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Tag: Christmas

“A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas” Short Story Anthology is Here!

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been working with some awesome viewers to put together a short story/poem anthology based around the theme of: “A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas.”

And now, it’s here!

Are you ready to dig into eight stories that span the spectrum of cute to grimdark, all speculating what the season looks like after the end of the world?

So You’ve Written A Book… Now What? (Part 3)

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) has ended, and there are a lot of people out there with finished first drafts of books.

First off, congratulations! Writing is a long, arduous process, and finishing the first draft is an important first step. But now you might be wondering, what do I do next?

Unfortunately, it’s time for the scariest thing imaginable: showing your work to other people.

Writing Stream Recap: Ugh, stupid Christmas magic

Well Christmas is over, so that means it’s time to write about the harsh, sobering realities of the season that we wake up to with a hangover the day after Christmas.

For our writing exercise last stream (along with my special guest Abbey), we gave the chat five “miserable Christmas happenings” to choose from, and “drunk uncle” won by a hair. After brainstorming a bunch of ways we could write about a drunk uncle, we went with the most interesting one: writing from the drunk uncle’s point of view.

Here’s what we wrote:

Writing Stream Recap: Building snow-women and squirrel Christmas

Since our last stream was on Christmas, what better way to celebrate than by writing our own cheesy Hallmark Channel Christmas movie?

And of course, there’s an auto-generator for that!

Here’s what we got for our roll-your-eyes-but-you’ll-probably-watch-it-anyway Christmas movie plot: “The protagonist is an out-of-work actor who is forced to move back in with their parents. The love interest is a snowman magically brought to life. They work together to throw the demanding mayor’s massive holiday party (and fall in love in the process).”

Needless to say, this plot excited me. After getting some suggestions and votes from the chat, we were off. Here’s what we wrote:

Merry Christmas!

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.

Featured image: Pakutaso (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)