Serein Choo's Blog, page 17
November 16, 2023
Key Words 1
Some marketing tips: Key Words
Ensuring readers can discover your work is a great task at hand for authors (especially when we are self-publishing), or at least to get to know the contents of your book. What kind of genre, story setting, female lead/male lead? It would make it easier for readers to get to know your story/book in a glance as well (good for thinking of promotion haha).
Other than that, it will prevent you/your book from getting lost in the vast ocean of books, where you might otherwise find yourself, metaphorically, adrift and in need of rescue (in the form of book purchases).
Experienced shoppers excel in expressing the specific characteristics of the books they desire, a skill often referred to as identifying ‘keywords’, particularly when navigating the vast digital realm of the web or platforms like Amazon (where I am selling).
Knowing your key words is essential. It will help you to promote your work.
So how do we identify them?
Read it on my next upcoming post.
A Retelling of Night: Word Count 13,589 Words
From Canva.A Retelling of Night is already at 13,589 words. It’s not a lot compare to a lot of people who are joining NaNoWriMo. Heck if you look at their estimated word count, I am suppose to be already at 26k words Haha (You can also see from the image below, I am not writing for a few days).
That’s is why I admired the people who can write a lot in a short amount if time. I have to picture scenes in my head to write. Yes, I got an outline, but there’s no exact scene yet, the scenes only start when I write. I only got an overall idea where I want it to be, the path way, process – is in the midst of writing.
I am probably more of a pantser than an outliner.
What is a panster and what is an outliner?
Panster is a term someone who writes without an outline while authors who plan work thoroughly before beginning are call outliners. Outliners writes faster since they had all the details written down, and they also has less issues with writer’s block.
Me, I thought I was an outliner since I do write down an outline, but now I think I am more of a panster where I generally just go with the flow of that certain scene to get to an end goal or theme?
I can describe the writing process like I am an archeologists, who is digging around here and there and would suddenly struck gold. Yeah I am losing precious time thinking, and face more writer block on the way, but that’s how it works for me and also what works for me.
Good luck writing fellow panster! Don’t be tied down by the deadline!
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If you are joining too, please feel free to add me as you writing buddy. (NanoWrimo ID: sereinchoo) 
November 12, 2023
Quote of the Day
“You are going to fall down, but the world doesn’t care how many times you fall down, as long as it’s one fewer than the number of times you get back up.”
Aaron Sorkin (Producer and Writer)
The lesson that I received from this quote, ‘Don’t give up’. No one keeps count, only you remember and counted. You can fail 99 times but remember to bounce back 99 times. Don’t let failure scare you because you are strong and you will get back up again in no time. Have a little faith, and hope in yourself.
#MondayMotivation
Disclaimer: Quote doesn’t belong to me.
November 11, 2023
A Retelling of Night: Word Count 7345 Words
From Canva.This is my project for NanoWrimo, A Retelling of Night. I don’t have the faintest idea of the whole story yet but I am slowly adding to it (world building, characters, plot, theme).
I really like how you can get badges, it’s help to measure your achievement.
There’s also a graph where you can get a rough idea where you are at, and how much more you need to achieve to get to the objective of 50k at the end of the month. I am currently at 7345 words but I am quite short of 15k (per estimated word count) but oh well. Just keep writing
If you are joining too, please feel free to add me as you writing buddy. (NanoWrimo ID: sereinchoo)
November 10, 2023
A Retelling of Night
From CanvaNanoWrimo 2023 Project: Embarking on this year’s NanoWrimo with, drum rolls please – A Retelling of Night (Chinese Fantasy, written in English).
A short Prologue of the story:
Once a time, there was gigantic nine-headed snake monster that bought upon destruction wherever it went. It was gluttonous and ate whatever it chanced upon. The lands where it travelled in search of prey would turn into bogs and become poisoned causing the land to be inhabitable.
His presence was no longer tolerated, thus ZhuRong, the God of Fire was assigned to kill the beast, yet, however how mighty he may be, ZhuRong couldn’t kill the great snake. The battle lasted for a hundred days, and seeing that he was undefeatable, ZhuRong grabbing a chance of distraction, managed to trap the great XiangLiu underground and placed him into great slumber so that his powers were kept in check.
Weakened by the battle, he couldn’t sustain the seal and handed it over to the locals who were living in the area. “The seal must not be broken or else, XiangLiu will once more return to wreak havoc to the lands,” warned ZhuRong as he passed the seal onto the nearest maiden.
“All of you shall protect her till the end of her life and the one who will succeed the maiden. May her heart remain pure and free from evil, for that too shall break the seal,” instructed ZhuRong.
All the humans seemed afraid, and the deity spoke, “Take care of her, and the lands which she resides shall be blessed. Your descendants will grow rich with wealth,” said ZhuRong before he took off from the lands and never to be seen again.
He might have gone to recover his strength, or he might have died. No one will know for sure as his presence was no longer sighted by the world.
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What do you think of this? Will you want to further read? Please let me know
By the way, I did the cover myself, just mash something up for now. I will be improving it when I got a more concrete idea of the story.
If you are joining too, please feel free to add me as you writing buddy. (NanoWrimo ID: sereinchoo)
November 9, 2023
A Little Late to the Party
From Canva.If it’s your first time, then you don’t about what is NanoWrimo. Here’s a little introduction.
In short, they are a community which support writing in genera (finishing your novel, help develop writing skills)l and NanoWrimo is an event held every year to encourage people to hit their writing goals of 50k.
You can login to their website and set your goals, to motivate and encourage yourself to write. Everyone been hyping the event since October and I was deliberating of joining, not joining, joining and then back to not joining. It’s so hard to decide but in the end, I just joined but casually.
How?
I just update my word count on their site/social media and see whether I might reach the goal or not. Not trying to put too much stress on myself since I am usually quite busy year end (book launch, calendar launch, work). This is my second time I joined.
I participate last year, didn’t achieve the word count because as always (typical me), I keep on dilly dallying to join or not and then last minute saying how I would be joining without any preparation Haha (and it’s the same this year as well).
Old habits die hard.
Anyway, I think the NanoWrimo vibes are rubbing off me so I decided to motivate myself to write despite the busy schedule and it’s fun to see everyone’s progress and learn with others to improve our skills and stories.
Toodles ~ if you are joining too, please feel free to add me as you writing buddy. (NanoWrimo ID: sereinchoo)
November 8, 2023
Fujiwara Tofu Shop Malaysia
Fujiwara Tofu Shop Malaysia @ Subang Jaya as at 3/10/2023
Hidden at a quiet corner, is this little cozy Initial D theme cafe/restaurant, serving delicious Japanese Food. I thought I was at the wrong place at the time because it was really located next to a factory. Like it’s not the standard commercial area.
Going in, you will see this little model created. I never read Initial D or watched the anime/movies but I know it’s about cars haha There’s a real model car (decor) in the shop and there’s a lot of Initial D collectibles inside. It was really fitting the theme.
There’s first and second floor, we took a seat upstairs so we can have a bird eye’s view of the car from above. The wallpaper is Initial D manga haha (as per below). There are also photos of the cars on the wall which is kinda cool.
Okay and here’s the menu. The menu is quite simple. The prices are fair.
We ordered a glass of soya (since they are quite famous for their soy products – soy, tofu tofu fa (tofu pudding)) and three mains consisting of a beef gyudon, asari udon (clams)(2), a chicken katsu curry, some sides – black and seafood tofu and takoyaki. With a Tofu Fa as dessert.
Overall the taste of the food is quite good, I recommend ordering their Takoyaki and the Seafood tofu which were fried so deliciously crispy.
All the food with tax total to MYR 150.26.
It’s a tad expensive for me but it was a special experience. AND if you are coming here, please be aware that the shop is only open on Friday, Saturday and Sunday (12- 10pm). If you come on any other day, it’s closed.
Address: 19, Jalan Industri USJ 1/16, Taman Perindustrian Usj 1, 47600 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
November 6, 2023
Well
There’s a well behind the temple where they use it for normal daily usage – cook, washing and it’s also where ShiWu and Ah Ke had a heart to heart session >…<
Read to know what they talked about.
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Get yours now, link below.
October 31, 2023
Empty Crown :Live!
Photo by Harriet B. on Pexels.comWow! Yay to myself and a very thank you to all those who bought/pre-order the book. I am beyond words, to describe this sensation that I am feeling.
Again I am grateful to everyone.
Here’s the link to it. Please support me and my work:
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Btw, the paperback is coming soon on 1st Dec 2023. Don’t forget to subscribe for the steps, detailing my own journey to self-publish the paperback for Empty Crown!
October 30, 2023
Empty Crown :Count Down Day -1
Photo by Harriet B. on Pexels.comCounting down to the day of release, its tomorrow. Seriously! Like unbelievable.
Here’s the link to it. Please support me and my work:
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