Hello Twisters! Not a whole ton to update you with, so I'll keep this short. We've been hard at work with school and our jobs, and we've got a break from school! A lovely week to rest before we go into the summer semester! How's work? Work is fun and good! Obviously we have a large increase in customers, as many tourists have come over to get vaccinated. Great for business, hard for loyalty, but you win some, you lose some. And, as it always is, new people from new places, new customers coming in, or the self-proclaimed "I've shopped here forever", you'll always get that one customer that makes your day REALLY interesting. How's school? SPECTACULAR! WOW! I just, ohmygosh, I just love school. I love my teachers, I love my classmates, I love learning Japanese, I. Love. It. All. I am so, so, SO excited to actually be in Japan and physically see everyone so I can not cry??? Yeah, that'd be great. We just finished our our first semester which was amazing and I'm so pumped up to head into the next semester! Anything else that's been happening? Not really? Just trying to get back into the swing of things. That's mostly it. With our wonky schedule, any extra curricular is hard to figure out, but eh, we're getting there. Well, thank you for reading the short life update! Hope you all are safe and doing well! Talk to you later, Twisters! Charisma
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Hello Twisters!It's Bianca here. Today's topic that I want to talk about is losing motivation. I love projects. Big. Small. All of them. However, I tend to create an invisible wall of fear or uncertainty whenever there is a task or step in the project that I believe will be difficult to accomplish. This is a mindset that I subconsciously created when I was back in school and it takes a lot of effort to move past it. It's especially awful though whenever there are multiple projects that I have to do. Then it's almost like art or writers block. It is literally a mental wall that I built steadily myself. However, I just recently figured out how to overcome it. Proving someone wrong. Okay, this may not make a lot of sense, but here me out. When someone challenges me and says to me that I cannot complete something (for this example, let's say doing laundry) and it is not on my to do list of things I need to do, then I get this fire inside me where I am going to prove them wrong. But not just with laundry, oh no, I need to prove to them that I am far superior than they thought. I am going to exercise, clean my room, clean the kitchen, do the laundry, write my stories, and make dinner. See, if I'm going to watch my mental wall crumble, I better be watching the crumbs drown in lava. And it works! For me that is. So that's how I've gotten out of my slump these past few days. What about you though? How do you gain the motivation to work? Stay Safe, Stay Home and Until Next Time My Friends... Adieu Story time! I was doing who knows what and, since I wanted something to do, I decided to go onto Google Play Games and play some solitaire. It had been a while since I played the game, but I remembered it was fun, so I was quite excited to start. I'm not sure how to describe the game, so here's the best I can think of for a description: Solitaire is a card game where your goal is to try and stack all of the same color and symbol cards together, from ace to king. In order to do that from a shuffled deck, however, you have to lay opposing colors (red over black, black over red) to find the colors and numbers you need. I think it's a really fun game once you get the hang of it. Bianca, on the other hand, thinks it's stressful. Back to the story! I picked it back up and I was having a really fun time! Or as I would like to think of it, too much of a fun time. At any given moment of free time, I would go onto Google Play Games and just zone out. And then I got addicted. So to fuel my addiction I remembered the cute solitaire game that I had wanted a while back. It was created by Devsisters, the lovely South Korean game developers who made Cookie Run (another game I'm obsessed with)! It starts off as the traditional solitaire game, but then, as you continue playing, you collect coins. Those coins can be used to open crates to get themes! And, as someone who loves any and all kinds of customization, I was in love with this. Best of all? It's also an offline game! So I can continue these fun times on the road, in a random location with no internet, literally anywhere I want. The game has no ads, even when you're on internet. Anyways, that's what's been going on over here on my end. I might go back to social media because I miss my friends and I have some work to do over there. It's been very refreshing to just take a step back and breathe, but I've got to get back into the swing of things! Hope you're all safe, Twisters, and catch ya later! CharismaHello Twisters!Bianca here. Today I wanted to talk about my book. This should probably go in 'The Smol Scribble' (my writing section of the blog) but I think what I have to say will interest and benefit everyone. First, this process has been extremely challenging. The first draft of my book was a short story for school. It was meant for a fun, light read for kids. It was short, simple, and educational. But I recognized that I wanted to traditionally publish it (as that was my dream) and that started a battle. So many battles. Battle 1 - Lengthening The BookMy book at the beginning was around 3K words, I think. But I hadn't touched it since 9th grade (it might have been 10th grade, I need to double check), so it needed some major editing, fine-tuning, and developmental edits. It was difficult conveying to my family that I needed to do this step and why I couldn't do a regular edit (proofread = regular edit). It needed much more. The story was off, I discussed with some of the kids that I worked with what they wanted to see in book 2 and 3 and so I needed to add some foreshadowing and plot to help span into the next two books. And a simple edit just wasn't going to do that. But how was I going to edit it? I strongly disliked the editing phase because 1) I didn't know what I was doing, 2) so many people were sharing with me their opinions that I couldn't hear my own, 3) I had an expectation to fulfill and that already creates an unhealthy mindset when you begin a project for fun, and 4) everyone's advice on children books (as my story is for elementary and middle schoolers) are so conflicting. Battle 1 - SolutionSo what could I do to fix this mess I put on myself? I had already messed up but completed somehow a couple of drafts that I was semi-proud of but all of them felt lacking. I was trying to work on a version of the story that would be around 30K words, so a traditional publisher would even take a look at it (30K words is the industry standard for middle grade books). I learned that, as an author, I can't have two audiences, its either elementary schoolers (ages seven to ten) with the word count being either 10K to 12K or middle schoolers (ages twelve and up), with the word count being over 30K to 50K. There was no home for my 3K little book that both elementary and middle schoolers loved. Then my mother said something that made sense, "Why not work on a version of the book for young kids and then later on make one for the older kids?" That struck a chord with me. It was a great idea. But I took it a step further. Why not just combine the appeal to both? I know it sounds like the same idea before, but what if I make a story that is short that resonates with the younger kids, but is long enough and cool enough for the older kids. I still kept the premise of the appeal the same, I just changed my mindset. And after I created the mindset to run, I closed everyone out and I wrote. Because I could not afford to look or think about other things that would get me distracted. I needed to work. In short, I changed my mindset and I stayed focused. How To Apply The SolutionBut everything is easier said than done. So what if you find yourself in the situation, what should you do? Changing your mindset is hard. I tried to work on it for a month and a half (that's how long I was stuck on the 30K draft before scraping it altogether) and it was agonizing. I didn't like working on it, it was actual work, and it wasn't fun anymore. So I walked away from it. Not forever, no, that's no what you do. I walked away with it in mind. Since I couldn't see clearly where I needed to go, I decided to change the view. Ask people you trust about the situation. But don't blatantly ask them, "I'm stuck at this one part of my story and I don't know where to move, what do I do?" Depending on who you ask, you will get the help/answer you need or you won't. And sometimes, you don't want someone's opinion on your story (especially if you are still editing it, you want people's opinions after you edit), rather you want to know what they would do in your situation. (Or, at least, that's what I wanted to know.) So what I did was create a scenario for them with something they can understand and relate to. That way they could give me a response on what they would do and how they would do it. For me, the hard part came with their response and my response to theirs. What was I hiding from? What are you hiding from? Are you hiding behind favoritism and fear? (I was.) Are you telling people no to their ideas because it didn't fit in your own? (I did.) Are you stopping people in the middle of their sentences stating why that wouldn't work? (I did that too.) But that isn't going to help you at all. I hid behind fear and favoritism for my book because I loved how my book was already, even though I knew it wasn't perfect and ready for publication. However, since I loved it too much, I wasn't willing to hear anyone's critiques on how it could be improved. Other people's ideas are exactly what you want to hear when you're in a rut. You can't tell people 'no that's not going to work' because you don't like the idea. Half of all my good ideas comes from when me and another person expand of those ideas that presumably 'weren't going to work'. And since I felt I knew the industry and my book inside out, I refused to listen to anyone who even shared their opinion about it. Because I believed, that since I spent several hours every day for the past year looking at information, that I knew more than them and that I knew everything that I could know about the industry. In reality, I don't know enough about the industry and I was so scared of people telling me that I was doing it wrong that I became so focused on telling people they were wrong instead of listening to them. What I'm trying to say is, know who you are, where you want to go with your book, and recognize and listen to people. But only for a moment. You need to know and figure out when someone is helping and when someone is hurting you. I'm afraid I'm still working on that part. To Be Continued... Battle 2 - The IndustrySince this post is already so very, very long. I'm going to be splitting this series into sections. Battle 2 is going to be about the industry (and why I dislike it so much), Battle 3 is all about self-publishing (which I may or may not split into two parts), and Battle 4 is about Kickstarter. Looking back on all of this, I recognize how far I am in the process, because right now, I'm on battle 4. There will always be an easy way to do things, but trust me, not all easy ways are the right way. Listen to your heart and if you don't like your options, make a new one. Stay Safe, Stay Home and Until Next Time My Friends... AdieuHello Twisters~Bianca here. Remember how two weeks ago my focus hasn't been top notch? Yeah, it definitely has seemed to be in a standstill. When I'm watching a show? 10 out of 10, it seems that I've got 20/20 vision with that stuff. My brain is on POINT. But with regular and important stuff? My brain skipped a heartbeat and a town because it apparently isn't working. So as I was looking at previous (and unpublished) blog posts that have never seen the light of day, I laughed with tears. I had a Miraculous Ladybug blog post where I was going to scream about Hawk Moth (probably still will). Charisma even did a full-blown post about 90's anime that she hasn't posted (but it's been in the works since 2018 ... I'm going to ask her to publish that one). Another one is about Japanese Sign Language, which I absolutely love and I will definitely talk about that in the future. But that's been about it. Life has been a roller coaster (of enjoyment, I have been thoroughly enjoying my time) and I have been able to do a lot more than I thought I could (like crochet), so I'm really grateful for that. And that's all about me :) Anything new happening with you? Stay Safe, Stay Home and Until Next Time My Friends... AdieuHey Twisters! Charisma here. First, I'd like to apologize for the day late post! I started work yesterday (a conversation for another post) and, after eating, almost fell instantly to sleep! But I'm here now! In my last post, I told you all that I would be opening up an art shop soon and it's still true! I'm going to be opening up the shop with a few stickers. Two of them are going to be my OCs, Jonah and Eriol! I'm quite excited, since I think it looks great, but that's creator's/artist's bias. For the third sticker, I'm going to be holding a series of polls on my Instagram that'll determine its design. Hopefully you all can participate in it! I'll hold it Wednesday, April 29th, at 1:30 p.m. EST. I'm really excited to see the results! I'm not even sure what to expect, I'm just going to gun-ho it and be surprised. Anyways, that's all I have for an update. I'm getting a tripod soon, so there will be YouTube updates soon. Catch ya later, Twisters! CharismaNo FocusHello Twisters! Today has been so interesting. I have not been able to focus on anything for long periods of time. I drew, wrote, drew some more, took a nap (twice), watched a tv (twice again), and then I hung out with family. I've even searched Google three times just while writing this post. :') Life. Well, that's pretty much what's up with me. Editing my story, drawing stuff (it's all been random), working on my business (I'll do a separate blog post about that), and watching shows. Stay Safe, Stay Home and Until Next Time My Friends... Adieu Hello Twisters! We're back at it again with our weekly schedule. Bianca now has a computer, so we each have a device to blog on! (We've both independently tried the Weebly app and we both gave up on trying to figure out how on EARTH it works.) So, now that we have this extra time on our hands because of the virus, Bianca and I have been trying our best to get as much as we want accomplished as we possibly can. For me personally, I'm going to open up my art shop soon! Trying to find suppliers and where I should get things sourced is definitely an interesting time, but it's going fairly well. I've also been trying to get further in all of the other, previously planned, items that we were working on. We're still chipping away at that comic (a lot has been happening on that end) and hopefully we can "open up" the rest of our blog in the next coming months. At least, that's my hope. I don't really have much to offer in terms of an update than that! Bianca and I are both trying to start up a YouTube channel, hers is on studying and mine will be on all things art related! Mostly an artist trying to get a shop up and running. Anyways, thanks so much for being with us on this journey! I hope everyone is well and safe! Catch ya later, Twisters! CharismaWelcome back, Twisters! It’s been a while since I last did a blog post (a while is an understatement) but I’m back and I’m back with a bang! This is all about The Obligatory Family Friend. This is the friend, more like an acquaintance for me, that I actually despise. Like. I hate this. This is where some random kid walks in and then your entire family loves them except you. Let me explain. When you have a guy that’s friends with everyone but you, you are under an unspoken family obligation to befriend this individual. And since I was a fun, happy, naive young child, I was all for it. Because why not? If everyone is friends with him, then why can’t I be friends with him? And it’s perfectly fine for you to be friends with this individual. However, you never should befriend a guy under family obligation if he is shy, clingy, and sheltered. I befriended this guy and he was fine at first. He was shy so we didn’t really talk a lot. I would say ‘hello’, he would say ‘hello’, and that would basically be the extent of our interactions. But, my family liked him so much he would come over here and there throughout the week. Yet, the only person who would entertain him was either me and/or Charisma. And I cannot express how much that aggravated me. My family was friends with him first, yet they couldn’t spend time with him and I had to take their place in being his friend, that just made me feel a little weird. Because they were always busy, I had to talk to this guy in place of them. Since he didn't really have any conversations with me, he basically became a One Topic Friend, which I didn't need a repeat of. Every other day this Obligatory Family Friend would come over and Every. Single. Time. I had to host. I didn’t want that. I didn’t like that. I didn’t appreciate it. Whenever we went to an activity, he would come and stay around us. Whenever we went to a church event, he would stay with us. Whenever we were at work, he would spend his free time with us. The only time I was free was at school, but since school was at home, all he had to do was ask my mother to come over and, since she thought he was a good kid, she always. Said. Yes. I can’t even express how much this aggravates me. It’s not even the person that aggravates me. It’s what he did. The clinginess is what got to me. I couldn’t stand him always coming to me and just existing around me and not putting any effort into making conversation with me. It made me feel anxious and extremely uncomfortable. I remember telling this to him and, because I expressed my feelings, I was scolded. So, not only could I not share my feelings on how I felt with him, I needed to keep it to myself and proceed to be his friend. It was, overall, very frustrating. But let’s talk about facts. The Obligatory Family Friend | Statistics The Obligatory Family Friend can either go two ways—they can be really good or, just, ‘nope’. But it’s their personality and their relationship with each of your family that really ices the cake. The thing that I should have done with this individual would have opened myself partway, find some common ground (enough to create a better conversation), then shared more of myself and, overall, we would have a better friendship. The Obligatory Family Friend | The Tricky Part The further we go into any of these relationships, know that the more involved you are with the individual, the more your efforts reflect the result of the relationship. I didn't know that when I was younger and I wish I had. But that's what life is! A learning experience. So my advice for you is to always take an Obligatory Family Friend slowly, much more slowly than normal friends. Just to be safe. Obviously, this isn't the end of my amazing adventures with males, so I'll keep you all updated in part 3! Until Next Time, My Friends.... AdieuHello again, Twisters! Sorry it's been a bit since we've updated. Though it's nothing new, us disappearing and not updating, it's not something good. We honestly do say, "Oh, you need to update the blog this week...", but it never ends up happening. As bloggers trying to collect an audience, I believe it's important to try and be consistent. Sure, missing a week isn't terrible, but whole months without a word? That's not the best. But anyways! On to more enjoyable conversations! With our last post, we were working on the comic. We had plans on getting it out that month, but that never happened. We are still working on it, but we've decided to get a few pages finished before we start publishing it. Hopefully we can get it out before the year is over! We're using a (lovely) program called Clip Studio Paint. I didn't buy it, but I got a Wacom Intuos and it had the application already attached. (I'm still working it out to see if I have to pay for it in the future, but for right now, it's free.) I've played around with the application to generally understand how the basic functions work. While on the other hand, Bianca does not. She's tasked with doing backgrounds (as I suck at them), but she struggling with how to do them, what's the best way for her, how to use the tablet, etc. It's a slow journey, but we'll get there! Around the time we were trying to push this out, we weren't working. We had been accepted at our jobs, but they hadn't scheduled us in yet. Now, we're scheduled in, working two part-time jobs, so we have to juggle that and making the comic. It's not the easiest, but it's definitely not the hardest thing to do. We made it so that each job has their own separate times to schedule us, so overlapping jobs isn't a big concern. They schedule us at most four to six hour shifts, which is quite nice and the people we work with our amazing. Every time we work is a fun time! It's quite nice getting jobs that are fun with nice co-workers! I've heard lots of stories where people say their fist job was terrible, or another job had a terrible boss and co-workers, or another job was amazing and the people were amazing, but this one high up person just made it horrendous for everyone, etc. And sure, there is always going to be that one person who isn't fun to work with, but I haven't had those experiences. My first job at Chick-fil-A was amazing, loved it and would gladly recommend it to anyone. My two current jobs are also amazing! I love my bosses and co-workers, we're all here to do our best and make sure we're all working as a team. You can't go into a job with the mindset of "I'm here to work, get money, then leave." No. That's not how it works. You can definitely use money as a motivator because we all need money, but you can't put the bear minimum in your work. At all. That's what's going to get you scheduled low hours or get you fired. You have to go in wanting to do your best. Show it off to your co-workers and boss, but not rub it in their faces that your amazing. You want to feel as if you're being rewarded with the money that you're earning. Try to make it as one of the happiest jobs in the world. You are not there just to earn money. You're there to better yourself, grow your capabilities, your understanding, your knowledge. Grow as a team with others also willing to put their best in their work. And, you know, eventually get that well earned money. Anyways, I have a lot to say on jobs and how you should be working a job that makes you happy. Hopefully that becomes a blog post in and of itself, because this one is getting kind of long. But last topic! You all know that Bianca and I are learning Japanese and that we've set our sights on going to Japan. Well, after years and years of wishing and dreaming, it's finally going to become reality! We're super, super pumped to share with you all that we're going to be going to Japan! I'll probably do a complete blog post dedicated to all the information and planning that's going to be happening. In short, since we haven't finished learning Japanese, we've decided to go study abroad to learn it in Japan for three months. We're using a site (that will be in the dedicated Japan post) that shows a list of Japanese schools. We're going to be applying for one hopefully by Wednesday. That's the plan, at least. Also, Twisters! Next Monday is going to be a special update, because it'll be our blog's anniversary! We'll have been making blog posts for a total of six years! Which is honestly mind blowing. We were eleven when we started this and now we're seventeen and still rolling. It doesn't feel like it's been that long, but time seems to be flying anyways. Thanks for sticking with me for this super long post, Twisters! It's actually a really quick life update, but we'll get back into the swing of things. Catch ya later, Twisters! Charisma |
Who We Are We are twin sisters who like to do almost anything! Inspiring people to get out their creativity is our forte and we strive to travel on magnificent journey through words on a page. Exploration is the doorway to opportunity and the endless possibilities of helping and reaching out to others is something that we endeavor to create. This crazy blog of ours is one of the many ways we hope to achieve that goal.
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