Story Seeds.

Say you are in the middle of making your bed in the morning and suddenly barely a few seconds of an idea run through your mind. An image of a few characters doing something, saying something, expressing something... And you just feel the need to get it out. 

get it out in your best notebook.

The image continues to play over and over in your mind. It is barely a few seconds. I could give you some of my examples...
...There was an idea for:

• The Gift, actually it was one line of dialogue with a fierce expression that opened up the possibility of someone who is now one of the main characters in the story. 
• My rune story, I have this image of the two main characters standing in front of a giant abandoned building with spires that seem to stretch into the sky nearly eaten by the dark night.
• The Enchantress, one of the very first images that popped into my mind and eventually spurred the entire story was of Skyler sitting on her bed clutching a small butterfly charm that hangs around her neck... one of the few tokens she has of her missing brother.
• My light story... just the image of some epic dude standing in the middle of a mosaic like patio bathed in sunlight; pillars circle around him. Intense expression on his face and and hands spread out as he stares at something far off.
• Parallel, I have the image of someone running down the middle of the street... he is afraid of something...
• 24 hours? Just the simple image of someone sitting up in the middle of the night from a bad dream... remembering something he shouldn't. Dun dun dun!
• Swapped? A scowl. that's it. A painful look in the eyes. She's angry, about something... I don't even know what yet. (this story has a connection with Parallel)
• In the deep. Duh. The image of someone underwater, but not drowning.

Well... if you ever do get an idea like this. WRITE IT DOWN. Do not forget it!  These things are important. You can't let go of something awesome like that!

and if possible use sharpie pens. always sharpie pens.

Little epic parts, or cute little scenes from movies and books are what give us, in a fangirl term, feels. Feels. Feels. Feels. Feels.
Yes writers get them too. If you get feels while writing, chances are, someone else might as well. So, don't let go of that image or mini scene that plays over in your head. Especially if it gives you feels.

Flashbacks

So recently in my book I have switched between point of views between three or four different people. The two main POV are Skyler and Chandler. Obviously, they are the main characters, but every five or six chapters I will go into a 3rd person POV with a supporting character... No... he's more of a main character... ...Either way, he is important to the story. Anyways, because of the insane amount of back story this guy has, I feel the need to do flashbacks.

Oh look. I'm crazy.*

Flashbacks aren't a bad thing. I mean I certainly like them in books. I absolutely loved Kaladin's flashbacks in the Way Of Kings. Darrow's in Chanters of Tremaris was well done. Looking through the pensieve in Harry Potter was definitely good. 

But there is one thing that flashbacks must have: A relevance to the story.

Flashbacks must come with a purpose. You probably shouldn't just throw a random flashback at the reader if it is not relevant to the story line at all. Now it doesn't need to seem relevant at the time that the reader gets the flashback, but it does need to make sense why we learned about this past event later on in the story.

I personally love writing flashbacks for this character. It shows such a different side of him that is buried deep and hidden away in the present time of the book. It gives you a better perspective of what is actually going on in this guy's head. (Don't tell me to write him in first person because I am not that brave.)

Because this is such a serious blog post.

I want to do the same thing with another character I have. His past is... well it has a ton of holes. Right now, the reader barely knows much about what happened to him up until he meets Skyler. I want to give him flashbacks as well, but I can't decide if they will just be informative, or actually relevant.

Maybe you should just pretend you don't know me...

And then there are those scenes that pretty much all readers crave for. You know the cute little touching ones that were mentioned but never actually written? Well I have a few of those, don't worry, they will actually go in the book.

So what do you think? What are some of your favorite flashbacks? They can be from any story, movie or book. I'm simply curious.

Music while writing this post: Counting Stars by OneRebublic.

*Hey. You know you have pictures of yourself with crazy faces. I'm just not ashamed of the ones I have...

My obsessions.

Well... I've decided that in this particular post, I'm going to share with you my top ten obsessions. And when I mean obsessions... I mean my fandoms. because you know. Apparently I'm crazy and have WAY too many. Heh. (These are in no particular order by the way...)

1. Harry Potter. Harry Potter is like the mom of all fandoms. You're either a fan of Harry Potter or your life is a lie. Filthy muggle.

2. Doctor Who. Because everyone loves an alien who time travels! (oh my feels.) Fantastic. Allons-y. Geronimo. Have a catchphrase now. Catchphrases are cool.

Because Whovians always have 3D glasses on them.

 3. Percy Jackson and the Olympians/ The Heroes of Olympus. Because Rick Riordan is a troll... and he has my complete respect for being so. I love my seaweed brain.

 4. Anything Brandon Sanderson... Because all of his books are epic. And I can't decide if I want them to be turned into movies because then the fandom would expand. Or if the stories are so full of things that special effects just couldn't handle so the stories would be brutally murdered on screen... If you haven't read and books by Sanderson yet... well let's just say that you're wasing in the where of needing.

5. Sherlock. (Oh come on, you knew this one is a given considering the fandoms above.) If you didn't guess this then you need to turn your back because you're lowering the IQ of the entire street.

6. Merlin. Uh duh. Who doesn't love the young warlock?!..... *GASP* You don't love the young warlock?! ...You're such a dollophead.

7. Disney. I mean come on. Who doesn't love some good 'ole classic Disney?! I'll smash you with a hammer if you don't like Disney.

8. Grimm. Oh my gosh. I seriously cannot get the ending of the Season 2 finale out of my head. Just leave me to drown in my pool of emotions!

Look familiar..? heh.

9. Arrow. OH MY GOSH ARROW! Holy cow. This. Show. Is. So. Good. Go watch it. right now. You can finish reading this blog post later. Go watch it right now. You have failed this city by not watching Arrow yet.

 10: Superheroes. Iron Man. Spider Man. Batman. Superman. Wolverine. Green Lantern. Thor. Captain America. Professor X. Flash.
I grew up watching Justice League. No I don't read comic books... but I love superheroes. I find them exciting.

Hehe. Just a plus.

Okay so there you have it. My ten obsessions. I promise you. I have a TON more... but I said ten. probably because if i didn't have a limit then this blog post would never ever ever ever end.
What are you obsessing about right now?

Music while writing this post? Light It Up by Scott and Brendo

Let's Celebrate!

OH JOODNESS! I just reached my goal page view number! Now excuse me while I go do my happy dance. (I can't believe people actually love me this much!)

Music while writing this incredibly short but happy post: Now Is The Start - A Fine Frenzy

Cakes... the Rice Kind.

I have decided that I absolutely LOVE rice cakes. Especially if they are the apple and cinnamon kind. They aren't overly overbearing, so I can eat like fifty of them in a sitting... (while I'm writing of course) but maybe that is a bad thing...

 Any of those will do...

Either way. I love rice cakes. So if anyone ever wants to buy me a snack, please get the Quaker Apples and Cinnamon Rice Cakes. Mini or regular size will do. Thanks a bunch! You know I'll love you forever if you buy me some.

Music while writing this post? Up and away by Can't Stop Won't Stop.

Litte Demons.

A few days ago something extremely traumatic happened to me while I was in the kitchen of my own home. Can you guess what it was? You got it, I found a spider. Luckily my dad was in the kitchen so he started to go after it with a tissue. You know, the most reasonable thing to do when you see a spider half the size of your thumb with glowing blue eyes. (Aside from burning down the entire house...) But he couldn't get it! The little devil started to jump around like a little circus freak. I was seriously horrified that the thing was going to land on one of us, especially me.
After my dad finally got the spider into a tissue and squished it into an oblivion of satisfying guts the scariest thought popped into my head. And it got me thinking about how wonderful the world is.
This was the thought: I am so glad spiders don't have wings.

Oh. My. Gosh.
Can you imagine is spiders could fly? I would never leave my bedroom, or go anywhere without a bottle of pesticide. Gnats and flies annoy me when I'm inside or outside. I get freaked out when I see a hornet buzzing near me, but if a spider had wings... *Shudders* Lets just say I'm quite content with wingless spiders right now.Yes. We can all take a moment to be grateful that spiders cannot fly.
....
That was a nice moment.

Music while writing this post: Without Me by Eminem (Clean version of course)

Exaivier.

Alright guys...
(Everyone who has heard me obsessing about this for the past few days, you have the clearance to leave.)
I found him. I found Exaivier.
Actually... His name is David Giuntoli*...

Look. He even has a sword.

But this guy is probably the closest I will ever come to Exaivier. It actually really truly blows my mind how close he is to Exaivier. Just saying...

 So I'm just going to post the pictures I have found of this guy with the perfectly perfect Exaivier expressions. Because there are a few of them, and those of you who know the character might know what they are.

But I mean really though. This really excites me! 

Just as a side note... I wonder how actors and actresses would feel if they knew how excited I get when I place THEIR face to one of my characters...

*I do know that he is from the tv show Grimm. Where do you think I found him?

Music while writing this post? Selene by Imagine Dragons (Who else?!)