The problem with coffee was the caffeine. Decaf didn’t make everyone’s thoughts louder...
just another bird
So, I thought it would be nice to accompany some ideas along with whatever fiction I post. I used to do it inside of the story posts before, but maybe it’s better to actually separate them to save me the trouble of creating a page for the story for archive purposes. So, for some reason, I really don’t have any real ideas why Jean Clarke Oliver has always been one of those little weird characters that sticks forever in my head. I’ve written scenes and other stories about him or related to him. I guess there’s just something cool about a little robot who is somehow conscious. Now, this last post, “Star,” feels a lot more like the beginning of a longer story, which is usually my issue. I’m absolutely terrible at writing self-contained short fiction, and it’s one of the skills I’m going to try to develop here. It’s […]
on Star and others
Sometimes he wondered what had happened to the students at the university...
Star
A few years ago, before my MFA, I decided to take on a challenge. I wanted to write something every day. The goal was two-fold. I wanted to write for my website in order to get myself “out there” as some people put it. But more specifically, I wanted to improve as a writer. This kind of reminded me of one of my classes, where my professor explained one of the most valuable lessons in my MFA. I had just had my workshop, and I was about to close my notebook where I had taken notes when my professor saw the two pages worth of notes I had taken. They weren’t just any notes though. See, I write extremely small, and it was a regular letter-sized notebook. I had crammed a ridiculous amount of words into the page because I wanted to make the best out of the workshop, as […]
The Future
Did you ever pay attention to your composition teacher? To be honest, even as a writer, I ignored that class. It just never registered as something important for a creative writer. Ironically, I am now writing an article on something you’d learn early in a composition class. But please, before you run away, hear me out. Sometimes, some concepts from a different type of writing can make your writing a lot more effective, especially the concept of “the rhetorical situation.” First, what is the darn thing? In short, it’s everything surrounding the act of writing that is not really the act of writing. In other words, the things you should know before you begin writing. For example, if I’m going to write something, I need to ask whether I’m going to write a short story or a novel. Depending on what I choose, different techniques change. I mean, a novel […]
ENGL-CW 101 The Rhetorical Situation
Would you look at that. It’s October 24. Aka, there are 7 days until NaNoWriMo begins, which means that a lot of writers are scuttling around as if someone had just shined a light into a dark and humid crevasse, and I am right there with them. To be honest, this year’s NaNoWriMo has crept on me. Sure, I know the date hasn’t moved, but I am awfully unprepared. In fact, I still don’t know for sure what I’ll be writing! Maybe it’ll be a project I’ve been meaning to start for this here website. Maybe I’ll be working on a revision. I don’t have a single clue! But, that’s not what I wanted to bring up. On the other hand, I wanted to give a quick announcement. For this year, I wanted to do something slightly different than my usual stuff. Rather than just put updates here every other […]
NaNoWriMo Looms…
I recently published a little review of the movie, but I tried to keep out my personal biased thoughts from affecting my review. As I mentioned on it, Death Note is one of those series that I call “foundational” during my teenage years. I read the manga so many times growing up, that I know the story almost perfectly, even now 10 years after having been the most obsessive of fans. And, for the context of this rant, let me say that I never finished watching the anime. Within 5 episodes, I dropped it because I thought it did not do the manga justice. That’s just how obsessed I was. And, as you can imagine based on my opinion on the anime, I absolutely hated this new Death Note interpretation, and it’s because of the same reason as the anime. This movie failed to capture the essence of what Death […]
On Death Note (2017)
Alright, so, I’ll start by saying that this is one of those series that I grew up with, so—as you can imagine—I have some very deep opinions on. However, I’ll stick to reviewing this film as it is, putting aside it’s source material because of a few reasons, but primarily because I agree with what the director of the film. Death Note was originally a manga (Japanese graphic novel) series, which eventually got adapted into some live action films in Japan. On top of that, there were multiple light novels created for the series too, and I probably would be destroyed by people were I not to mention that beloved anime adaptation. So, if you want the original version of this story, the real Death Note, read the manga, watch the Japanese movies, or watch the anime. They’re all still there. Sadly, I’d love to transition to my review of […]
Death Note (2017) Review
Some advice for beginners, or those who have trouble getting a start on writing.
Advice for Beginners
The other day I wrote all about Writing Discipline, which seriously has me thinking more and more about the future of this site. I really want to create that. That’s why I changed that tagline to join me in my journey. And, it’s also why this site is called Raven’s Apotheosis. I want to show my personal journey forward as I make it out there as a writer. In a way, this place is all about me becoming an author. That’s why this is a little unorthodox. This is not about me. Instead, I want to talk about this kid I met in high school that inspires me. Back in 11th grade, my friends initially met as the group we would end up being for the next decade. Originally, we were the weird rejects that played Yu-Gi-Oh in front of the band room. And no, it wasn’t as sad as […]