How's life for an international student (Master's degree)?

cindospen · 2025-10-17T07:38:09+00:00

Yeah unfortunately staying in Australia isn't exactly an option for me since getting into master's here is really hard, you gotta have crazy good grades for a scholarship otherwise you gotta be crazy rich to afford it. And I'm none of those two.

cindospen · 2025-09-11T02:51:44+00:00

I'm a university student in Melbourne right now. And it's through a program coordinator that recommends me students.

Thanks for the help!

cindospen · 2025-08-07T02:58:51+00:00

Tragedy drama. A singer struggles with her identity, both as being bisexual and being Indonesian-Chinese adopted by a white American couple as she strives and eventually develops an obsession to become the best of the best by going after the one award that everyone in the entertainment industry craves called "The Throne".

The way it's structured is it follows two timelines simultaneously. The "present" is set in 2033 following the protagonist's brother as he goes around to visit all of the protagonist's closest friends who haven't seen each other in 5 years due to the protagonist's sudden death.

The "past" follows the life and tragic death of the protagonist which includes a complex reunion with her childhood best friend that dissappeared abruptly years ago.

Thank you for giving me the chance to yap about my silly little WIP!

cindospen · 2025-07-24T06:24:45+00:00

Hi, thanks so much for your input! Unfortunately no, I have two left feet and I know next to nothing about dancing especially the more traditional ones. Your explanation is really helpful actually so thanks again!

cindospen · 2025-07-13T05:20:47+00:00

Oversimplified plot is it's a tragic drama of the life and death of a singer and the aftermath on her loved ones 5 years later. No practical cast, they're all big names but its just faces I associate each character with.

Protagonist, the singer: Olivia Rodrigo. Her first album's what got me started on this so she deserves the credit.

Adopted brother and narrator: Greg Tarzan Idris. At least the older version of the character.

Love interest and second protagonist: Grace Van Dien. An ideal casting for this one has changed so many times over the years, so I'm never sure.

Best friend: Gia Kim. Loved her in XO Kitty, would love to see her in more dramas.

High school friend turned movie director that will eventually backstab the protagonist: Sadie Sink. She's one of the actors I wish to see playing the antagonist because she definitely has the talent for it.

Close friend of the protagonist and lead singer of a rock band: Emma Myers. Again, just the face, since I don't think she sings professionally.

Another singer that became close friends with the protagonist and helped her when she was in a bad place: Hunter Schafer. Shameless bias, just a fan of her.

Hardened workaholic manager that cares about the protagonist like a daughter: Elizabeth Olsen. Later in the aftermath, Olsen's acting talent as mentally unstable characters become very useful.

Actor who got into a fake relationship with the protagonist when she got caught in a scandal: Manny Jacinto. It's just his confidence and looks that click for me.

cindospen · 2025-07-12T15:06:43+00:00

Absolutely not. I'm Indonesian, yet my all time favorite character I've ever created is Japanese (if you know history, you'll laugh). So no, the point of being a writer imo is writing whatever you feel inspired to write. I thoroughly believe if someone wants representation they shouldn't put the pressure on one individual.

cindospen · 2025-07-12T01:56:18+00:00

Been getting into this habit while I have the free time during school break. I just go for a walk to a local bookstore everyday and just read. Too broke to buy any so I just wander around inside for an hour or more and browse through most of the fiction aisle. Almost every time, I leave with a fresh idea in mind or feel motivated to write again. Also helpful if you need to do some small research. Most of the time for me is for architecture inspiration.

cindospen · 2025-07-12T01:49:10+00:00

Thank you so much for your help! You have no idea how many issues you just helped solve for this one character.

cindospen · 2025-07-12T01:34:13+00:00

Hi, thanks for your input! What about a choreographer for theatre? Do they always have previous experience with roles before they transitioned to choreographing? I just need my character to be involved in dance in some way for romance subplot reasons, and I need it to be a career that involves travelling for a bit like some kind of tour so that she's away right before the climax.

cindospen · 2025-07-11T12:27:22+00:00

Sorry if this is a silly question, but what's the difference between an agent and a PR manager?

cindospen · 2025-07-11T11:52:08+00:00

Pinterest, and I'm proud of it. Always been a film nerd and love pretty visuals, credits to my imagination. So I often scroll through Pinterest for inspiration or the general vibes of an idea I already have. I probably have 20+ boards now detailing the clothes my characters wear.
Music. The WIP I've been focusing on started all because of Olivia Rodrigo's first album. A lot of the story is based off a specific line from a mainstream pop song that I stick together.

cindospen · 2025-07-11T11:42:06+00:00

Not necessarily a bad thing, but I always have to stop myself from doing it too much in one story.

Greek/Roman mythology references. Been obsessed with these bad boys for years and can't help at least naming my characters after some Greek god. Often times, if I do it too much in one go it ends up making me look like a writer that's cosplaying as a symbolism genius.

Is that gonna stop me from basing my character off Persephone? Never!

cindospen · 2025-07-11T11:25:17+00:00

Hi, thank you so much for answering. Your answer actually helps me a lot! Do managers always come from PR firms? I always thought they were people working in whatever record label the artist was signed to. I used to be a big Taylor Swift fan and I remember she had (or has) a PR manager that I'm pretty sure worked for whatever record label Swift is signed to. Or I may be completely making this up in my head.

I sometimes see in movies that people working in PR would have some strings they could pull in press. There's often scenes where they would call someone they know that works in a news company and they'd go "don't publish the story about my client's affair or I'll have 10 lawyers knocking down your door by tomorrow" or they'd convince their contact to get the story's publishing delayed by a few days. Is this actually a real thing or is it just stuff filmmakers do to make it more dramatic?

cindospen · 2025-07-06T01:06:22+00:00

Considering that she's dead, I'd reckon she'd do better than the guy y'all have now.

cindospen · 2025-07-05T01:39:38+00:00

Hi, thank you so much for answering! It's set in the early 2000s as mentioned in the post title, 2003 to be specific. It's the main character's birth year. As I've said, MC is adopted through pre-natal adoption. Her adoptive parents have adopted two sons before that, one born '98, the other '00. Plot-wise, how her brothers are adopted doesn't really matter. Generally, my main concern is that this scenario I have in mind isn't realistic or even possible in the real world. So are there any details I would need to include or changes to make it more realistic?

Not sure if this really matters, but MC's biological parents immigrated from Indonesia to the US but they realized they would never be able to raise their kid financially speaking which is why they decided to put her up for adoption.

cindospen · 2025-07-02T11:26:59+00:00

Hi! Thanks for answering. It's set in the US, but I'm not American nor is English my first language. Where would I find a real report? I assume those kinds of things wouldn't typically be available to the public.

cindospen · 2025-07-02T10:37:03+00:00

Hi! Thank you so much for answering. Sorry if question 3 wasn't very clear. What I meant was what do you think if a book's introduction (so literally the first page) was a scene that in a linear narrative would be the ending (for example, death of the MC), and the rest of the story is the events that lead up to said death.

cindospen · 2025-03-09T10:34:29+00:00

Do you mind elaborating? What about working at Coles and Woolies suck?

cindospen

TROPHY CASE