User:SluiAltruist

Shawn "SluiAltruist" Hewer (born 12 August 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, writer, editor, critic, and currently a student. He does not own any official albums or songs currently. However, he made his writing debut in mid-2007 with a novella, Haruhi's Random Dream. Several weeks after his debut, the novella gained attention among his friends and was encouraged by his best friend, Chu Minamoto. She would be his collaborator in late-2007. His editing job began when he started reviewing some of his close friends' works. His criticisms are known to be extremely sharp and fulminating.

Beside an active creative writer and poet, Hewer is active in songwriting and music. He had been known for being a President of the local Chinese Orchestra for a brief period of a year. He was preceeded by his close friend, Soon Hin. Hewer had won a mini-competition in school, produced by teachers to showcase some of the talents of music. He won unanimously in 1st place and received a Gold Award.

Hewer is best well-known for his fervent style, flair for writing, vocal range, unique style of songwriting, power, melismatic style and his diva-like character.

Early life
Hewer was born in Singapore. He is the only child to his parents. Hewer's parents divorced when he was only 2, leaving him to the arms of his grandmother. After his parent's divorce, he spent most of his childhood with his grandmother and mild contact with his father and little contact with his mother.

He spends most of his time alone and occupies himself with music most of the time. Writing had been part of his life too.

Hewer is currently studying at Christ Church Secondary School, Singapore.

Early-2006: Chinese music prodigy
Hewer was extremely active in his participation of the local Chinese Orchestra during 2006. As a freshmen, he decided to devote a considerable amount of time into chinese music rather than studies. He was best interested and enthralled by the school's orientation for various CCAs.

During mid-2006, the CO organized an annual camp. During the 3-days camp, members are told to perform a solo or group song choice on the second night. Hewer performed a solo piece and reciprocated with good praises.

He was awarded 1st for that performance, the first in the school's Chinese Orchestra history for having a 13-year-old to win a Gold Award.

Late-2006 to mid-2007: Early success
Close to the end of 2006, Hewer took profound interest in reading and writing. He had since bought 2 books every week, in his favourite bookstore, Kinokuniya Bookstore, although this figure ultimately declined towards 2008. Through these extensive reading and analysing, Hewer had developed an extreme sense for observance and a mild-rich vocabulary. However at this point of time, he did not show any evident knowledge of rich vocabulary to anyone.

In December 2006, Hewer had decided to indulge into creative writing. He had since been writing drafts and researching on all styles of writing. Hewer had consulted his close-friend and artist/writer, Chu Minamoto, regarding the writing of a supposed novel in early or mid-2007. Since then both had been actively active in discussion of story progression and plot development.

At first, Hewer wanted a collaboration between him and Minamoto on his debut. However, as style of plot development between both differs, Hewer dropped the idea in the end and worked solo. During this period of time he had also consulted another close-friend, Kuro Nightroad.

One week after active discussion between his close-friends, Hewer debutted his writing talent with a sensational story named Haruhi's Random Dream. Hewer had no known inspiration for this story, as he said "the story came over to me when I was looking outta' my window." The novel-comic had since then read over 50 times by his close friends and was called "marvellous" by Nightroad.

Only 48 hours after his debut, Hewer wrote a sequel to the title preceeding it. However, for this sequel, it was divided into 3 collective parts, so as to create the supposed "cliffhanger", according to Hewer. The first part was released upon finishing. Again, the succeded novella managed to clinched attention and likeness among his friends and some teachers. However, for the sequel, Hewer changed the title to Haruhi's Story and Adventure. The change of title did not stir any controversy amongst his friends.

As Hewer's friends continuously press against him for the last two parts to be released, he had written the 2nd part in merely two short days, and another two days for the final part to be released. The sheer amount of time taken for the ending was stunning. However the ending did not garner as good reviews as the previous part. The ending was considered by some of his friends as "schmaltzy" and "odd". Collectively, the sequel was read over and over again by his friends for an approximately 30 times.

It should be noted that both novellas (Haruhi's Random Dream & Haruhi's Story and Adventure Pt. One, Two and Three) were completed within eight days.

Mid-2007 (June): Short break
After the sequel of Haruhi's Random Dream, Hewer decided to go sabbatical and concentrated on his studies instead. From the results slip, progressing from June to September, his grades dropped by an estimate figure of 1.4 grades. During this period no one had asked about a supposed preceed of the sequel. It had been rumoured that Hewer had stopped writing creatively, and that it was because of a heavy writer's block. Hewer made no rebuke or rebuttal towards this hear-say.

July — New image
In July 2007, Hewer diverted his attention to animation, especially japanese anime. As Minamoto is actively involved in japanese anime even before he knew her, Hewer turned to Minamoto in idea of an animation project. Minamoto took great interest into the animation project and gave a green light about it.

Hewer then gathered a group of well-known artists in order for the project to be materialized. Using the mild power of Minamoto, he managed to cajole artists Kei and Kuro Nightroad into the supposed project. Hewer then took complete control of the situation and assigned different roles in the project, Hewer being the producer, writer, director, composer, and music director.

August — Fiasco
As successful as the project went, Hewer dropped the proposal and took back the project. Due to artists professional struggles and Hewer's own creative block during the writing, the project dropped and four of them (Hewer, Minamoto, Nightroad, Kei) set-up a manga publishing. The aim of the manga house was to publish a manga story every month, on a regular basis. The idea was eventually dropped after two weeks of preparation as research had shown that the popularity of manga had declined over the course of 2007 in the school.

September — Personal struggles
Towards September, Hewer's social circle turned sour when he became extremely dorminant over his friends. This was partly due to the professional failures (creative block, animation project fiasco). His temper and character was the dorminant reason for an outcry and quarrel between his friends. His best friends, Jen, Taufiq (Kei) and Vanessa turned against him while he turned towards his other best friends, Peishi and Xinhui for moral support. It was stated that this was the worst period of Hewer's life.

It was until two weeks of struggle the problem was resolved when Hewer started establishing his relationship back with Vanessa and Jen. The attempt was successful and since then they have been the best of friends.

October — Return to Prominence
In early October, after all problems were resolved, Hewer started writing again. With the comeback novel, named Haruhi's Comeback:, he managed to garner the identical amount of read-times from his debut (50 times). The novel was described as "...an enthralling comeback for a sufferer of creative block (...) Fabulous!" It was the novel/story so far that Hewer did not consult anyone that he knows.

Two weeks after his comeback, Hewer wrote emotionally and introspectively on the World War One, writing a narrative after he had read about the WWI. It was said that Hewer had problems naming the short story, but it was rebuked by Hewer, saying that he "had figured the modest title even before the plot begins." The short story, The Melancholic Flowers of War garnered more read-times than any of his works, with a smashing read-times of 60 times.

In late-October, Hewer had been consulting on Minamoto, his long-time collaborator regarding an upcoming novella of his. It was released as The Einese Cycle. However 3 days after the news had been made, he changed the title to The Nesesis Circle, then ultimately dropping the whole proposal of writing the novella itself. He then started writing another short story, naming it The Haunt of Spirits. The project was also dropped.

Early-2008 — present
Hewer had since concentrated on his studies and English music shortly after the debut of The Melancholic Flowers of War. As of 2008, he had stopped temporarily all forms of creative writing until further notice. Since then, Hewer had been writing songs extensively, collaborating with his friend, Pearlyn. However Hewer had cancelled the collaboration between both, describing the writing process with Pearlyn was "superficial". He intends to collaborate on a long-term basis with his close friend, Jen.

Writing
Hewer's stories normally explores the themes of environmentalism and war. Love was an occasional theme, as it was only featured in the comeback of Hewer's. (See Haruhi's Comeback: ) Hewer often tries to center his characters and plot around these themes in order to apprise readers. Some of his short stories (which a few are unrevealed) have dystopian element.

Hewer cited George Orwell, Harper Lee, Neil Gaiman, Doris Lessing, Isabel Allende, Ray Bradbury, and Charles Dickens as literary influences.

Voice
Hewer is said to cover at least 3.5 octaves. He often sings with melismatic style and power, frequently sings with emotions. However, even with fervent emotions, his voice and singing style had always been under scrutiny. Some critics commented that Hewer's voice on his own is expressive rather than impressive.

Hewer cited Mariah Carey, Carrie Underwood, Beyoncé, and Leona Lewis as musical influences, with Carey as "the most influential of them all". His all-time favourite artists are Mariah Carey and David Archuleta.

Personal life
Hewer had a mild quarrel with his friends in mid-September 2007. Hewer eventually reconciliated with his friends, and he has several close friends.