chang'an, those forgotten cities. Adventure novels that span Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand. And other faraway places - Africa and South America and Eastern Europe deserve much, much more attention.

What are some of the things you find written well or poorly? Any books with diverse representation you'd like to recommend? If you're in the chain, do drop a URL and date so I'll remember to come by! And don't forget to check out all the other lovely posts:

5th – http://whileishouldbedoingprecal.weebly.com/

6th – http://jasperlindell.blogspot.com/

7th – https://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/ and http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/

8th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

9th – https://ramblingsofaravis.wordpress.com/

10th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/

11th – http://kirabudge.weebly.com/

12th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

13th – http://maralaurey.wordpress.com/

14th – http://dynamicramblings.wordpress.com/

15th – http://theedfiles.blogspot.com/

16th – https://horsfeathersblog.wordpress.com/  

17th – http://www.juliathewritergirl.com/

18th – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

19th – https://gallopingfree.wordpress.com/

20th – http://www.alwaysopinionatedgirl.wordpress.com/

21st – https://deborahrocheleau.wordpress.com/

22nd – http://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/

23rd – https://clockworkdesires.wordpress.com/

24th – https://introspectioncreative.wordpress.com/

25th – http://wanderinginablur.blogspot.com/

26th – https://anotefromthenerd.wordpress.com/

27th – http://randommorbidinsanity.blogspot.com

28th – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

    

Why You Should Take Public Transport

Of course there are environmental reasons, and that tree is looking at you pitifully. Of course there are economic reasons, and your purse is also looking at you pitifully. But I discovered a new reason for taking public transport: entertainment reasons.

Or, the tale of the dancing centaur.

As some of you might know, the Year of the Horse is ending here in China, so I thought I'd share this story with you. I was waiting for my train one day, and across the tracks, there was another platform opposite to me. Like this:

x

Like any self-respecting teenage blogger of the 21st century, I was using my phone and hence not looking at that platform. My friend, whose phone was malfunctioning, did and said to me, "Look at the dancing horse."

Like any good friend, I abandoned Tumblr and looked up. There, on the other side, was a guy waving his arms about. "What?" I asked. "Hey, are you okay? I think that's a human."

Like me, my friend was not very sane. And she persisted, "I'm pretty sure it's a horse."

Before I could ascertain the species of this dancing centaur, a train arrived and blocked my view of the platform. When it sped away, there was no one on that platform.

"Well, it's gone now," I said, going back to my phone.

My friend gave me a funny look. "Um. Ads don't take trains?"

I looked back up and spotted ... an advertisement billboard on the other platform, featuring a gold horse. "Oh," I said, laughing. "I thought you meant the human."

My friend made no comment and started trying to power her phone on.

I mean, you can't witness this sort of thing when you have a chauffeur. Not that I can afford one.

Any public transport anecdotes? Share them in the comments so we can laugh together!

Loved this post? Click the links below to share on Twitter:

• Hilarity ensues on a train station before the Year of the Horse ends via @sisterofsilence.
• Entertainment reasons for taking public transport from @sisterofsilence.

    

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

I'm so excited to announce that Heather @ Sometimes I'm A Story has nominated me for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award!

Rules:

• thank the blogger who nominated you, linking back to their site. (done!)
• put the award logo on your blog. (yep)
• answer the ten questions they’ve set you.
• make up ten new questions for your nominees to answer.
• nominate ten people.

Questions:

1. You’re about to be thrown in jail with a fictional character of your choice—who is the character and how do you escape? Oh, goodness. I would pick Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, because he's awesome enough he should be able to break out of jail, while nice enough that he won't leave me there. We'd probably escape because Aragorn does all the work (ha!), or Gondor and/or Imladris sends troops to free him.

2. What is your favorite social media site? If blogging doesn't count as social media (because blogging is fun!), then I'd say Twitter. I've met lots of lovely people there and it's great to promote others with.

3. If you were a deity [YOU], what sacrifices would you demand from your pilgrims? ME. KNEEL BEFORE YOUR QUEEN. *cough* sorry, got carried away. Other than gold & other pretty gems, which are sort of obvious, I would also demand books. In return, I shall gift them with my writing. (I can't be worse than the Vogon.)

4. Which is more important to you: a satisfying ending or relatable characters? Relatable characters. If the characters are such a turn-off that I stopped reading, I won't get to the ending. And characters make up much of the story, unlike the ending which makes up, well, the end.

5. What is the hardest thing for you to write about? I find it very difficult to write anything set in the real world, even urban fantasy or historical stuff. I like to defamiliarise the problems around us in imaginary world, explore different dynamics of what exists.

6. What are the top seven ways you would repurpose a lonely sock?

• Match with another sock for home use
• Art practice; time to whip out those plastic eyes!
• Towel?
• If I had a dog/cat, as a toy?
• Confidante?
• ack, I really don't know.

7. Do you have a favorite archetype to read or write? I like monarchs/leaders who at least to some extent have their people's best interests at heart. I see them a lot, but I'm not sure what it's called.

8. Has a book ever given you important wedding planning advice? Actually, yes! The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket taught me that it doesn't count if you sign with your off hand. Ha!

9. In the event that you were forced to take a ride on top of a car, how would you secure yourself? I don't know ... stretch myself on top, wrap those rope things around my torso and cling to the front?

10. What is your favorite story no one has ever heard of? Ooh yes. A story written in ancient Chinese. Quick summary: due to the Emperor's poor policy, a guy dies. He asks his friend to take his body to the Emperor. The friend chops his head off and presents it to the Emperor on a dish. The Emperor repents, of course. It's morbid and delightful.

x

And now my questions for my nominees:

1. Would you be a wealthy-beyond-belief merchant, a priest, a king, or an assassin? (Kudos to those who recognise the reference!)
2. High/epic fantasy or urban fantasy?
3. What was the last classic you read? Did you enjoy it?
4. What was the last book you read that was out of your comfort zone but enjoyable?
5. A book series that you are dying to finish? (reading- or writing-wise)
6. A book you really really want to read/write?
7. You are about to be marooned on an island. You get a pistol and a book. Which book?
8. Which subject would you love to read/write a nonfiction book about?
9. What do you drink when you're reading or writing?
10. Favourite book-to-movie adaptation?

Drumroll please, for the nominees!

• Christina @ fairy skeletons
• AnQi @ Page Eight Hundred Ninety
• John @ Teens Can Write, Too!
• Cait @ Paper Fury
• Taylor @ Paper Daydreams
• Appletaile @ Twist in the Taile
• Wild Horse @ Opal Swirls
• Ana @ Butterflies of The Imagination
• Melanie @ YA Midnight Reads
• Sky @ Further Up and Further In

Don't feel obliged to do it, only if you want to. Most important thing: have fun!

What did you think of my answers? Are any of yours the same, or wildly different? Answer a few of them below in the comments!

Did my answers make you laugh and/or concoct evil plots based on my weaknesses? Then share it on Twitter!

• .@sisterofsilence won a blogging award! Go read her post and congratulate her. (Click to Tweet)
• Check out ten random writing/reading secrets on @sisterofsilence's blog. (Click to Tweet)

    

TBR Smash Challenge

I have a ginormous TBR, courtesy of a backload of books from 2014. For accountability purposes, I'm linking up with Ashana Lian @ A Fantasy Writer's Blog with her challenge:

If you have a huge TBR — and be honest, who doesn't — then you should definitely consider joining. I'm aiming to read 15 books not published in 2015, reaching the goal Wrecked It.

So what books am I looking to clear off my shelf? Here's the backload I've had for like SO LONG:

I've been meaning to read the unabridged version of Hamlet FOREVER. Because it's pure awesome. To Kill a Mockingbird and The Great Gatsby are mother-approved books, i.e. my mother saw it won prizes and gave it to a clueless kid who didn't properly understand modern classics. The Eye of the World was because I heard it was similar to A Song of Ice and Fire, one of my all-time favs. Mythology is a nonfiction book about, um, mythology that was a gift.

The other four, The Lost Library, The Keystone, Diamond Queen and Factory Girls are all books that were donated to a charity I volunteered at but couldn't be given away to the intended parties because the stores ripped the covers off avoid reselling. Much mandatory sobbing at book defacing.

And then here are a few books I ordered from The Book Depository to reward myself after exams:

These are from top to bottom The Winner's Curse, Station Eleven, Brazen, and The Archived. If I read all of that, I'll only be two books away from my goal! Luckily, I have a hefty Goodreads TBR.

Any of these books you've read or are on your TBR? How huge is your TBR? Share with us in the comments, and if you've linked up, do leave a link so I can check you out!

Click the links below to Tweet encouragement or guilt-trip me into reading:

• Need to clear your TBR? Join @sisterofsilence in the TBR Smash Challenge.

    

INTJ: Are You a Mastermind?

For those who are trying to pronounce "intj" right now, this is actually one of the Myers-Briggs personalities, which classifies people into one of sixteen personality types according to four different factors:

• Favorite world: Do you prefer to focus on the outer world or on your own inner world? This is called Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I).
• Information: Do you prefer to focus on the basic information you take in or do you prefer to interpret and add meaning? This is called Sensing (S) or Intuition (N).
• Decisions: When making decisions, do you prefer to first look at logic and consistency or first look at the people and special circumstances? This is called Thinking (T) or Feeling (F).
• Structure: In dealing with the outside world, do you prefer to get things decided or do you prefer to stay open to new information and options? This is called Judging (J) or Perceiving (P).

These are from the Myers-Briggs site itself, or rather I copied them from Christina's INFJ post, which inspired this post. I'm an INTJ (obviously), and apparently we're called "Masterminds", which is just fine by me. Mwahaha. We're pretty rare, about 1-2% of the world, which is good or there would be too few thrones and too many plots.

Here are some examples of INTJ from TV shows and books, all taken from TV Tropes. No link because I'm not that evil.

Havelock Vetinari from Discworld

I think he's a bad guy. That's okay then.


Also, he's played by Charles Dance.

Amy Elliott Dunne from Gone Girl

Oh, yes. Yes. She's delightfully manipulative and amoral. If you haven't read the book, you need to. If you have, admit it; you rooted for her to win.

Smaug from The Hobbit

I'd like to think I'm smarter than a dragon, but dragon sounds cool anyways. Fine by me.

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

Maybe? I don't have a sibling, but I don't think I'd risk death to save him/her. I also would have let Peeta die. Yeaaaaah.

O-Ren Ishii from Kill Bill

YES. I mean, look at her. She is SO BADASS. I have a few issues with her portrayal, but you have to admit, she is awesome.

Also, played by Lucy Liu. Argument over.

Tywin Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire & Game of Thrones

That quote is awesome. I'm not that evil, I'd like to think, but one can always admire. Also, played by Charles Dance again.

Loki from Marvel Cinematic Universe

Oho. The crowning one. Here, have a gif and a still:

Take that, Odin!

Any other INTJs out there? Do you find me similar to the above examples? What's your MBTI personality type? Let us know in the comments!

To spread on the INTJ evil love, share this post on Twitter! It's an important step to my ultimate world domination plan. *nods*

• Literary masterminds abound as @sisterofsilence talks about her INTJ profile.
• INTJs, your fellow Mastermind @sisterofsilence talks about literary examples of this MBTI personality type.

P.S.: In interest of academic honesty and true INTJ evil, the examples are all from TV Tropes. Images click through to their sources.

    

Beautiful People [5]: My Darkest Writing Secrets

Hey there, lovelies! If you could fill in this short survey to improve Insanity Inc. for 2015, you have my eternal love and virtual cookies. (For those who've already filled it in, VIRTUAL COOKIES TO YOU.) And would you be interested in seeing the results & planned changes? If so, say so in the comments!

And now, onto the actual post:

Beautiful People is a linkup hosted by Cait @ Paper Fury and Sky @ Further Up and Further in, where writers answer questions about their books/characters. I did do a Beautiful Books the other month, and today, I'm talking about myself!

1. How many years have you been writing? When did you officially consider yourself a ‘writer’?

I've been writing for a really long time. Discounting school compositions, I think I decided to write a book when I was seven. Needless to say, mess. I dropped it for until I was thirteen, i.e. two years ago. At that point would be when I officially considered myself a writer, and started a Figment account and blog and everything.

2. How/why did you start writing?

When I was seven-ish, I read A Series of Unfortunate Events and had ALL THE FEELZ for it. I think that's when I decided I would write an equally awesome book and become an awesome author. Yeah, I was a bit clueless. When I rebounced at thirteen, I start my writing journey again with the Internet.

3. What’s your favorite part of writing?

In terms of the writing process, it's seeing my characters come to life and sometimes do things I never expected them to do. And then they sort of get their little slices in my brain and take over my dreams and stuff. But in terms of just writing, it's definitely hearing from readers.

4. What’s your biggest writing struggle?

Erm, editing. I'm still trying to get the hang of it—I figured out a rhythm on the go with my last ms, and I'm hoping this one will turn out better? I'm not very good at spotting how to improve my work.

5. Do you write best at night or day?

Night! For the entire months of September and October I allocated half an hour before I slept to writing. If I couldn't meet my quota, I didn't sleep. (How we punish ourselves.) It worked, though.

6. What does your writing space look like? (Feel free to show us pictures!)

All my writing ends up on my computer, but before that here are a few places I scribble:

In order: a notebook with chemistry and writing in it, a printed-out ms for first readthrough, and tiny notebooks with tiny handwriting. A future blog post will elaborate more on where I write :)

7. How long does it typically take you to write a complete draft?

Considering that I've only written two complete drafts (well done, Alyssa), I can only say the first one took half a year and the second took two months.

8. How many projects do you work on at once?

One novel at a time. I can't handle more. I can juggle a few more short stories, though.

9. Do you prefer writing happy endings, sad ones, or somewhere in between?

SAD ENDINGS ALL THE WAY. I'm evil. And my characters must SUFFER.

10. List a few authors who’ve influenced your writing journey.

Some authors I really, really admire: J.R.R. Tolkien, David Handler (Lemony Snicket), JK Rowling, Kate DiCamillo, Phillip Pullman, Philippa Gregory, George R. R. Martin.

Quick shout-out to these fellow online teen writers who give the best support a writer could ask for: Christina, Topaz, Nivedha, Rona, AnQi, Taylor. HAVE SOME TAKEOUT, GUYS.

11. Do you let people read your writing? Why or why not?

Funnily enough, I'm all good with letting people read my writing online — I'm on Figment — but I don't actually let real-life people read my stuff. I just cringe whenever someone glances at my writing and I have to see their reactions. Reading comments/critiques online are just fine, though.

12. What’s your ultimate writing goal or dream?

Become a published author! (And be Cait's Minion #1 as spokewritesperson. Great honour.)

13. If you didn’t write, what would you want to do?

Well, I never envisioned writing as my sole career; something sciency is definitely happening as well. Either science research or medicine or both, I'm not sure. Depends on my grades.

14. Do you have a book you’d like to write one day but don’t feel you’re ready to attempt it yet?

Yep, a memoir-ish diary-ish thing about what it's like here in Hong Kong. Politics, life, school, etc. I'm just mildly irritated that Hollywood thinks we're a mafia spot or something.

15. Which story has your heart and won’t let go?

Other than my current ms, I'm also pondering a Shadowplay sequel tentatively titled Matryoshka.

I might elaborate more on this idea and the memoir in the future, but this is getting a bit long :) If you joined the link-up, do leave your link so I can check out your post! Any praise for the awesome me? (Thank you, thank you.) Share any of my quirks? Leave a comment below!

Loved this post? Click to Tweet it for karma and takeout points:

• Read @sisterofsilence's 15 darkest writing secrets on her blog!