#samplewriting

I was tagged eons ago by the lovelies @zmlorenz, @samplewriting, and @vellichor-virgo for this! So sorry for the wait, and thank you so much for the tags!!

This will be taken from my wip, Puppet Kingdom, as usual. :)

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My smile lingers before I lower my voice. “Just what are all those books for?”

“I’m sure you guessed that they’re spell books,” he says, “Each contains spells of specific branches of magic, and, as you can see, there’s quite a collection. August is a tremendously talented mage,” his eyes briefly shoot over at Cirillo as he whispers, “Though some people like to take advantage of that.”

Cirillo, who has been softly speaking to August, goes rigid.

“But,” Royal continues, “I like to think they’ll come through and help him in his time of need, if ever there is one.”

“You think so?”

“It’s nice to hope,” he mutters with a sad smile, moving to stand by August.

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Answering these ones for my brain's current obsession ... which is about a roadie for Rem's band, The Filthy Vandals, and the radio host's voice he falls in love with while trying to avoid being kidnapped by a stalker that wants to go through him to get to Rem ... more or less.

❤️: what’s the working title? Radio Waves, formerly Fast Forward to the End.

💜: where are you in the writing process? Early stages of plotting. I'm not sure I will actually write anything for it until I am done with At the Back of His Throat [where Rem originates from], after which I want to take a break to dabble back in my gothic roots ... so it might be postponed a while. Who knows, though.

🖤: what are your MC names? Jasper, Ryland, Noa, Veronica 'Vee', Rem, Ziggy, Lex, Oliver, Jade, West, Benny, Zara.

thanks so much for the ask!! @samplewriting

17. what writing habits or rituals do you have?

i'm actually not sure?? one thing i always do is read through my notes on the following scenes before i start, and then i keep my outline doc open while writing. i also listen to music often bc my brain shuts down in complete silence kdjdkd

24. favourite genre to write and read

i've answered this before, it's high fantasy! i also really enjoy writing surrealism

41. any advice for new/beginning/young writers?

just the usual 'don't get yourself worked up over (not) getting published or writing masterpieces in no time' i guess. but also that writing is a skill, you don't have to adhere to rules and advice posts but you are going to have to learn how to use certain techniques, how to tell a story the way it's supposed to be told, all that. and that takes TIME. and practice. lots of it. so keep doing what you're doing and you'll notice how your writing's improving and most importantly changing completely and that's great!! embrace it!!!

45. how much worldbuilding do you do?

Meg just could not be arsed with seeing Laura this afternoon. The weather was awful, the train to the city was crowded and to top it all off, she had just noticed that work had failed to pay her on time, again. Great. That left twenty quid for today. Twenty quid to cover a last minute, unnecessary, unwanted brunch date with her boyfriends sister. You see Meg fell under the category of unfortunate souls that had been born without a backbone and therefore, without question, found herself uncontrollably agreeing to plans she didn't want to be part of with people she didn't particularly like time and time again. 

Jumping off at Pearse station it didnt take long for Meg to spot today’s ‘person she didn’t particularly like’. Laura was standing there, just a few feet away, picture perfect with no doubt freshly blown out hair and that goddamn Gucci bag on her arm. Where Laura went, the Gucci followed, which is fine in theory, gotta get your money’s worth after all, but the distate for the thing came from the fact that it was a strange baby sick green colour - and regardless of which outfit it was paired with, it never failed to remind Meg of that fact. 

Before Laura had a chance to spot her, Meg turned her back to her, quickly texting her boyfriend to ask for a bank transfer of another 20 - just in case. James of all people knew that his sister had expensive taste, so it shouldn't be a problem, but that didn't stop Meg from feeling awkward for having to ask. 

I learned something about intuition today—that I knew already on some level—but today, for the first time perceived in depth, in a new light. I learned that intuition can steer me in the right direction when I am trying to reach a tough decision, reach out to people in my deepest moments of indecision, or inspiration...if I ask it to from within. But first I must blatantly seek to be enlightened by whatever imaginative idea that crosses the landscape of my heart and mind. Perhaps this is transcendental.  

Or perhaps it is proof that everything is interconnected through energy which cannot die but only transfer into the ebbing and flowing of the universe. It could be both. I shrug at the thought, because the answer is not in my control either way. All I know is that I know nothing with utter certainty or clarity, and am a student forever bound to the task of learning my mastery. Further still I must learn how I can contribute it to the greater good of humanity, taking into consideration all things that are thrust upon man in order that we might coexist. If life is a question of purpose that we as individuals must answer, then the answer to the question is mine to choose. How my story will unfold to the response of that query is ultimately up to me. I can only reply with complete transparency within myself, willingness to grow personally, using the tools I have been given, and eventually expound on that which already exists in the world.  

The alternative is to reproduce what is comfortable and "safe" but will yield the same unfruitful results that the mass of humanity beguiles itself into believing has created change in individuality or the collective whole. Humanity is woven together through multifaceted chains of social hierarchy's that have fooled some into believing that their gift is not worthy of contributing to the rest of the world. Or worse yet, that they as an individual have no gift to begin with. But that is not true.  

We each have an eternal compass that can, if we choose to seek to initiate it, guide us to our mastery task in life. The unique gift(s) within us have the potential to leave the world exponentially different than when we arrived. The activation of this internal compass will ignite a fire that is fiercely indifferent to the grueling hours of energy it will take to hone it. Our fire within us is unquenchable, and will burn within us all the way to our grave whether we have shared it or not. One must fan the fire to see it's true significance, how large it can become, and how fast it can spread. It will not be easy. No master of anything has ever been free of indecision, self-doubt or distractions. It is inevitable that the people that we admire, love, and are surrounded by will influence us even if only through a crevice that sinks into our subconscious sublimity.  

Has Drake Saved Hip-hop?

Whoa.

 Big claim? Sure. Is it the truth? I’ll let you decide.

Picture hip hop in 2003. Baggy jeans, oversized jerseys, excessive gold jewelry, du-rags! America’s catastrophe. But in retrospect it was our gospel. Rappers such as 50 Cent and Fabolous let us know they came from the streets and that was the only way to be.

Fast forward to 2006. An actor of the “Degrassi: Next Generation” fame drops a mixtape titled Room for Improvement. He was Canadian and “wheelchair Jimmy” so the hip hop community patted him on his back and sent him on his way. Then he drops Comeback Season. Packed with a strong r&b influence, he knocked on the doors of hip hop and some answered.

Singing and rapping? We heard of it before. Extremely emotional and insightful on life? We had rappers of that persona too. All wrapped into one? Uh oh. No one had ever packaged themselves as such. So a tempted risk he remained.

Then the Holy Grail came to fame, So Far Gone. With the smash Best I Ever Had, Houstelantavegas, and a co-sign from Lil Wayne, Drake propelled into fame. He was the new voice of rap. We no longer had to be shot 9 times or struggle with 10 baby mothers – we could be in tune with our feelings and sing Jon B samples with the upmost respect.

Time and time again they try to tear down what is the base of Drake. “He’s too emotional, he’s Canadian, he’s soft” and yet, he’s paid. Any and every song he’s on is in the top 100 (Ask Rick Ross, French Montana, Big Sean).

Kids of suburbia and the hood can join and rap of their relationship issues with no shame. Drake erased the concept of soft being detrimental to mainstream.

Ask yourself, how long can you rap and exploit the street life after a third album?

Hi. I will not be writing my autobiography in its entirety because I don’t want you to sleep (and probably snore) in the middle of reading this so I’ve decided to write this certain part of my life. This is the story of how I met my soulmate. No, not the one you are in love with kind, but with a kind of familiarity that people often misread in books that accompanies love. Because let’s face it, people think that if you are in a relationship , you two find each other as soulmates, automatically. I beg to disagree. For me, Love, is a choice. You can fall in love with anybody by choice , but being your soulmate? Just one. One soul that could understand your very own complexities like it’s their own. That one soul that can read exactly what’s on your mind and would continue it for you because what comes out of your thoughts comes out with his too. That one soul that knew your soul ever since before you were born, that the two of them had some memories that you can’t remember but they find it like it’s yesterday. That one soul that could complete what you lack. The missing puzzle piece.

         Out of 7 billion people in the world, I found mine. Crazy right? I, Janna therese M. Uy, of Filipino-Chinese descent and overweight, would find my soulmate? I know it’s very hard to comprehend, that the probability of me finding that one soul is let’s say 1 is to 98 million (total population of the Philippines) minus the people who’ve already found their soulmates, and I still found him. I bet you may be asking now, how in the hell would I know that that’s him? Simple. I just know.

         You see I am a romantic. I fell in love, I broke my heart by loving the wrong guy yadda yadda. It took me two years and a couple of flings for me to realize that I’m tired. That all the things that happened to me is just down right discouraging that I stopped looking for it altogether. Maybe I’m having a series of failed relationships because I really don’t know what I want, or what I am looking for. Every time I enter a relationship, I feel like I’m looking for something that even I don’t know. I grew cynical and the last relationship I had was my turning point when I told myself “you know what, that’s it (with both hands raised like I’m giving up) I will never find what I’m looking for so I’m just going to do my thing and take a rest with all this…looking. And so I did, until my friends started bugging me to dive into this phone application where all worldly, temporal, totally shallow people go to find their latest “hook-up”. At first I was like “huh what? Me? No way”. I’m not going to waste my time in some stupid phone app. And talk to people that doesn’t even know how to spell sarcasm. But because my friends are good with what they do (being annoying and very good in persuading), I tried it out just for them to stop their nuisance. They taught me how to navigate the app and the more I stayed there, the more I feel alone and hopeless. With what’s been happening to the world on how to connect with people, souls are getting more and more detached from what is right and good than what is fast and would settle for “good enough.” My friends told me that If I find that person not good looking, I should deny them by swiping left. I told them, I’ll be the one to choose on who I want to deal with. I started reading their about info, hoping, at least to know that they could read (I’m sorry for being so condescending about all of this but at that certain moment I really do find myself stereotyping the people by their appearance in picture and to give them justice, I read their about info).  So I keep reading the words “high” , “let’s rave”, “loves to party” , “hook-ups” and each time I read their description box, I feel really disgusted. Until I swiped another left when I found him.

         He doesn’t have a face in his picture. I can only see the top of his head with a lop of clayed hair. I read his description box and my heart dropped. He wrote in his description box “Loves late night conversations, coffee, movies, poetry, anything about art.” What he wrote there is almost exactly the same as what I wrote on mine. I wrote “Deep conversations, books, poetry, black and white movies and coffee.” I found myself for the first time to swipe right. He swiped right too and we became a “match”. I found myself amused by all of this. For the first time in my immersion of that stupid phone app I found a person who is exactly like me. In everything. So the moment of truth begins as it’s said on my phone screen that he is “writing”. I waited for a few minutes before I read the words that he asked me and it was the most peculiar thing that I’ve ever need to answer to a random stranger. “Favorite Writer?” he asked. My blood rushed to my head, and my heart was beating so loudly. He’s going to judge me by the people that I like to read... “Neruda”, I answered.” He gave me a smile before it was my time to ask him. I thought long and hard before settling into the same peculiar intensity of a question “Favorite painter?” I asked. After a brief pause, he replied me a smile before answering that it was Pollock that he liked. The Pollock with the chaotic painting and surreal colors bathing and splashing canvas after canvas. Right there and then I knew that he was my soulmate. And I knew that he felt it too. There’s this imaginary puzzle that clicked together inside me that made me feel so…complete all of a sudden. Like I’ve known him ever since, that for a couple of centuries, I just lost him and now I found him again. Everything before him was just a blur. Everything I knew…or I thought I knew about men, about souls, about the world…is nothing compared to when I’ve met him. It’s like he added sounds to the scenes that I’ve been watching all my life. He was the reason why some things happened, and why some things need to fall apart…It was as simple as that. Everything made sense now.