Howl’s Moving Castle: Book vs. Movie

Spoiler Alert!! I will be talking some endings and other spoiler-ish elements so just beware.

It’s a rare time for me to notice that I actually enjoyed an adaption over the original novel. Considering how subpar most adaptations are. I don’t talk about this much but my favourite Studio Ghibli film and romance story in general is Howls Moving Castle by Hayao Miyazaki.

Sophie resonates with me as a character and I love the idea of the basic eldest daughter running away with a wizard who’s friends with a fire demon. So in order to prolong and thicken my excitement for this story, I decided to read the book as well.

The book was good, don’t get me wrong. It’s a beautifully written, casual fantasy that’s very similar to Miyazakis’ form of ‘soft’ worldbuilding. Or ‘frolicking fantasy’ as some reviewers put it. You don’t know everything going on in the created world but in the end, it doesn’t matter. Like how we never really know what happens in the Hufflepuff dormitories. At least not until the Rowling Unnecessary Head canon Era.

Even though I enjoyed the book, it left me feeling quite deprived compared to what I had in the movie.

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SERIES: GOLDEN LOTUS

This was a series I wrote and I finally got myself to post it.

You can find it on Wattpad and Inkitt (the full story is still to be posted here).

Short Story: Wings of Icarus

One of my challenges or resolutions this year is to write a short story each month to either send it to Furious Fiction or just keep it to myself. This is a story I sent in this month. It didn’t get a prize or anything but that’s not really the point of why I send them in the first place. Last year, most of my time was spent with writing my novel and I found myself not really improving in my actual writing since I was so focused on finishing the project. Writing these short stories has allowed me to expand my horizon and see how my writing can develop as I explore different settings and stories while completing my novel. It’s been an great experience and deep down, I’m still a little proud of this piece so I wanted to keep it here.

You can also read it on Wattpad if you prefer the reading platform!

Feminism in Storytelling

Feminism in storytelling is going through a transitionary period. So it’s not the most impressive even in stories that are aimed for this particular theme. The irritating part is no one truly mentions this because it’s welcoming a wave of hellfire into your mentions since people like certain things to stay a certain way. In this case, people like feminism to either be heavily drowned or excessively pushed rather than a natural flow of thematic structure in storytelling.

Animations are better than Live-Action. Here’s why.

After watching all kinds of mediums for long time in my life, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is a hierarchy of which mediums are the best (or most creative) for storytelling. Live-action movies and TV shows can be beautifully artistic if the right person has the creative reins. However, there are some aspects that make them third on the list of most creative mediums of storytelling. The first on this list is (probably) to no one’s surprise, books. And the second is animations. We all know that nothing can truly beat the creative freedom we’re given in books whether it’s reading or writing them. So today we’re going to talk about animations and a few reasons why it takes second place above films or TV shows.

How to Destroy a Genre: Vampire Edition

Let’s all be honest. How interested are we in another vampire story being released? This is branching from the plot change my book went through from fully vampire themed to a dark high fantasy. One of the biggest reasons that my sister also pointed out is the mere word ‘vampire’ causes one to cringe so much the book closes on its own. However, in truth Vampires are historically interesting creatures that have just as much depth in their folklore as Faeries or Elves. One would think Vampires would be a highly respected genre like Wizards or even Demons. Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t really see it at that level anymore.

Today I will talk about all the ways a genre can be viciously murdered in the storytelling community in any medium. Vampires in particular will be discussed because the theme has become a prime victim to genre death.

First Draft Struggles + Personal Lessons

Last Sunday I printed out the rough draft for my book which felt both accomplishing and terrifying at the same time. Something about holding the story in your hand for one thing is really solidifying; a small way to remind yourself that you did a lot of work even though it was hidden in the electronic folders.

Then also the terrifying journey to read what your brain dump looks like. For most people, the first draft is the version no writer wants a reader to see because it’s almost written in their own personal language that no one else will understand. That’s what the second draft is for. To make people understand that weird, personal language swirling around in an authors’ brain.

While I had a few other things to talk about this week, I think this blog is a good place for me to write down some lessons I’ve learnt while writing. Especially since the writing community is all about sharing experiences and learning from one another to develop each other’s style. So here are a couple of things I’ve realized while writing my less than pleasant first draft:

Book Review: Angels and Demons by Dan Brown.

As most of us are now sitting at home and finding ourselves with more free time, books are usually a good way to occupy our minds for a few hours. Maybe even calm us down when the atmosphere gets too stuffy or the thoughts get too troubling. I managed to binge-read the last hundred or so pages for this book because it was hard to put down and honestly there was not much else to do so I hope this review gives good enough insight for you to add it to your reading list!

Book Information:

• Author: Dan Brown
• Year Published: 2000
• Page Count: 615
• Genre: Mystery / Thriller
• Warnings: Blood & Violence, Disturbing Themes, Attempted Sexual Assault (brief).
• Pacing: Drawling | Slow | Suspenseful Build | Fluctuating | Steady | Fast | Vague
• Type: Fantasy | Mix | Realism

What you need to know about fan-fictions (before you judge them)

Fan-fictions may be an unconventional way to begin this new blogging scheme but I find that people jump onto the negative bandwagon far too quickly when it comes to this topic. While my experiences in both original and fan-made fiction are not as vast as some others, I do see this lack of diverse knowledge behind what fan-fictions are to people and why it is still a fairly popular medium in entertainment.

WHAT ARE FAN-FICTIONS?

If you do not already know, fan-fictions are transformative creative pieces either inspired by or contain characters from a TV show, movie or book. Fan-fictions also involve fictional characterisations inspired by celebrities mostly by their name and physical features depending on the genre or universe.

WHY DO PEOPLE WRITE FAN-FICTIONS?