You may now begin

Last post, I was overwhelmed with feelings of positivity and optimism. I was a different person, supposedly. And I am, sort of. I mean, I've stuck to my workout schedule. I gathered more research for my dissertation. I even started a new hobby (gardening, for those of you who are curious)! But what about my writing?

It's not that I haven't been writing - of course I have. I just haven't been writing the things I intended to. New story plan? Check. A few new poems? Double check. My WIP that is actually almost finished? Uhm...

But it's okay! Really, it is. This morning I woke up to this tweet and it totally spurred me on:

If you need me, I'll be busy writing.

Liberation.

At Trebbia River

My time in Italy was freeing. I went with my bestie and we stayed in her dad's place on the edge of Milan. How many times did we go into Milan city? Once. And we only bought food and crystals, not even clothes.

The rest of the time we spent in natural places. We hiked up a mountain, sat by a lake and relaxed on a river. I spent so much time in nature, admiring nature, immersing myself in nature - it was like I was seeing my Sensibility & Romanticism module in a physical form. I wrote a lot out there. I was inspired.

The bestie is pretty spiritual and has been teaching me bits and pieces of how to be happy by trusting the Law of Attraction and your inner being and such. It's quite useful for managing the day to day stressors of life and has helped me a lot in the past couple of years. During our time in Italy, we even did some mediation (without even meaning to, I think). I could feel myself changing, growing in strength and character. I was, essentially, becoming an independent being. A true Electric Lady, maybe. (Definitely.)

This morning I woke up with the sun and went jogging. Then I ate some fruit (every meal is an opportunity to eat fruit in Italy, apparently) and did productive things with my day. It was beautiful and I'm happy to be back home, if only to apply the lessons Italy taught me. Not only in my life but also in my writing.

Boy, do I have things to write about! Butterflies have suddenly taken on a huge significance in my symbolism pool. I've also managed to figure out the skeleton of the plot for my next story. It will be awesome - but first I've got to complete my current one. And, y'know, edit it and stuff. Not to mention that dissertation which I'm currently researching. I've got lots to get done this summer and I'm looking forward to all of it!

Where am I?

I am this close to completing the first draft of my current WIP. The one I have sweated blood over since September, worrying about the execution and if any of it was even feasible. Spoiler: it was! At this current moment I have two chapters left until the whole thing is done. Then shall begin the aching process of editing. I am both eager and fearful of what is to come.

Not to mention I still have to work on my dissertation. And by "work on" I mean "start preparing for". I want to be in the best position when classes roll around again which means planning in advance. I got my grades today and I'm not entirely happy with them. Mostly because it took my about fifteen minutes to understand them and then another five to realise that it is lower than what I got last year. So it might be possibly that my story won't get priority this summer, as I plan to work at least 20% more than I have, which will balance out my grade - hopefully. Gah. I'll probably end up like this by the end of summer:

So there's that to look forward to. Hooray!

On a slightly less crazed note, I'm off to Italy in a few days so won't be around to update my blog until the 22nd. See you all then!

This is not a blog post.

Just a link to something science fiction vs fantasy related.

Book before the film

Or in this case, manga before the anime? I recently made a trip to the local library with the intention of taking out some graphic novels after the pressures of going to the bank made me feel too adult. By chance I came across the first volume of Attack On Titan, which I had heard a lot of hype about - although it was about the anime series. On a whim, I decided to give it a go, knowing it was going to involve more gore than I usually allowed myself to experience.

It was a surprisingly good read. I cared about the characters instantly, after seeing them interact and the trauma they went through together. Their fears and anxieties were real and I really wanted them to succeed. Especially Armin, that sweetie. There was just enough background information about the Titans to keep me engaged but not so much that I nodded off halfway through. Although there were a few pages of diagrams for the new technologies that I could have done without.

As for the first episode of the anime? Everyone says the book is always better than the film and my cousin firmly believes you should watch the film first, so it doesn't ruin it when you get round to the awesomeness of the book (I only followed that advice for The Secret Life of Bees and felt like a traitor to my bookish origins).

The first episode of the anime sticks pretty close to the manga, though it covers much less ground than volume 1. At the end of volume 1, we see Eren, Mikasa and Armin five years after the first attack in one hundred years. At the end of the first episode, we see Eren's mum getting eaten by a Titan. Yum.

The anime makes no attempt to change the fundamental core of the manga, which is a good idea when it works. It does in this case, probably because of the visual nature of manga. The animation of the series really enhanced the gruesomeness of the Titans as well as the drama of the attack. Some of the problems that I encountered with the manga had crossed over to the anime, I found. I still didn't like Eren much until he sees his mum get eaten and I still have no idea who Mikasa is to Eren. Friend? Cousin? It's not really clear...

Anyway, my verdict? If you really want to check out what Attack On Titan is all about, neither the manga nor the anime is any less impressive. I'd say go for the manga if you want to control how long you're dedicating to exploring the story and the anime if you're ready to commit to 25-minute episodes at a time.

Not the Titan that eats Eren's
mum, but still quite scary in the anime.