LIZORAE

What's this? Lessons from another  video game? That's right, mates. But that's not all, it's another Square Enix game. Instead of Kingdom Hearts , I'm going to talk about an entry in their Final Fantasy  series.  Specifically, the long-awaited  Final Fantasy XV . Or Final Fantasy 15  if you don't like Roman numerals. FFXV was released in 2016 after ten years since its teaser, and is the latest to date. It follows the four Chocobros - Noctis, Ignis, Prompto and Gladio - on a quest to save their kingdom.  There's probably going to be spoilers in here, so I'll give a warning before and after them. That said, if you haven't already, I highly recommend you watch it . Like, right now . It's a beautiful story about the friendship between the bros.  Here's the link I used:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PMDFu9d83Y   Psst, after watching the link above, you should also watch: Episode Gladio, Episode Prompto, Episode Ignis and Episode Ardryn . They

Hey authors! Today is a special day. You know why? It's Lizorae's first birthday! That's right. You heard me. Lizorae is one years old. *throws confetti* To celebrate, here's how blogging made me a better human organism and a yearly roundup.  Let's get to!    Lizorae's Journey  When I started blogging, I was a weak writer. You can see my first post here . It's awful. I cringe to think about it. Compare this to last week's post . Firstly, my latest post is longer. I'm usually not one to add fluff to my writing, so I know they are facts . (I hope. Please tell me what you  think!) But writing more  isn't the only thing. I'm writing over 1000 words in the same time it used to take me to write around 500. That's double the amount. My typing speed has stayed the same. What's different is how fast and how well I get into the zone. While I have long ways to go, it's an improvement that has made a world of difference outside blogging. 

We've all seen miscommunication in fiction. I don't know about you, but it drives me insane . I find myself internally screaming like people in memes, and I don't know that many memes .  Communication is something only living things can do. Go figure. And it's an amazing aspect of humanity. It's how we exchange ideas, feelings, thoughts. I revel in overthinking about the unspoken thoughts. Let's not talk about how this probably isn't good for mental health .  You understand what I'm typing because writing is a form of communication. Books are a form of communication. Anything in the arts is a form of communication. Everyone knows this. You might not know communication also includes your body language, tone, disjointed speech.  What happens when you don't have communication? To put it shortly: bad stuff. You might be able to sprinkle in some humour, for sure. But most of the time, no communication means miscommunication. While it may provide sweet, sw

How do stories resonate with our souls? Or, more importantly, what is a story? Thinking about this led to this: Transcript: "Stories are an escape from reality by offering a new reflection of reality."

What's up, authors? Welcome to another 5th Week Update  and the end of spring . It wasn't too long ago when I celebrated this blog's first post along with Christmas. Time sure flies.  In this post, I'll be going through the usual updates. This "term" has been a pretty hectic one, so this should be fun. Especially today, since I've written three blog posts. Last week's, this week's and next week's.  Let's get to!  Milestones  I've taken my first break. In fact, I've taken my first three  breaks. Not sure if this is a milestone, but hey, who's stopping me from adding this? Saying goodbye to the TQM series. The last TQM post was  12 Quotes To Nurture Your Author Mindset (Part Two) . I have one more planned for next week. It's a completely new format, so you can be excited for it! I may post more like it, but it will be under the topic of Babble .  I started this series because I thought it would be easy. A break, sort of. Bo

Hamilton the musical came out on Disney Plus. How could I, a musical lover and author, not resist? There's nothing authors love more Than going downtown and staring at some randos They pull up with their toolkit and gawk At the people in the cafes Just to watch them talk. Take [your name here]: the wo/man is loaded. Uh-oh, but little does s/he know that His/er favourites: Rubber, Apple Macbook, Pencil Sneak into his/er toolkit just to watch the author Write, write! Apple Macbook! Write, write! Pencil! And rubber! The author's toolkit. Apple Macbook! Rubber ! My pencil! Write! Author said to be replaced by white-out. Author doesn't need to know. Author said not to sneak back here. Like I said, you're free to go. But look around, look around, the Writing is happening in Starbucks. (Starbucks) Apple Macbook! Write! It's bad enough the author wants to stare at strangers. People shouting in their chairs. It's bad enough there'll be violence in the prologue. New i

Kingdom Hearts  recently released the long-awaited Kairi rhythm game, Melody of Memory. As the first KH game I had to wait for, the hype was up. I'm not a gamer, so I watched it here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsVKx-m0xH4  .  Because it's less than 40 minutes long, I'm watching it while I type. (Also yes, I'm improvising on the structure of this post.) Be ye warned, this post will have spoilers.  Let's get to!  Part 1 - Recaps  MoM begins with a recap of the entire series so far, narrated by Kairi. Let's be real, I watched until the COM recap and skipped the rest. I like the music under the narration, but other than that? Boring. The animation is reused from the game, not updated or anything. The narration itself is basically a Wikipedia retelling. At least have Kairi express her own feelings about it.  A lot of people complain about it, but we can't change what's done. This is the way I see it: what's mentioned in the recap is what Nomura-s

Transcript  5 Tips - Foreshadowing Foreshadow early. The earlier, the less noticeable. Foreshadow before 50%. Scatter foreshadowing. The closer together, the more emphasis. Foreshadow subtly. The bigger the reveal, the smaller the emphasis. Foreshadow who, what and why. Foreshadow in different ways. Try dialogue, description, action, traits or weather. Fulfil foreshadowing. Make it worth it. Updated Version

One series I read a while ago and decided to revisit is the Dreamtreaders  series by Wayne Thomas Batson. I enjoyed it before, but on my reread, not as much. Don't get me wrong, I still like it, but the technical flaws glare at me.  But the things I liked about it and continue to like about it is its charm. There's something refreshing in high school drama after epic fantasy. That's probably just me though.  Let's get to!  1. Referring to characters  One of the most grating things I find in my reread is how the author refers to characters in the narrative. Specifically with title calling.  What is title calling? It's when you talk about another character by what they do. I like to extend this to anything else besides their name or pronoun.  First, a little context about the story. The main character, Archer Keaton, is a Dreamtreader, which means that he can do almost whatever he wants in the dream. It's basically a lucid dream, except reality. Kind of. If my me

Time for something new on my blog. This time, it's no informative post or something fun about being an author. This is me ranting about a series I really love. That's what the LFTM series was initially for, but now, I can be totally unrestrained by the obligation to be smart. Here, I can yell to my heart's content.  Major spoilers  throughout. Most of my ramblings will not be based on facts, but merely my own, biased opinion on it. I may add some random writing fact, but don't get your hopes up. Take this as a recommendation to fill your creative well , if anything. Or an excuse to see me geeking out like a normal person. Anyway. *deep breath*  Let me tell you all about a series I fell in love with around half a year ago. It's a highly acclaimed video game that first debuted in 2002 and is still going . It is the amazing, the spectacular, the heartwarming. Okay, I'll drop the suspense now. It's in the title and seeing as you clicked on it, you know what it i

After an hour or so of thinking, I've concluded that every book has three parts. No, I'm not talking about the three act structure or anything. I mean literally. The spine and covers, the pages and the binding.  Nah, just kidding. I'm talking about the three parts authors follow when they're writing a book. Three phases, if you may. So without further ado, let's get to it!  1. Idea The first stage of a book is the idea. The sparkly egg in its full glory. (Talking about sparkly eggs, someone needs to write a book about chickens who lay sparkly eggs)   Often, this is the part that takes the longest. It involves firstly coming up with something, hopefully interesting, and expanding on it. Think of it like a chicken (you) laying an egg (the idea) and brooding on it.  Most authors I know like to spend years imagining this and that for their shiny new idea. (Exhibit A: *me*) Some don't, which is totally fine. We all work differently. Personally, I say take as long as