The first “Just F*cking Write Something!” Story Contest is over and the results are in.
Which stories made the top? Read on to find out!
Category: Website News
In Japan it’s considered good luck to have a dream involving a hawk, eggplant, or Mt. Fuji for your hatsu-yume (first dream of the new year).
But if you have a dream about me gobbling as a cooked turkey, well, that will bring you a different kind of luck.
Happy New Year’s everyone!
Featured image: Gahag
I can’t believe believe it was six months ago, back in December 2017, when I first started the ScottWritesStuff creative writing livestream.
I had no idea what to expect back then, but I couldn’t be prouder of what the stream has grown into. I’ve learned so much in these six months, and I’ve had a ton of fun with everyone in chat. Here’s to hoping for an even more awesome six more months to come!
To celebrate our stream-iversary, I decided to try out some things I’ve always wanted to do. For the exercise section, I wanted to see how well I knew my viewers’ writing. I invited anyone in chat to write an (anonymous) seven sentence story in a Google Doc, and then when everyone was done, I went in and tried to guess who wrote each one.
How did I do? Here’s my score:
In Japan it’s considered good luck to have a dream involving a hawk, eggplant, or Mt. Fuji for your hatsu-yume (first dream of the new year).
But if you have a dream about me gobbling as a cooked turkey, well, that will bring you a different kind of luck.
Happy New Year’s everyone!
Featured image: Gahag
Christmas may just be another day in Japan — in fact it’s the only day kids have to go to school this week before winter break, which is kind of funny.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate with the same awkward family small talk, stomach pains from overeating cookies, and unwrapping what you think is going to be a Nintendo Switch but ends up being a Nentondo Swotch that your grandma got for you from Chinatown!
If you’re looking for holiday cheer, well, then maybe Google it. But if you’re looking for how Japanese people celebrate Christmas over here, then hey! I’ve got you covered.
Ever since I moved to Japan, one thing that I’ve missed the most about living in the U.S. is not having a writing group.
I used to run a weekly writing workshop in Boston before I moved, and it was a great experience. Not only did I get to meet lots of local passionate writers, but we did some great collaborative exercises, and got valuable feedback from each other.
Unfortunately there aren’t many such groups in Japan, especially rural Japan where I live, and that’s something that I just kind of accepted.
Until now! It recently dawned on me that the Internet and livestreaming are both things that exist (I know, right?), so why not use them to have a live writing meetup online?
So I started by own Twitch channel, which you can access here: (Twitch is normally for streaming games, but they have a large Creative section as well where people stream art, cosplay, etc.)
https://www.twitch.tv/scottwritesstuff/
I’ll be streaming a live writing workshop every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 7:30pm-9:30pm (U.S. Eastern Standard Time). We’ll do basically the same stuff that we did when I was the organizer of the Boston workshop: a fun warmup, a collaborative exercise, write to a prompt, and a free share so people can get feedback on anything they’ve written (novel excerpt, short story, query, etc.).
If that sounds like something you’d enjoy, then we hope you can join us! It should be a lot of fun, and a great way to finally get some of that writing done that we’ve been procrastinating.
Hope to see you there!
We might not have much turkey in Japan, but we’ve still got plenty of awkward get-togethers, naps, and smelly leftovers that you eat anyway.
Enjoy the stuffing, everyone!
I recently re-read all seven Harry Potter books to see if my opinion of them had changed in the past decade. I’d always loved the first four, but could never quite get into the last three. They felt like they were missing the magic (wop wop) that the first four had.
And this time around too, unfortunately I didn’t like Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, or Deathly Hallows much more than I had the first time I’d read them. Although there was one thing I did enjoy more about them this time: Voldemort’s Horcruxes.
They were certainly a lot more interesting
than the “mystery” of who the Half-Blood Prince was.
In my opinion, the Horcruxes are the best parts of the sixth and seventh books. Up until their reveal, we never knew how Voldemort survived being hit by the killing curse. Learning that he used actual, concrete magic to do it, rather than just ambiguous magic like “magical willpower” or “the impermanence of evil” gives the stories more depth and makes them feel more real.
But one thing struck me as odd. Even though we learn all about Horcruxes in books six and seven, we never learn one of the most obvious things about them: how do you make one? Yes, we know you need to commit a murder, thereby “splitting” your soul, and then put that “split” part into a container, but there’s more to it than that.
It’s been a while since I’ve been able to show off my terrible MS Paint skills. The last chance I had was with a series at RocketNews24 called Learn Japanese through Ridiculous Manga. It was a lot of fun to create, but ultimately didn’t result in enough views/interest to justify the incredible amount of time I had to put into it every week.
But recently, about a year later, I thought about once again breaking out the old mouse and MS Paint canvas to draw something new. I’ve always been a fan of stories with illustrations, so I thought why not illustrate one of my short stories?
I started with Keiko, the shortest of my published stories, to try it out. It took a long time to draw, record and edit, but it was fun, so maybe I’ll do it again with another story in the future.
So if you like good stories that are drawn badly, check it out here on YouTube!
My short story Everything for Sale was recently published in the podcast Secondhand Stories.
And of course by “published” I mean “read out loud,” but hey, same thing, right?
If you have a few minutes and want to listen to a story that will give you a good, slimy feeling, then check it out.