SieghartXx

I promise to get to your piece tomorrow. I'm a bit burnt out from all the homework I have at the moment, so it wouldn't be wise to give a critique in this state.
 
For what it's worth, I have a Bachelor's in Creative Writing. Four years of writing workshops and a lot of essays is a nice way of getting experience, but I'm still a budding writer in many regards. I do whatever I can in order to better myself, even if that means going through other people's pieces, line by line. It's an arduous task, but I feel it will be pay off in the end. I'm not that experienced when it comes to grammar, instead I resort to analyzing the elements of craft. I've bought a few books on grammar, but for the life of me I'm unable to retain much of it XD Most of what I have to offer has been through internalizing what I've learned over the years. Simply put, instinct. Hopefully, I can better express myself in coming years and be able to identify everything by name.
 
I could go into a lot more depth with everyone's pieces, but time constraints prohibit that.

Hello everybody,
 
I'm going to be busy all weekend working on front-site and behind-the-scenes stuff, so I'm going to post this now instead of next week. If anyone has questions or thoughts or suggestions, feel free to reply in this topic. Let me know you're interested by replying in this topic as well.
 
 
Introduction to the Mentorship Program Experiment:
New VN players will be able to easily request a player mentor who has some experience playing VNs and is willing to be a friend and contact as they begin this great adventure. The mentor will email/PM an introduction to the new player, talk about the VN player's first game (and, ideally, nerd out with them), suggest follow-up games based on the new player's preferences, and be willing to answer quick questions such as "How do I make my computer Japanese?" or "What is a senpai-sama?".
 
Mentors will be given some resources (including answers to the above two questions and TL/OELVN game list suggestions) they can send to their mentees, and after the front site redesign there will be a large amount of additional material targeted at new players for your/their reference.
 
 
Requirements:
Played and enjoyed at least 2 VNs in the "Starter" list below: Capacity to nerd out about visual novels You need to be nice  : P Some Fuwa Exposure: Been a member of Fuwanovel for at least 1 month and have >20 posts Each mentor can choose how many mentees she/he wants to have  
 
Starter VNs
Katawa Shoujo Planetarian Narcissu Fate/Stay Night Clannad G-Senjou Sharin no Kuni (original game, not FD) More will be added with time  
 
What you'll do as a mentor:
You'll get an email/PM with a new mentee's contact information You'll send that person a PM/email (based on their preferences) introducing yourself, telling a little about your history with VNs, and you'll attach a basic FAQ PDF pamphlet which I/Fuwa will provide to you After that, essentially, you just be nice and be a friend. Answer their questions, talk about the game they're playing, nerd out with them (Sakura = best girl), offer game suggestions, show them around Fuwa, help them find the next game to try, etc. Not a big time commitment, especially considering the demand will be slower as we're starting out Make friends!  
 
Interested?
If you're interested in being a player mentor, let me know by posting below. The program is going to be slowly implemented, so you won't be given a mentee right away. In the early stages of this program I'll probably be contacting you to pick your brain about how it's going, but other than that it shouldn't be too much of a commitment.

I rather like this section of the forum. Needs more traffic I say.
 
So lets get down to it. Let this be a place where we can show others our creativity. Short stories, poems, scripts, you name it. I think it would be nice to have this as a place for all things creative writing. I don't get the opportunity to share my work with many people, and I think there may be other people out there who feel the same way.
 
Just a friendly place where we can show some of our work. So moving right along...
 
 
Some rules and guidelines:
 
Rules:
 
1. No attacking another member's work. Some of us are very sensitive to other people's thoughts, so please keep that in mind if you are to comment on someone's work. Someone can create a critique thread if that is what they want.
 
2. No double posting. That meaning that you should wait until someone else posts before you post another one of your works. Just to avoid flooding and such.
 
3. Please be respectful. As I said earlier, some of us are very sensitive and are very shy when it comes to our creative works. The last thing we want to do is cut the head off of a potential budding author!
 
Guidelines:
If you are posting an excerpt from your work, be sure to use spoiler tags if it is exceptionally long. If your work is hosted on an outside source, just drop the URL to whatever site (fiction press, fan fiction, google docs, etc.)  
That is really all there is to it. So I guess I should probably start:
 
Excerpt: 
 



 
An excerpt from the story I am currently writing. It hasn't even left the first draft stage, so it is pretty rough (emphasis on pretty). Also, you can kinda see where my name comes from if you pay attention. huehue.
 
Regardless, I open the floor with this. 

I desperately need to share this with everyone since its from a manga that I won't expect to have this kind of plot twist...

Re:Monster (fantasy), Tate no yuusha no Nariagari (fantasy with "hero from another world", but not your usual one), Kataribe no List (fantasy, has stuff about grimm fairy tales), Boku no Hero academia (superpowers and heroes and stuff), The Gamer (webtoon about a guy that gets "gamer" powers, lots of grinding ensued). All of them are still ongoing though.

Hey there
 
This year my town's Kendo club organised the annual New Year's Kendo Training Course that's always held on the five days from the 2nd til the 5th of January. It was a great success but I'm going to tell you some of the stuff that happened to me..
Arguably the most important thing to this annual event are the Sensei that teach us during that time.
This year, we had two japanese guests. Both teach Onoha Ittouryuu are 7th Dan Kyoshi.
I had to pick them up from the airport in Frankfurt (which is 4 hours from where I live).
 
Some info about me:
17 years old haven't had a serious japanese conversation before have been learning japanese for ~18 months  
I think you can all guess that these aren't the perfect conditions for success.
But, whether I liked it or not, I had to be the one to pick them up because someone had to and I'm the poor guy who's learning Japanese lol--
 
I arrived at the airport.
You should know that at that point I was really nervous as it would be the first time I'd have to use my japanese for anything else than my own entertainment.
In my head, I had a list of things that I'd practised beforehand. But all I could remember was
Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? And the polite word for toilet. (otearai)
My nervousness had swallowed the rest
 
When the waiting was finally over -and I was ready to make a run for it- the two walked towards me, searching for familiar faces. I bravely approached them. Three seconds later I had already made more cultural mistakes while greeting them than I'd dare to count. (Like forgetting to tell them my name [so stupid ])
Anyway, they're really nice people and luckily they remembered me from last year so they knew they had to go easy on me with their japanese. I asked them if we (I wasn't alone at least) should carry their lugagge and one of them kindly handed me over his way-too-big and way-too-heavy bag..
 
I started walking back, trying to remember which way to go to get back to the parking lots until I realized we had walked past the lifts. So we went back again thinking everything would be alright but when we stepped out, none of the doors through which we had come before on our way to the terminal would open.
We go back up and try our luck with the lifts on the other side of the terminal. Eventually we made our way back to the car.
 
 
I believe you're fairly bored after reading this much so I'll make the rest short lol
 
The hour that followed was filled with questions about me and the location of the training course which I tried my best to answer in reasonably good Japanese. After that they just fell asleep.
They were a bit shocked when we told them that my coach had invited us all to spend New Year's Eve at his house. But they didn't mind anymore after I told them that there'd be fireworks^^
 
When we arrived, all the nervousness and uneasyness seemed to be washed away and we gradually came to understand each other better and better. Even though I still made a lot of mistakes, the conversation didn't stop anymore and it was a great time for all of us.
 
I fell ill after that due to an allergic reaction and Asthma so I wasn't able to participate in the actual training but I showed up every day to say hello and I met a japanese boy who is an exchange student here in Germany.
I wanted to exchange email addresses so we could keep in touch but unfortunately, I didn't meet him again.
 
 
I learned a lot in that time but I also realized that I still have to study a lot to have a proper conversation.
I'd like to hear about your first experience with japanese if you've had any. Maybe we can all share our stories with each other

is it kimikiss?

Personal rant incoming

Lately i've just been feeling incredibly monotonous, my life feels boring and when i want to do certain things i can't find the will to do them most of the time, even though i often imagine doing it (especially when i'm about to fall asleep)

I do the same thing every single day, sit around a computer watching silly things and chatting with people. Every single day.

This has impacted me on many levels, i haven't felt productive at all and i can't find much enjoyment in stuff i used to enjoy (including my weeb hobbies).

I always tell myself stuff like "today will be the day i start reading RTK" and then i postpone it/get distracted/etc
And even with anime/vns i start losing focus after some time.

I feel like i don't have a schedule for anything and i never manage to force myself to dedicate to certain projects i should pay more attention to.

I really want to change this as soon as possible, it's not exactly fun.

But enough with the depressing talk, i just wanted to talk with the fuwa community about this, have you ever felt like this, and if so how did you manage to get yourself back up?

Sorry if this doesn't sound coherent, it's almost 3AM~

So in order to give back a little to this amazing community I'm going to do a giveaway, I got some steam/desura keys that I'm not planning to use any time soon so I thought about giving them away, not the best games out there or anything but it's something
 
Rules:
 
*Anyone can participate just say I'm in and for what game you want to enter,
*You can choose 1 desura game and up to 2 steam games.
*If you want post a pic of your favorite heroine.
*steam/desura account
 
I will chose 3 winners using random.org the 2nd of January.
 
Good luck to everyone
 
Desura:
 
Chester
Sanctuaryrpg
pressured
 
Steam:
 
God mode
Heroes of Steel RPG Shadows on the Vatican Act I: Greed Steel & Steam: Episode 1 The Howler 99 Levels To Hell Labyrinthine Dreams Sweet Lily Dreams  

Something about another VN besides Angel Beats coming next year by Key. 
https://forum.kazamatsuri.org/t/new-key-visual-novel-harmonia-revealed/752

If there is already a topic... My bad.

So they're doing two VNs and an anime? Not that I'm complaining!
key is love key is life

I also have no regrets, except the fact that there was no Makina content :<

This is probably really weird for a thread... But I don't know where else to report this finding. (I've decided to post here as per Tay's "Important Note")
 
Anyway, I'll do my best to showcase this with pictures.

 

 
But if I click "Use Full Editor" with a huge subject already inserted it doesn't cut it off. 
Full Editor doesn't let me write subject bigger than a certain amount of letters, but it's fine if one was already there.

Updated the OP with a little extra as some kind of masochistic pleasure. To be honest, I'm the kind of narcissist that likes to hear himself speak, you see?
I'll also drop a warning right now. The 25th is Christmas day, this is a Christmas message. Don't think this has come and gone yet.

Hello all.  I am pleased to announce the start of the official Fuwa Anime Club!
 

 
Here is a brief layout of how things are going to go:
Members will clearly state in their post that they wish to participate in each cycle.  Each cycle will have a theme or genre for the anime. Each participant (and only those participating in each cycle) is encouraged to put forth an anime title that they wish to watch. The recommendations can be either something you've seen or something you haven't seen yet but participants are committing to watch/re-watch the anime.  Recommendations must not be hentai and cannot be over 26 episodes in length.  Repeats are allowed. Of all the recommendations, 5 (or less depending on the number of participants) of them will be chosen by random and the participants will vote for which of the five selections the club wishes to watch.  All members will watch the selected (one with the most votes) anime over a certain period of time (1 week for 14 episodes and less, 2 weeks for 15-26 episodes) After the viewing period is over, members that participated will rate various properties of the anime (Story, Characters, Music, Art-style, Overall) on a scale of 1 to 10 as well as make a short review/comment on the show (no more than 500 characters long with spaces). The person whose anime is chosen for the cycle will be allowed to pick the next genre/theme, but it cannot be the same as the previous cycle. After the discussion period ends, the cycle will begin again at step 1. For the first cycle, the genre will be Mystery.  If you wish to participate, please post below along with a recommendation that fits this genre.  
My choice for this round is Gosick: http://myanimelist.net/anime/8425/Gosick
 
First Cycle Participants:
Stray Cat
RinXD 
Asonn
Tiagofvarela
Kyoroto
Grieviious
Kurisu-Chan
SilverLi
sirjabberwock
Cyrillej1
Tenkuru
Clephas
Flutterz
 
First Cycle Recomendations:
Gosick
Another
Kamisama no Memochou
Tasogare Otome x Amnesia
Durarara!!
Kara no Kyoukai
Zankyou no Terror
Sunday Without God
Umineko no Naku Koro ni

Going to play Valkyrie Chronicles in a bit, but before that, I brought some pics of the interior of my house in Archeage, the only online game I'm playing at the moment ;_; thought some would agree (and some not) that my wall is full of best girls.

Don't try and hide it, this was just an excuse for you to test out all the new emoticons wasn't it. 
 
Regardless, Veselé Vianoce!

Signups are now closed! After checking the thread to make sure all of you are festive with a wonderful Santa hat, here is the final list of participants chosen in order from the moment you posted in this thread:
 
1. solidbatman
2. Zakamutt
3. Emi
4. CLuBLioN
5. jeftai
6. Stray Cat
7. Rose
8. Grieviious
9. Fiddle
10. Schnarf
11. Cyrillej1
12. ServeTheServant
13. GetterEmperor
14. Flutterz
15. Kuky_nekoi
16. Zenophilious
17. CruelN1N1
18. Pyonnu
19. Tenkuru
20. Ryechu
21. sirjabberwock
22. Kynbound
23. SieghartXx
24. Hakamichi_Sajaki
25. KosakiFag
26. melo4496
27. Tiagofvarela
28. Ouraibaa Hjyuraa
29. The Major
30. cloudy12
31. Roach
32. Katatsumuri
33. arakura
34. Nahichun
35. Eclipsed
36. HMN
37. suikashoujo
38. seventhfonist425
39. Heizei_koukousei
40. Nosebleed
41. ConradTM
42. rainsismyfav
43. Macaron
44. Ceris
45. Asonn
46. Rilarion
47. kyrt
48. Blizzard884
49. nohman
50. bluethunder91
51. Bolverk
52. Kouki
 
The number you are assigned is your number for the giveaway which will becoming this Monday, December 15th. A time will be announced at the end of the weekend, so look forward to it!
 
Thanks all, and once again, happy holidays!

To the Moon is beautiful, I didn't play it, but got really hooked on a playthrough in youtube. It's nice to know about yourself and how you came to know Fuwanovel!

Merry Christmas, hope you enjoy the holidays

I understand. Out of all possible people, you probably weren't expecting me to make one of these. 
First of all, don't delude yourself. I'm not writing this next to a fireplace with snow coming down outside with hot chocolate on my secretary and the dog sleeping at my feet. I'm in my cold room with the dog barking at the door, probably heard some kind of noise outside, with no drinks or sustainment of any kind and rain is pouring down outside.
At any rate, here you go, my very own Christmas Message to ya'll.
 
 
Merry Christmas.

-Mr. Poltroon

That ended up somewhat short, didn't it? Let's make up some more stuff on the spot. Like... like... oh yeah. My experience on Fuwanovel and stuff!
 
I found out about Fuwanovel, and Visual Novels, right around the start of this year. What introduced me to visual novels was a very enjoyable game for me, by the name of "To the Moon", I highly recommend you play it, never know when my hitmen might knock on your door.  Right around the same time, and purely by coincidence, I also found out about the Phoenix Wright series, another excellent group of games I suggest you play, for your own good health and whatnot.
To the Moon showed me good storytelling that could come from this media, while Phoenix Wright showed me the comedy that would later become the reason why I play Visual Novels (I know, terrible reason, though perfect match for a terrible person).
 
While searching for more, because people always want moar, moar, moar, I found out about this website. 
The first Visual Novel (at least in a truer sense) I played was Ever17.
I was very scared, since I am a victim of the altogether too common irrational fear of the unknown, you see? Anime didn't have all that much of a good image in my mind at the time. I later found out my image was spot on, at least relating to nukige. 
Having thoroughly enjoyed the first game, I proceeded to play the sequel and prequel, and this is where I first used Fuwanovel. I used a walkthrough for Never7, and the first I found was the Fuwanovel one.
 
Moving on, Fuwanovel became my place for walkthroughs. No, I had no idea I could download them here. Wonderful.
The first VN I downloaded from Fuwanovel was Little Busters, and for a while, the only one. I fear the unbeknownst to me, I'll remind you once again.
Keeping with that logic, I stuck with All Ages titles for a good 5 or 6 titles, it took me nearly a year to get through these. Of course, All Ages eventually ran out (at least those I was interested in), forcing me to try my first "eroge" so to speak, G-Senjou no Maou.
Quite a challenge, considering it was my first contact (of my own volition) with pornography of any kind  . You may choose to believe this or not, but I'm simply not very interested in matters of copulation.
What a terrible topic, moving on. 
 
I eventually reached Grisaia no Kajitsu in my quest for mighty loot. I adored it. Like, really, to the point where it made me make my first post on the forums.
I always make an account even for one time searches. Simply a pet peeve of mine, disregard it.
You can check my first topic here, where you'll notice I was trying to keep any and all warped personalities under wraps.
https://forums.fuwanovel.net/index.php?/topic/4111-greetings-equally-addicted-human-beings/
 
 
But that's enough about Fuwanovel, it's not like any of you care about that old thing anyways, right?
Let's address myself now, I'm sure you're all itching to learn about my own life, asking questions like, "How much further can he boost his ego?"
I'll show you:
I'm a 28 year old man with a job at a local sports club (management side, don't ask me to do exercise, pls) which is rather well connected to my family. Great 'friends' with the chief, actually.
 
Two sisters. Two parents. Exempting the older sister (that hater ), we all live together.
My family is a fairly happy one, but I've come to think, just how different is it from other, perhaps more normal, families?
It's pretty much a free-for-all around here. If an argument starts, younger sister uses up all opportunities to take a jab at the parents, the parents argue with each other and I attack everyone. If we all sit together to eat, making fun of everyone and everything is the norm, usually at someone's expense. And the main thing? The heavy, heavy use of sarcasm. 
 
Don't think I'm a wrinkled old grumpy man, this is how I was born and raised, and to be honest, it's plenty fun.   I don't know what kind of image that gave you, probably a despicable one, but we're all happy people. I'm a natural pessimist, which when coupled with my usual personality does not produce good results, but what can one do?
 
 
This makes me what I consider to be a horrible person. Makes fun of everyone, but doesn't get involved himself. Takes a jab at everything, even what he agrees with. Avoids any kind of responsibility, using "I think" and "Perhaps" to escape certainties. A craven to no end. This is who I am, and I'm well aware of it. My family is well-known as a funny one, myself included. That one guy who's fun at parties, but you might not be interested in getting too attached, might you come to understand what's beneath the funny surface.   
 
But this is who I am, and I know it well. Self-improvement seems fake and hollow to me. Being yourself seems the best way of life, so that's how I do it.
 
 
Now... Let's tie this all up with Fuwanovel and finish up. I'm sure at this point only a couple of you have read this far, but worry not, I wasn't expecting anyone to really read this anyway.
 
Fuwanovel is the only forum where I've stayed this long (not even a year yet, huh?). The reason for this is how I haven't been reprimanded much about my manners. I strongly feel that if I can't be myself, I've no place here. And, to be honest, I'm totally fine with not having a place anywhere, I know I'm not a person who's easy to get along (especially on a bad day, lovely). Strangely, though, Fuwanovel hasn't shunned me away like I thought it would, so it's certainly a happy surprise. 
 
In the end, thank you everyone, for making me happy (so self-centered ) and letting me feel at ease here.   
There's a courtesy kind of thanks, and then there's this kind of thanks. They're different, and especially when coming from me, one of them is pretty rare.
 
I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a fantastic New Year, because I do care about the seasons, for believe it or not, I too am human.  :xmas:
 
EDIT: Because I really have nothing better to do (lies, it's all lies), I have made this for your laughing at me pleasure: https://soundcloud.com/tiago-varela-3/sets/christmas-message/s-4tn1T

Unravel, Ideal White, Daze, Blazing, grilleto, IGNITE, Ebb and Flow, EONIAN, Gimme! Revolution, Kokan Win-Win Mujoken, Moving Soul, This Game, Rising Hope, The World's End, Golden Time, Sidonia, Black Bullet, World's End Girl's Rondo, Let Me Hear, Heavenly Blue.
Too much, can't decide D:

This year's definitely got to be this one

I know that to many Fuwans, the learning of Japanese seems to be a huge hurdle, especially considering how different it is from Western languages.  However, there are a few reasons why it can be easier than you think.
 
The Obvious
 
No other language has so much of its media overseas, except maybe English.  Moreover, the existence of tens of thousands of episodes of subtitled anime gives a near infinite amount of source material to draw from when learning the spoken language.
 
The Less Obvious
Perhaps the biggest hurdle for the average person when learning Japanese is that it is so essentially different from any Western language.  However, this can actually be an advantage.  For one thing, there is little of the confusion you experience when you encounter similar terms in German, Spanish, or French, which can lead to mispronunciations.  Moreover, the fact that the Japanese language is so essentially different from a social linguistics perspective means that if you just take the time to understand why and how the Japanese think differently, the language becomes infinitely easier to grasp.  If anything, the fact that there is almost nothing in the way of similarities between the American mentality and the Japanese mentalities makes it easier to consciously shift one's consciousness.  Too many Americans, when learning Japanese, make the essential mistake of just assuming the Japanese are thinking the same as they are while speaking a different language (this is common to all Western cultures).  Let go of those preconceptions and things will be a lot easier for you. 
 
The existence of Kanji also serves to make understanding easier, for those who choose to attack initially from the written perspective.  By learning kanji and how it is used to form the Japanese language, one can rapidly increase understanding...if and only if this study of kanji is preceded by an intellectual understanding of grammar.
 
A major difficulty for people who can't comprehend context clues
Pseudo-anglicanisms.  Basically, these are katakana terms drawn from English or other languages that are not used in the same way as they are in their original language.  Most katakana terms are essentially the same as their originals, but ones like マンション (which is basically a certain type of rental apartment) really don't mean the same as their original term.  About seventy percent of everyone who tries to learn Japanese never fix their understanding of terms like these, so pay attention to things that you think are used oddly, so you can understand how your initial understanding could be wrong.
 
Internalization
This is the most important step of learning Japanese.  If you are having to logically consider what particles turn a sentence into and transform Japanese into English to understand it, you will never, ever be fluent.  This isn't a joke or an exaggeration.  Even if your speech is halting, if your comprehension is accurate without the need to translate in your head, you can be said to be reasonably fluent.  The best method to reach this stage isn't reading a textbook (in fact textbook learning just gets in the way of this) is immersion, which basically means giving up your original language for a period of one to three months, immersing yourself only in Japanese media.  During this period, you should avoid speaking, thinking, or listening to your native language, if at all possible.  If you are in high school, I'd suggest just using your summer break for this.  If you are an adult, this is harder.  It isn't like you can take a long vacation if you have to work or go to college.  However, this is effectively the only method by which you can internalize Japanese without your original language getting in the way of understanding at some point.  The only other possible method would be to get work in Japan and just live there for a period of time sufficient to create the same effect.
 
Internalization is really a step you need to take to become permanently fluent in any language, not just Japanese.  However, it is particularly effective with Japanese, because the language is so distinct form our own.
 
Note: Basic grammatical understanding must always precede immersion if you want it to be effective.