As the United States closes schools and colleges because of the spread of the 2020 coronavirus, you might suddenly find yourself with a lot of free time. It’s rare to have such free time, so take advantage of it! I’m a bit of a workaholic, so I look forward to (maybe) having more time to…
3 Tips for Writing Better Fan Fiction
Fan fiction lets you practice writing without the difficulties of inventing characters, worlds, and more. It helps you build writing confidence and experiment. It also helps you learn the pleasures and frustrations of a creative life. However, many frown upon fan fiction as second rate writing. After all, fan fiction lacks quality. It lacks originality….
28 Historical Facts about Geisha and Geiko
Geisha, or geiko as they are known in Kyoto, symbolize traditional Japanese culture. Their heyday in the early 1900s contributed to the exoticism the West felt toward Japan during the Meiji period. Many of those misconceptions remain about historical geisha. Today, becoming a geisha is much like taking up a vocation. It has its…
Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
The book Snow Country offers cold prose and interactions appropriate to its name. The story follows Shimamura’s love affair with the hot spring geisha Komako and his developing interest with a young woman named Yoko. The book can be a little difficult to follow if you don’t read carefully. Kawabata writes with spareness and suggestion…
The Curse of Knowledge: I Know, You Know, Anime Know.
The Curse of Knowledge makes it hard for people to communicate. It doesn’t matter if you’re writing an anime blog post or an academic journal article. We know what we know, and we don’t know what the reader doesn’t know. Worse, we can’t really push our knowledge aside. In fact, this problem makes it hard…
Wordy Wordiness – My Blog Writing Process
It’s hard to write blog articles regularly. Over the years, I’ve developed a loose process I thought to share with you. It may not work for you, and I don’t always stick with it. Some days, I feel inspired and dash off a blog post in no time. Other ideas require days, if not weeks,…