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Dreams and goals you once persued.


EastCoastDrifter

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Have you ever had any dreams or goals in the past that you wanted to follow and achieve? And if so, are you still pursuing those dreams or have you long since abandoned them for practical reasons?

For me, I once had a dream of becoming the first foreigner to write a light novel in Japan because at the time, I was at my prime as an anime fan and I'd just discovered light novels long before they started to be released globally. This was because I'm a talented writer and I wanted to see my work get adapted into an anime, and because I'm Canadian, I was hoping to set an example to the anime industry as a whole (though technically, Monty Oum already beat me to the punch with that). I had held on to this dream until very recently because of so many real life circumstances, at which point, I just abandoned it altogether. One is because of financial problems and getting into Japan is really expensive. Secondly, I have to focus on completing college and finding a job to sustain myself. And finally, I'm not Japanese, so getting into their light novel business is going to be EXTREMELY difficult. I don't know if they don't accept foreigners at all because there are no records of foreigners ever attempting this, but my gut feeling has been telling me for years that they don't. I've been also told by my friends that attempting to go to Japan just to write a book is impractical, which I tried coming up with valid counter-arguments to explain to them why I was doing this, but in the end, they were right. If I wanted to write a book, I can just do so in my home country.

Now, my dream has changed. All I want to do now is just write a story that's light novel and anime-inspired, and publish it as a web novel online. Who knows, I may even turn it into a visual novel if the Visual Novel Maker program comes out.

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2 minutes ago, Arcadeotic said:

I once dreamed of being a chef, but my resolve wavered and I eventually gave up on that.

Though I still have a few years of experience because of that, so not regretting it in the slightest

In the end, it's the skills you've learned that matters. So in hindsight, it wasn't a total waste after all.

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KonpekiUmi, about your dream: in Rome, do as Romans do, but...

- Japanese are fiercely proud of themselves and their culture, they're also fiercely xenophobic (I don't think I'm exaggerating...). I mean, they love to visit other places, but are very reluctant to let other people become a part of the country (and with good reason, but maybe they're too cloistered).

Taking scholarships as an example, they only let the most brilliant people in and ask a lot from them. If you manage to get a Japanese citizenship it's likely you get some form of discrimination.

That means that a foreign light novel writer would be viewed with suspicion, you'd probably have to assume a pseudonym and the like. Look at how, in ef VN, the male lead writes shoujo manga and has to use a pseudonym for fear of being found out as a guy that makes that. It would look... unsightly. Probably so a foreign LN writer.

- Can you beat the Romans at what the Romans do? I don't doubt you've consumed tons of anime and Japanese media, but that doesn't guarantee you success in the Japanese market. You have to take the different mindset into consideration.

- Some dreams are achievable, easily or not, while some are pretty far away and we're better off using our energy in other endeavours. Your decision to get an education is right and you should pursue it. After you graduate and maybe earn some money you can actually consider moving to Japan (or someplace else) and living your life as you like. Maybe it's not really an impossible dream, only unlikely. I know a Spanish youtuber who's presently living in Japan, but I don't know if he'll make it his permanent residence or he's just passing by.

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54 minutes ago, KonpekiUmi said:

Now, my dream has changed. All I want to do now is just write a story that's light novel and anime-inspired, and publish it as a web novel online. Who knows, I may even turn it into a visual novel if the Visual Novel Maker program comes out.

I wish you luck on your journey to a "dream-came-true" ^_^ But aren't you aware of the already available VN engines out there? There's several of them that are used for creating visual novels ... I am planning on learning Unity as an engine one day, though I am no good writer so I cannot create a novel sadly xD ...

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I've never had any dreams or goals that I really tried to pursue. Sure, I get the occasional desire to do something grand, but my motivation generally doesn't last longer than a few hours. I either realize that the dream is too lofty, or that even if it is grounded in reality, I would have to work really hard for it... and most of the time, I just want to feel some instant gratification from imagining achieving something, not to actually put in the effort and bring it to reality.  

I suppose the one thing that could somewhat be considered a dream of mine that I'm trying to realize is learning enough Japanese to read most VNs without a texthooker. I am slowly advancing towards that, but it doesn't feel like a true aspiration, more like just something I'm doing to keep up the illusion of spending my time productively every day.

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33 minutes ago, Okarin said:

KonpekiUmi, about your dream: in Rome, do as Romans do, but...

- Japanese are fiercely proud of themselves and their culture, they're also fiercely xenophobic (I don't think I'm exaggerating...). I mean, they love to visit other places, but are very reluctant to let other people become a part of the country (and with good reason, but maybe they're too cloistered).

Taking scholarships as an example, they only let the most brilliant people in and ask a lot from them. If you manage to get a Japanese citizenship it's likely you get some form of discrimination.

That means that a foreign light novel writer would be viewed with suspicion, you'd probably have to assume a pseudonym and the like. Look at how, in ef VN, the male lead writes shoujo manga and has to use a pseudonym for fear of being found out as a guy that makes that. It would look... unsightly. Probably so a foreign LN writer.

- Can you beat the Romans at what the Romans do? I don't doubt you've consumed tons of anime and Japanese media, but that doesn't guarantee you success in the Japanese market. You have to take the different mindset into consideration.

- Some dreams are achievable, easily or not, while some are pretty far away and we're better off using our energy in other endeavours. Your decision to get an education is right and you should pursue it. After you graduate and maybe earn some money you can actually consider moving to Japan (or someplace else) and living your life as you like. Maybe it's not really an impossible dream, only unlikely. I know a Spanish youtuber who's presently living in Japan, but I don't know if he'll make it his permanent residence or he's just passing by.

Which is why I'm skeptical about them not accepting me at all. But the thing is, because there are no records of foreigners ever actually attempting this , there is no concrete "No" answer. The only way to know for sure is to go to Japan and find the answer myself.

Regardless, I still want to write a story, so no matter what path I take to do so, I'll do it. I just no longer have the drive to back up my old Japan light novel dream that's all.

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As a child I wanted to be a knight or a hero. Slaying dragons, saving damsels in distress and getting rewarded by kings. Now it is being the evil guy spreading terror wherever he goes, getting young maidens as sacrifice for turning my wrath somwhere else, being paid for wreaking havoc and destroying those foolish "champions of justice" in both body and mind.

...

...

...

Nah, just kidding. Or am I???

 

For a long time my dream was to write my own books, but I'm too lazy. Now it's just having my name in one. Either as "translated by" or in the page where authors bash their friends and those that helped creating their work. But that's not really a dream and more like a goal.

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6 minutes ago, Prinny said:

For a long time my dream was to write my own books, but I'm too lazy. Now it's just having my name in one. Either as "translated by" or in the page where authors bash their friends and those that helped creating their work. But that's not really a dream and more like a goal.

Sadly, the world of writing doesn't work like that. If you want your name on a book, you must either write it or contribute to it (like illustrators do for example).

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2 minutes ago, KonpekiUmi said:

Sadly, the world of writing doesn't work like that. If you want your name on a book, you must either write it or contribute to it (like illustrators do for example).

Yeah, I know. But I study literature & translation at university, should be easy enough to work in a field where I get my name in a book

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12 hours ago, Infernoplex said:

I wish you luck on your journey to a "dream-came-true" ^_^ But aren't you aware of the already available VN engines out there? There's several of them that are used for creating visual novels ... I am planning on learning Unity as an engine one day, though I am no good writer so I cannot create a novel sadly xD ...

Ah, my apologies. I was going to reply to this earlier but I was really busy today. In regards to the VN engines I want to use, the reason I'm going for VN Maker is because all of the assets for making a VN are already pre-installed, so it's just a matter of me writing a story, doing the illustrations (I'm also an artist), and hiring a music composer to do the soundtrack. Both Ren'Py and TyranoBuilder require coding to make a VN which I'm not good at, and the latter from what I heard doesn't save organized scenarios.

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1 hour ago, KonpekiUmi said:

Ah, my apologies. I was going to reply to this earlier but I was really busy today.

No problem :D I don't expect a reply always, especially not a fast one when someone's busy (like I am sometimes xD) ...

1 hour ago, KonpekiUmi said:

In regards to the VN engines I want to use, the reason I'm going for VN Maker is because all of the assets for making a VN are already pre-installed, so it's just a matter of me writing a story, doing the illustrations (I'm also an artist), and hiring a music composer to do the soundtrack. Both Ren'Py and TyranoBuilder require coding to make a VN which I'm not good at, and the latter from what I heard doesn't save organized scenarios.

I see ... I understand :) I don't know about these engines that much, I've seen a thread on Fuwa explaining their differences but I am still pro-Unity ... I have seen VNs made in Ren'py and sadly, I don't like how the engine works ... Also, if I am not mistaken, Ren'py uses python as a programming language ... Unity seems to have more power so that's why I am focused on Unity :D And it's based on C# which frankly I am more familiar with ... I don't know anything about VN Maker program so I can't say much about it :)

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Since I was a child. I always wanted to be a doctor, either it was a military paramedic, physician, surgeon, or veterinary medicine as I was very fascinated with both human and animal anatomy. But it seems reality is pretty harsh on me, my parents couldn't afford to support my hopes and dreams so I buried it the thought of ever becoming and continue moving forward.... Sometimes in life we cannot have everything that we hope to achieve... At least I'm thankful enough that I got the chance of being educated and having a decent enough life. There's nothing much to complain I guess:illya:

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I have a pretty simple dream, but kind of hard to achieve, which is make a living out of my art. With art I mean my drawings, I like writing too but not as much as drawing. That's why I'm doing a VN right now. I know is hard to make a living out of VN, so I just see it as another step to achieve my dream. If i can't make it with VN I'll try with comics. Comics may be even harder tho. Its not like I have any other alternatives, I'm only good at drawing (I don't know how good I'm at writing since I haven't published anything) so I have to keep trying until I succeed or die or something...

PS: I want to improve my english too.

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My dream is to become a Writter. From I was a child I liked reading stories like Robin Hood, King Arthur Pendragon, etc. And as I was growing became really interested with policial novels (Da Vinci Code was my firt one which I read in 2 days) and then kept on untill I found my favourite novelist which is Wilbur Smith. And as it sounds, since that I had the dream to publish at least a book before I dye.

I have a blog so far in which a write kinda short life reflexions, or whatever comes to my mind when I sit down with an idea I'd like to write.

It's not even a start, but at least I've trained to some point mhy writting skills.

If any Spanish speaker wants to give it a try you can enter here (It's been long since the last update).

http://elamordespuesdeunporron.blogspot.com.ar/

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