Life Lesson Snips of Tellers

Life Lesson 02: Life

Life is a gift

We secretly went on dates on a few occasions. Even though my family hadn’t said anything yet, I believe they are suspecting something then again, I cannot be sure. The only thing in my mind now is to see him again. We’re happy together no matter what others say or think. I am willing to go against all odds even if it means breaking ties with my family!

At the end of the movie he dragged me to the back of the car park where we tasted the sweetness of the forbidden fruit. I know it’s morally wrong yet the moment of passion excites me so. Oh, I am drowned in this heat of lust, my sanity swept away by this intense pleasure of the night. How I wish this could go on forever.

Reaching a halt to our immoral actions, I begin to feel the gravity of our actions pouring in. Yet when we parted, I only wished we could do it again like today.

My heart skipped a beat when my period refused to come. I was at a loss of what to do. Trying to wear a mask of norm, I avoided unnecessary questions as I went to a doctor only to find I was pregnant. Struck by fear of the consequences, I was engulfed by depression entirely. I had no one to rely on for this matter, I couldn’t go anywhere. No wait, I should let him know first.

Without flinching at the sudden news, we argued over what should’ve been done. In the end, I had no choice but to abort the baby for there was nothing more we could do. He’s a family man while my family felt strongly against the thought of us together.

Fright swallowed me entirely as I entered the abortion room. There is no turning back now; I have to go on with it.

Tears flooded my eyes uncontrollably that night as guilt washed over me. I could see clearly my baby inside, curling in the warmth of my womb; knowing he/she is safe. Yet I, as his/her mother betrayed the trust that little life has put on me. My head burned in sorrow as I smothered myself under a soft pillow hoping it would leave eventually.

No. Thirty years later the little foetus still haunts me in my dreams. I’m happily married to the man whom I lusted for; I even bore him a son who grew up to be a fine young man. Nevertheless, my first child still returns once in a while seeking the same comfort I had given to my son all these years.

Zich© 2008

Life Lesson Snips of Tellers

Life Lesson 01: Love

It's good to be young!

The sight of him makes my heart swoon with love all over my head. I wished I could make the first move but my family would forbid it without a doubt. He’s a married man with children; I know it’s wrong but it’s unfair he’s stuck with a woman chosen by his parents. This can’t go on; I have to get him somehow for I know he feels the same for me.

My brother came warning me about that man again. I can feel suspicion in his tone and it urged me to break free of this bondage that restrains me from reaching him. I don’t care if he’s a lecher; I just want him. Even though we’re almost twenty years apart, there is something about him that attracts me greatly.

I don’t understand why I can’t be with him. His wife is loud and fierce; always quarrelling while I am always the one singing love songs with him in symphonic unison at the back of the coffee shop. We love each other! Why is life so unfair?

Zich© 2008

Good Reading Habits 1 (Warriors by Erin Hunter, Anis The Unchosen by Luthiea Wu)

Thank you for reading Zich/EOS Ling’s Good Reading Habits. This little article serves as a book review on books that aren’t well known but worth the read.

Thanks to the school vacation I finally had some time to rest and catch up with my reading schedule. To tell you honestly I’m not the bookworm kind of person. I love books, yes but not read them. It’s a weird fetish I had after working in a bookshop. Having the sight of them soothes my nerves but forcing me to read them drowses my mind.

Nevertheless the following two books have caught my attention and got me reading to the end. Thus I have written this review for those who are itching to read some books.

Warriors - Erin Hunter


First up, we have ‘Warriors’ written by Erin Hunter. Before you go on guessing what kind of novel is ‘Warriors’, it’s about the furry felines that roam about our neighbourhood. That said, you might guess as well this is a children’s book. Despite so, this book is highly recommended to everyone - especially those who have a little kitty in their hearts.

Story:

Rusty was born a kittypet; a cat living under the comfort of humans. He had shelter, regular feedings, nothing to worry about. For various nights, dreams of exploring and catching living prey haunted him.

Finally one day, he picked up the courage and stepped into the forest where he left his home for good and joined the forest cat clans.

Forest Cats have existed for quite some time and they divided themselves into 4 clans. Each clan had their own territory, leader, healer and warriors who would fight in troubled times. These cats have formed clans as one, defending their own with their bodies from foxes, badgers and other clan cats. On top of that, they had to hunt for the rest, go on patrols as part of their duties.

Such is the life of Clans and Rusty was brought into this place by spirits who once existed in these clans.

Review:

When people here ‘Children’s book’, adults like me avoid like fire. Yet I didn’t because I was tempted by the cover page which had a realistic looking cat. Without second thoughts, I bought the book. After flipping a few pages, struggling to understand the cats’ terms on certain objects, I became hooked on it.

The author was brilliant to have written a story based solely on cats. They way these felines act, talk and see captures the reader’s attention into figuring out what did the cats mean? By the time you do, you would have found yourself looking through the eyes of the forest cats themselves.

What are Twolegs? What are Monsters? And what is a thunderpath? Only the cats would know. Names and terms we know of like vehicles or roads are only known by us. To the cats out there, they see it differently and that is what so interesting about this book. I have to admit the plot was rather predictable for adults; nevertheless the story brings you into a world where things were different.

After reading this book, I can assure you next time you see a stray cat on the streets, it’ll never be quite the same again.

P.S Erin Hunter is actually 3 authors in disguise.

Where to find?

Popular carries this series but it might prove more than a challenge to buy full series from them. Kinokuniya at Takashimaya is the best place to get them. Borders do have them too but the last time I visited the books were scattered, not to mention it’s more costly.

However I have to add Borders to have the books quicker than Kinokuniya. So if you can’t wait and don’t have a credit/debit card to purchase the book online, you can always check out borders. Be prepared to throw in about 2 bucks more though.

Listing

‘Warriors’ is reaching its third season thus I figured it might be confusing to those who are not familiar of which to get first. Well, here’s the order.

Season 1: Warriors

In-between 1 & 2: Fire Star’s quest (super edition)

Season 2: The New Prophecy

Season 3: Power of Three

Book numbers are indicated at the side so you can easily find out which is after which.

Anis The Unchosen - Luthiea Wu

Whenever I browse bookshelves for ‘local authors’, I fail to come across fantasy books - never mind Russell Lee or Mr Midnight. Those aren’t really the kind of ‘fantasies’ I’m looking for. What I want to see is Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnia or Lord Of The Rings but I never did have the patience to read those books.

That was when this book came to me - Anis The Unchosen. You could say it’s fate that brought me to it because I happen to be reading this author’s newest work (which is a secret right now) and found how much I like her style.

Story:

Anis is now in secondary school facing her O levels. A mysterious man throws her an object and disappears. Since then weird things started to happen like having visits from another dimension and saving the world in … 82 pages.

I can’t say a lot about the story because it’s short and I’d be giving away too much.

Review:

Lots of dialogues, less storytelling; or rather ‘let the characters tell you the story’ she says. Well, she certainly did it. Short, sweet the rest is up to your imagination. What this author struck me so strongly was the way she frees our imagination.

Sometimes a good novel is cluttered with so much information it lets you see things very clearly however it makes me fall asleep. You could say this novel is highly recommended for those who have short attention span or those who likes it straight to the point of if you want to get away from mainstream fantasy, this is the book for you.

More importantly, she’s a local writer. How many published Singapore authors can you find writes fantasy?

To download this book, it’d cost you about 8 SGD. That’s = 4 plates of chicken rice if you must know or you can compare it to a serving of Russian Earl Grey at TCC. Nevertheless the content of this book cannot be compared to the quality of the food as mentioned. It’s definitely way more enjoyable to read this book than eating 4 plates of chicken rice in an oily environment or enjoying two cups of Earl Grey in an air conditioned room.

Since this is a download, I would urge all who bought this book not to share. Give some support to our local writer yeah? 8 bucks isn’t really a lot for 82 pages of words.

When the world stops spinning

And so, time stopped

When I was a kid, I dreaded drawing. I tried, I failed, I gave up. As I grew up into a teenager, I got into writing incidentally and loved it because that meant I didn't have to draw to portray my ideas.

7 years into my writing life I realised my biggest mistake. Writing doesn't mean I can escape the fate of drawing. Or at least not when it comes to short stories and novels.

Writing an article is different from writing a story. In an article, you need to be factual; in a story however, you need to bring your readers into another world. That's where I fail at.

After posting Moral Conflicts 2 I received critique from a fellow writer. It was well taken, I entirely agree with her but that also meant I'm a whole lot further than where I intended to be.

How did this happen? When I began writing, nobody helped me. I wrote on my own initiative seeking the write way. I never did paid much attention to other people's work; all I ever read was textbooks guide books which weren't so helpful to writing a story. I read too many factual works I failed at storytelling.

Although I've come to a conclusion that I fail at creating an environment for my readers months ago, this latest incident made me realise I fail at visualisation too. I can visualise, I can imagine but I can't put them down in words. I can fantasize but there's no depths or perceptions to them. That indirectly resulted in the dryness in all my works.

It reads as dry as a TV script but it's a story. Should I carry on improving my writing skills or should I just concentrate on looking for a co-writer?

I'm not trying to brag but 7 years is neither long nor short. It's just disheartening to know even after those years of struggles I'm still far away. Yet some people could do it within a few years. They worked for it I respect their achievements. I did too but in the wrong way --- in a wrong, stubborn way. People told me the only way to improve is to read more novels yet I'm lazy to pick up one.

My world stopped spinning when my weakness came back to haunt me. I froze in time as I tried to struggle free from the bondage and tyranny of my fatal flaw.

Let's just scrap it?

The more I write, the more depressed I feel. I don't need people to tell me I'm not there yet; I can see for myself.

This is the third time this came across my mind. What is 'creative writing'? What is the difference between writing a report and novel?

1. How writers write?

Read other's works

1.5 How I write?

Just write

Apparently this is not working well for me. Well, it's a fact that you learn from other books but I'm just too damned lazy to start picking up books to read and the more reference books I pick up about creative writing the more I don't understand.

I know where my problem lies yet I'm just too lazy to rectify it. Partly because I'm too eager to create ideas and not write an enthralling novel about how I how a dimensional trip could turn so long winded.

Also, partly I'm tired. Ever since I started writing I've been alone. No one helped me (there was one but he helped like 2 days?). Yeah sure, writers don't get any support now do they? But they're professional writers, I'm not.

The difference? A professional writer is committed to writing and plan to publish their books on the shelves. I don't. I have parents to feed and I'm not just going to let their effort over the years go to waste.

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first one who faces these problem however the real struggle within me is 'Telling a story Vs Writing a novel'.

When you tell someone a story, it needs to have a plot, a start, a climax, a conclusion. When you write a novel, you need all that AND capture your reader's attention into it. That is what I fail at doing and probably what I don't feel like doing.

After working with the Ero trio I come to realise this fact. Alien (the main artist) re wrote the script into something a 100 times more exciting. And how did he do that? He reads 40k Warhammer novels. Not just one but almost everyone he can get his hands on.

Me? I've been reading children's novel about cats. Not just one but the whole series.

Now with that in mind, I feel like scrapping everything away. So uh, anyone wants to take over?

Show me the PICs

7 years have passed since I started writing. Although I am proud to say progress was made, it was slow. Mainly because I am lazy. However, things are going to change the moment I publish this post.

I have made up my mind to strictly write, in which ever medium possible. Everyday. They say practice makes perfect but it certainly have yet to make my skills anywhere perfect. That had been a depressing moment for me.

Thanks to the encouragement from certain fellow writers, I decided to throw away everything - that is, everything that is hindering me from performing my daily writing duties.

Well, if you too are lazy or unmotivated to write, I think you should start now too.

EOS Round Off 2007

Total Files = 611
Total Folders = 92
Total Size = 5.75 mb/6.69mb (on disk)


Origin of EOS Incomplete

Ver 1 Incomplete, subjected to change
Ep 0 - 2 (>1 page)

EOS 1 Incomplete

Part Minus 1

Part Zero 2 Incomplete, discontinued, name changed to Part Minus 1 Ver 1
1 Ep

Part Minus 1 Ver 1 Not started, Version changed to 2

Part Minus 2

Part Zero 1 Ver 1 Incomplete, discontinued, name changed to Part Minus 2 Ver 1
41 Eps (written)

Part Zero 1 Ver 2 Incomplete, discontinued, name changed to Part Minus 2 Ver 2
1 Ep

Part Minus 2 Incomplete, Version changed to 3
Ep 0 - 1 (1 page +)

Part Minus 3

Part Zero 3 incomlete, discontinued, name changed to Part Minus 3 Ver 1
2 Eps

Part Minus 3 Ver 1 Incomplete, Version changed to 2
Ep 0 - 1 (4 pages)

Part 1

Part 1 Ver 1 Completed (written), discontinued,
21 Eps Transffered Ep1 - Ep 8 (just started)

Part 1 Ver 2 Completed, discontinued
23 Eps

Part 1 Ver 3 Completed, version improved to RW 1
23 Eps + Ep 0

Part 1 Ver 3 ReWrite 1 Completed, going through 2nd revision, improved from Ver 3
Ep 0 - Ep 35

Part 1 Ver 3 Re Write 1 Finalised, uploaded (no more version 4)
Ep 0 - 35


Part 2

Part 2 Ver 1 Completed, discontinued
40 Eps

Part 2 Ver 2 Completed, discontinued
40 Eps Ep 0

Part 2 Ver 3 Incomplete, subjected to change
Ep 0 - Ep 34 (2 pages)

Part 3

Part III Completed, discontinued
54 Eps

Part 3 Ver 1 Incomplete, discontinued
26 Eps + Ep 0

Part 4

Part IV Incomplete, discontinued
Ep 1 - 7 (2 pages)

Part 4 Ver 1 Incomplete, discontinued
1 Ep

Part 4 Ver 2 Incomplete, discontinued
1 Ep

Part 4 Ver 3 Incomplete, improved to RW 1
5 Eps + Ep 0

Part 4 Ver 3 RW 1 Incomplete
2 Eps + Ep 0

Part 5

Part 5 Ver 1 incomplete, story not started, only notes

Part 6

Part 6 Ver 1 Not started



EOS 2 Incomplete

Intro

Intro Ver 1 completed, discontinued
19 Eps + Ep 0

Intro ver 2 Incomplete
3 Eps + Ep 0

Zich’s Story

Zich’s Story Incompleted, discontinued
Ep 20 - 25

Jit’s Story, name changed to Rì Shen’s Story

Jit’s Story Incomplete, discontinued, name changed to Rì Shen’s Story Ver 1
Ep 25

Eril’s Story, name changed to ERIL’s Story

Eril’s Story Not started

Epilouge

Epilouge Not started

EOSS Incomplete

EOS 1 Story Intervals

Part Minus 2.5 (EOS -3-2) Completed
Part Minus 2.5
Chapter 1 Ver 1 Incomplete

Part Minus 1.5 (EOS -2-1) Incomplete

Part Minus 0.5 (EOS Holy War) Incomplete

Part 0 (-1+1 Ver 1) Incomplete, discontinued

Part 0.5
Ee Hwa’s Story Ver 1 Completed
Ee Hwa’s Story Ver 2 Incomplete, 3 Chapters (including 0)
Eric’s Story Ver 1 Completed
Eric’s Story Ver 2 Incomplete, 3 Chapters (including 0)

Part 1.5 Incomplete
Ep 1 - 2 (total of 6 in planning)

Part 2.5 Not started

Part 3.5 Not started

Part 4.5 Not started

Part 5.5 Not started


EOS 2 Character History

History of Eril Ver 1 Incomplete (moved on to Ver 1.1; name changes only)
History of ERIL Ver 1.1 Incomplete

History of Jit Ver 1 Completed
History of Jit Ver 2 Completed (name changed to Rì Shen)
History of Rì Shen Ver 3 Not started

History of Zich Ver 1 Completed
History of Zich Ver 2 Completed
History of Zich Ver 3 Incomplete

History of Janet Ver 1 Completed
History of Janet Ver 2 Incomplete

EOS Side Story: Other Stories

Saine’s Pet: Incomplete