Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest, but I know which of them deserve to be followed. And looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally.

# George Orwell – Why I Write

I was helping my sister today with her Uni essay and read this passage from Orwell’s book ‘Why I Write’. It stuck with me all day and I felt like sharing it.

I watched “Paprika” last night, directed by Satoshi Kon. I was surprised to learn that it’s actually based on a novel that was adapted to a screenplay. I can’t quite picture it as a novel after watching that. I can, however, see why Satoshi directed this film, as it reminded me a lot of his “Paranoia Agent” series which he wrote and directed himself.

It’s a visually stunning piece, but I still think “Perfect Blue” and “Tokyo Godfathers” are his best work, but Paprika certainly is a joy to the senses both in visuals and sound. After the movie ended, I had to find the soundtrack on iTunes. It’s funky :)

Paprika: Don’t you think dreams and the Internet are similar? They are both areas where the repressed conscious mind vents.

I’m also currently reading “Welcome to the NHK“. It’s rather good. I ordered volumes 1 and 2 nearly 3 weeks ago and volume one arrived the day before yesterday. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the book, but I found it a weird coincidence that I finished writing my ‘Static’ short story, which is about a man suffering from agoraphobia, and the lead character in NHK is a recluse with similar tendencies. I should have ordered this earlier XD Would’ve been a good reference source.

Think I’ll go finish reading it in bed.

I was going through a bunch of print outs of character designs, thumbs and plans earlier at work today, and I quite liked how they looked together. When I got home this evening, I fanned them out a bit to take a picture :)

This is the first public peek anyone’s had at the anthology so far. I’m still working on the last two scripts, but I figured thing’s are moving along nicely so it’s fine to divulge some artist info finally.

Here’s the list of the artists and stories in the book:

• Chloe Citrine – Malignant
• Nana Li – Girl in a Box
• Faye Yong – Flowers
• Wing Yun Man – Static
• Sonia Leong – Hero

**edit: some artists changed since I posted this and one title was knocked off. List is updated.

Having some real fun with this so far, especially with the piece I’m working on with Wing. Which also happens to be one of the unfinished scripts *cough* So uh.. yeah, back to work.

Slow day at work. You know, one of those days that numbs your brain till you find yourself drooling in front of a monitor, just waiting to go home? Yeah, that.

Been looking forward to today all week though, ‘cos I got to go out and finally watch “Cloverfield“. It. Was. Awesome! I loved every minute of it and thought the way it was filmed was utterly perfect. Even Nana said she was constantly on the edge of her seat. I was completely engrossed by it. I’m extremely glad we both got to watch it on the big screen before it stopped showing, as it is really a big screen kind of movie. Not sure how well it’d work on a TV.

We had some time to kill before the movie, so after a nice dinner we popped in to pick up some Mochi. I spied the delicious desert you see in the photo above and grabbed a pack for myself. I forgot what it was called, but it’s delicious and spongey :D Glad the pack has 3 of them!

Also got lucky enough to find a great sale on at HMV where I finally picked up my own copy of “Brick” and “Serenity“, each for £3. Bargain! In fact, it was such a bargain, I managed to convince Nana to pick up a copy of “Brick” too XD She hasn’t seen it before, so it’ll be an interesting watch for her to say the least.

Right, can’t go to bed just yet, I need to finish a synopsis I started. See you on the flip side!