tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70398409477167346862014-10-02T13:02:35.546+07:00A Million Things to Say.writing, reading, life and whatever else that comes to a writer's mind.Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-898182824441793582013-02-21T16:20:00.000+07:002013-02-21T16:20:00.297+07:00Ghostwriting and Ray Bradbury. I am a huge, huge fan of Ray Bradbury. I go head over heels every single time I think back of the first sentence of Fahrenheit 451, "It is a pleasure to burn". I still wonder until today how one sentence can sound so beautifully crafted in my eyes, that just doesn't make sense, and yet I can't help it. Is it because it was written by Ray Bradbury? Is that it? Or it is because those words are so Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-49230139717973386622013-01-13T22:43:00.000+07:002013-01-13T22:43:16.746+07:00A Little Less Conversation. Who said socializing with people was easy? That's what my best friend once said. And I figured, yeah, that's right, who said so? Because it's so damn hard to find someone who's as excited as you are to be caught up in a conversation about books. I know, right? I'm being impossible. Books are lame. Surely no one (Ermm, that's probably an understatement because there are a few, though not much) in Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-41445520362683532862013-01-12T09:11:00.004+07:002013-01-12T09:11:56.059+07:00Do You Have a Blog? So, when I talk to people and we came to the subject of what are some of the things we like, what are we passionate about, what do we want to be years from now, it always come to writing. Well, obviously, right? I'm a writer, I love to write, so it will always come down to writing. And every time we touched this subject, people come up to me with this oh-so-popular question: Do you have a blog?
Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-83176570137371470722012-09-26T15:50:00.000+07:002012-09-26T15:50:41.933+07:00Let's Say Fear...Let's just say we're not making excuses, that we are all highly, fully-committed, dedicated writers (not saying that you and I are not dedicated and committed), that never for once deliberately decide to skip our daily writing routine, not because we have to, or because we have some life-threatening-emergency, or because we were stranded on a dessert island, lost without computers, pen, paper, Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-1320672266379160342012-09-16T17:54:00.000+07:002012-09-16T17:54:38.750+07:00As a nerd and a book lover...
"As a nerd and a book lover,
y’all can’t just
turn the corners
of somebody’s book page.
It’s very disrespectful."
Natalie Tyler Tran.
Video Blogger on Youtube.
Quoted from "Just Keep It"
(click here to watch her video)
Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-12594526122006999322012-09-13T16:00:00.000+07:002012-09-13T16:00:41.817+07:00Thoughts on Easy Reading.
I know I keep referring back to my previous post “The Problem with Contemporary Fiction”, but I just can’t help it. I cannot get the
issue out of my head, the thing between contemporary fiction and chick-lit. The
fact that I’m currently reading a chick-lit novel, Jennifer Weiner’s Fly Away
Home, makes me think about it even more. I’m sure that this book is a chick-lit
novel because the story Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-3102528112435245592012-09-12T19:06:00.000+07:002012-09-13T16:00:23.747+07:00Writers, Freaks and Pure Joy. Writers are freaks. No, seriously. I'm a writer and I admit that I am a freak. Okay, so maybe I would not call myself a freak, but rather different, authentic. Think about it. "Normal" people, if that's the way we call people who are not writers, would watch TV, slack around on the internet surfing through new gadgets that's about to be released, play games, or even take a nap during their spare Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-60225600900628145582012-09-11T15:08:00.000+07:002012-09-11T15:10:21.955+07:00The Problem with Contemporary Fiction. The problem with contemporary fiction is that I'm not even sure what that is. It is one of the genres we found among books out there today, but up until today I still don't quite know what it is because I lost track of the genres. We used to know what every genre is really about and we can differentiate each of them by heart. We used to, but not anymore. There used to be this short list of genresLevina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-24642259208700771712012-09-07T17:31:00.001+07:002012-09-07T17:31:35.507+07:00Deserted. That's probably the only word that can describe my blog's current condition. DESERTED. Yes, after weeks of not writing anything on journals and quotes, and basically posting nothing, I have finally decided to start typing and posting stuff, again. I'm not exactly sure what happened along the way that made me stopped blogging for a while, because I found it a lot of fun, but I guess I kind of ran Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-81012346428423027182012-08-19T20:45:00.000+07:002012-09-07T17:32:55.813+07:00Rewrite 30 or 40 Times.
“It has been said that Ernest Hemingway would rewrite scenes until they pleased him, often thirty or forty times. Hemingway, critics claimed, was a genius. Was it his genius that drove him to work hard, or was it hard work that resulted in works of genius?”
-James N. Frey-
author of
How to Write a Damn Good Novel:
A Step-by-Step No Nonsense Guide to Dramatic Storytelling
Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-63047193046615159812012-08-19T20:35:00.001+07:002012-08-19T20:35:02.930+07:00"Take it easy, bro." I was horrified when I saw this sentence appear in my first draft. The word 'horrified' doesn't even come close to describing how shocked and shameful I felt. The second I got to reading "Take it easy, bro." I was like:
WHAT?!
DID I ACTUALLY WRITE THAT DOWN?
WAS I DRUNK?
Excuse me, I think I'm gonna puke.
I mean, seriously. "Bro"?!! What the hell was I thinking?
Exactly, I wasn'tLevina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-44615521758108415062012-08-13T11:27:00.000+07:002012-08-13T11:27:28.294+07:00Entering the New Stage: Editing. I didn't know the first thing about editing when I started on this writing journey. I knew that if I wanted to ever finish a book I would have to enter the stage of editing at some point, but I guess I never bothered to actually learn about the craft as much as I did when it comes to the writing itself, which was a mistake. I should have bothered to learn about it because entering this stage as Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-43951949985575628512012-08-07T22:29:00.001+07:002012-08-07T22:29:22.004+07:00Irrational Exuberance.
First things first, do you know what the phrase "irrational exuberance" means? In case you don't, here's what the dictionary has to say:
Irrational: illogical; absurd
Exuberance: the state of being exuberant
Exuberant: effusively and almost uninhibitedly enthusiastic (in other words: very, very, very enthusiastic)
Put them together and you get "irrational exuberance", this state of feeling Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-53347532172746161892012-08-04T10:05:00.003+07:002012-08-04T10:06:56.986+07:00Just Write.
photo credit: suite101.com
"Take our another notebook, pick up another pen, and just write, just write, just write. In the middle of the world, make one positive step. In the center of chaos, make one definitive act. Just write. Say yes, stay alive, be awake. Just write. Just write. Just write."
Natalie Goldberg,
American Author,
As quoted from AdviceToWriters.
Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-66708327059697458242012-08-04T09:54:00.000+07:002012-08-08T22:58:35.254+07:00Keep Writing.Yesterday I said my goodbyes to probably the smartest and the craziest Professor ever. I didn't even know he existed until about a month ago and it was a huge honor for me to have the chance to meet such a smart-ass like him. That's not the point, though. The point is that before we part ways, he gave me this one piece of writing advice that I think is very important for all writers to take note Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-76412889112337249732012-07-30T22:25:00.001+07:002012-07-30T22:25:39.405+07:00Books and Swimming Pools.I was spending the weekend away with my friends when we decided it was a beautiful morning for a swim. I didn't feel like swimming (and so were my other two friends), so I decided to bring a book along for company. It was all good, all was positive, until I started walking across the narrow pathway between the swimming pools and this weird thing happened. As I was walking on the narrow, dry Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-76015906159439567932012-07-26T23:05:00.000+07:002012-07-26T23:05:33.888+07:00Your Support System Matters.If you Google "Writing Support System" or something pretty much similar to that, you're going to start talking about agents, editors, publishers, writing tools or programs and so on. True, this is also a part of your support system as a writer. But this is more or less professional and that, is not what I'm talking about here. The support system I'm talking about is the most basic support system Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-16064764136374403362012-07-26T10:43:00.000+07:002012-07-26T10:43:08.081+07:00A very, very long, slow process.
photo credit: community.newcastle.gov.uk
“When you're writing a book, it's rather like going on a very long walk, across valleys and mountains and things, and you get the first view of what you see and you write it down.
Then you walk a bit further, maybe up onto the top of a hill, and you see something else. Then you write that and you go on like that, day after day, getting different viewsLevina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-61500772683992396412012-07-19T22:34:00.000+07:002012-07-19T22:36:08.035+07:00Hemingway's Willie."Dear Gianfranco:
photo credit: nymphthoosa.files.wordpress.com
Just after I finished writing you and was putting the letter in the envelope Mary came down from the Torre and said, ‘Something terrible has happened to Willie.’ I went out and found Willie with both his right legs broken: one at the hip, the other below the knee. A car must have run over him or somebody hit him with a club. He Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-28586972248306575222012-07-17T23:20:00.001+07:002012-07-17T23:20:09.729+07:00The Desperation of a Journalist.
I see journalists as the manual workers, the laborers of the word. Journalism can only be literature when it is passionate.
Marguerite Duras, French Novelist.
Today was the first time I came face to face with an actual TV reporter, carrying an actual wireless microphone, surrounded by actual video-cameras and crews. It was an interesting experience, not because of the possibility that my faceLevina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-6975196587737862442012-07-16T22:33:00.001+07:002012-07-16T22:33:50.642+07:00A Different Set of Eyes.
photo credit: National Geographic Channel
I don't believe in spiritual journeys. I'm pretty sure I've said this before. I don't believe in going to remote places, that going to the high ends of a mountain or into the darkest edges of the forest can inspire you. Well, maybe they do to some extend, but I'm pretty sure these kinds of journeys aren't for me. What I believe can inspire is the Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-30514899360708344252012-07-11T20:32:00.002+07:002012-07-11T20:32:38.190+07:00The Trick Question.Chemistry. Are you any good?
Ba + Na2 = ?
This was a hard question for me because "Ba" is for Barium and "Na" is for Sodium. Barium is under the category of alkaline earth metals and Sodium is under the category of alkali metals, which to me, doesn't help at all. I tried thinking of the concept of acid and base, but still nothing came up. It's even more frustrating because I know I was goodLevina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-65750799339260632702012-07-10T09:39:00.002+07:002012-07-11T20:52:53.438+07:00I Still Believe.
Anne Frank
photo credit: courtmerrigan.files.wordpress.com
"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-54307079598957187362012-07-09T22:57:00.000+07:002012-07-09T22:57:21.002+07:00Holocaust.Remember The Holocaust? The catastrophe that happened during the World War II that killed around six million European Jews, the one sponsored by the Nazi and led by the "great" Adolf Hitler? Yes, how could we forget. I was watching a documentary on the National Geographic titled "Nazi Death Squads" and I was reminded of this tragedy.
The Diary of a Young Girl
photo credit: Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7039840947716734686.post-53493552875647870382012-07-07T18:22:00.000+07:002012-07-09T22:01:52.919+07:00The Point where You have to Write.
photo credit: goodreads.com
"Writing is 90 percent procrastination: reading magazines, eating cereal out of the box, watching infomercials. It's a matter of doing everything you can to avoid writing, until it is about four in the morning and you reach the point where you have to write."
Paul Rudnick.
American playwright, screenwriter and novelist.
Levina Khttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17880570946257056458noreply@blogger.com0