Mearcstapas, the Media, and the Hope Thesis Podcast Trailor

I have some exciting news.

I’m releasing something.

No, I haven’t finished a book. But it does have to do with art, writing, and finding purpose in creativity, which is something I believe is an important topic to think and talk about as creatives.

It’s the (drumroll please) hOPE THESIS PODCAST.

And I’m releasing the first two interview episodes of the podcast as well as the website on April 1! But you know what is already released?

Episode 1: Trailer and Introduction. It’s up on iTunes Podcasts and Spotify!!! Check it out!!

But wait, you say. You’re hitting the return key way too much to the point where this post is starting to look like a terrible freeverse poem. Also, what the heck is the Hope Thesis Podcast about?

My Goal as a Creator: Hope Thesis + Logo Reveal

The last three months have been challenging and stressful and eventually made me want to forget everything and instead create water powered elevators in a virtual Minecraft world where physics is practically nonexistent and where the imagination is fueled with pretty blocks that do cool things.

Well, I did make the elevators. But the last few weeks of the semester, I created something that I was far more proud of, something that would carry through in my endeavors to become a graphic designer and digital creator, that carried a significance that I want to maintain in my future creations and eventually share with the world: Hope Thesis.

(not to bash Minecraft, of course. I am rather happy with those elevators.)

The Imitation Game, Alan Turing’s Legacy, and other Odds and Ends

“You just defeated Nazis with a crossword puzzle!”

I finally saw The Imitation Game. It is a masterful film and dramatization of the famous mathematician Alan Turing’s help in defeating the Nazis while paving the way for the machines we know today as computers. I loved this movie. It was inspiring, moving, and at times quite hilarious, while sad and hopeful at the same time. I personally found it a very emotional and deep experience. This post is not an attempt to analyze the movie and separate fact from fiction, and while I understand that dramatizations of such historical events are never 100% factually sound, this film inspired me to do a bit of research on Turing and consider his scientific breakthroughs and the last years of his life.

Despite 2020: Space and NASA

I’m not much one for politics, sports, celebrities, news––my mind tends to retreat upon such topics. I’d rather occupy myself with a fictional world than brush up on what’s going on in the real world at the moment. I’d rather be writing a sci-fi novel or watching anime than finally looking up the names of the presidential candidates for the 2020 election or watching people put their lives at risk over a ball and call it sport where the commercials have more screen time than the game itself. I realize there are pros and cons to this, but the fact is, unless it’s history, I’m not a fan of reality.

Fantasy Worldbuilding Part 3: Links, Posts, and Resources

I realize that there are many worldbuilding concepts and approaches, as it is a complex art in and of itself. In Part 1, I talked about why worldbuilding is important and how it contributes to the story as a whole, and in Part 2 I brought up aspects of worldbuilding that I personally feel are important to include when developing one’s story world. But if I were to touch on all the possible ways to incorporate worldbuilding into a story, and all the elements you could possibly consider, my post series could be neverending. I am also no expert when it comes to writing, as writing is an art that is constantly being perfected; there’s no such thing as a perfect story. All that to say, I’m most certainly not a worldbuilding master, but there are plenty of other writers who have great tips and inspiration that I highly recommend. Part 3, the last post in the series, features only a few great posts with worldbuilding tips that focus on certain aspects. Also, this has been a great excuse to include links to some of my favorite authors and bloggers.

So You Want to Be a Writer? Here’s 10 Things You Need to Know

So you think you’re pretty decent with words and you enjoy telling stories, and you want to be a writer.

You should think you might want to be a writer. Here’s what you need to know about being one.

(Note: This post is mostly cynical humor as I speak out about the harsh reality of being a writer. Because in reality it’s not all sunshine and rainbows; it’s more like no sun and rainclouds––which can still be pretty cool.)

Bullet Journal: Organization for Creatives

I’ve published a few bullet journal posts in the past with my writing bullet journal (which disappeared and hasn’t been attained since) and my first regular bullet journal (which I tried to use to put my life in order and that fell apart). It took me a while to pick up bullet journaling again, but a couple months ago, I saw the perfect color one at Barnes and Noble. I thought about that teal-colored notebook from Barnes and Noble for a whole week and finally decided to give bullet journaling another try. And boy, am I glad I did.

You can use a bullet journal for anything. You can use it any way you want (check out this website to get a gist of how the original bullet journal works), and the best part about it is, you can get as creative and artsy as you want. Time management, class schedules, year planner, homework due dates, food planning, daily journal, story/plot ideas, character caches, monthly overviews, blog schedule––all in one place. Cool, right? Pinterest is a great place to start for journaling tips and prompts, and inspiration of page layouts (and super fancy lettering and art that I could certainly never pull off but like to pin anyways because it looks pretty and who knows, maybe if I miraculously have some time on my hands, I could try). As a writer, blogger, student who works part time, and a human who tries to have a life, bullet journaling has really helped me with time management, priortizing tasks, and getting things done. And it’s also a creative outlet.

Realism and Antirealism in Writing

As a writer, I draw upon realism to create antirealistic worlds. As a reader, I have to accept truth on different terms when I immerse myself in a book and believe in the fantastical world the story is about. Versimilitude is the appearance of being real or true. It’s important when it comes to both writing and filmmaking, and is an art that requires skill and technique to make your reader believe that what they are reading is actually true.

My Interpretation of “Trees” by Twenty One Pilots

A writer can write something with a certain theme, idea, or message in mind, and yet ten individuals can listen to or read that something and each of them will be impacted in a different way. Different people, depending on their own perspectives or walks of life will take something away that was totally different from the writer’s intention.

People may argue that writing a song with a specific message or theme that can have multiple potential perspectives is achieving the height of the art. I think that success comes from delivering a message in a song or story that everyone who reads or hears it not only identifies the writer’s intentional theme, but also notices other ideas and messages that they take away form it based on their personalities, current life situations, perspectives, etc. And I think that that is achieving the highest point of success when writing anything. I want to impact others with the message I weave into my story or song, and yet I want listeners or readers to take other things away from it that I didn’t put there that inspires or encourages them or causes them to think about things I never even thought of associating with the thing I wrote.

Ambience Sounds for Writing Fantasy + Playlists

If you’ve been following my blog for a good while, you may have noticed that I like to talk a lot about listening to film scores while writing and how the emotions composed specifically for movie scenes could also be used while writing similar scenes in your story. Up until a few days ago, however, I had no idea that fantasy ambience/white noise existed, and when I did, I set out to find some of the best background noises that could be used for the appropriate scenes.