Soundtrack Sunday: Star Crossed (The Host)

Though I normally do this on my Facebook page. I've decided to do Soundtrack Sundays and Wonderful Word Wednesdays for you all on here too. In case you don't have a Facebook or just prefer blogs. Soundtrack Sundays is where I post a new movie score track to my Soundtrack Sundays YouTube playlist for your listening pleasure and Wonderful Word Wednesdays is where I post a new cool vocabulary word.

So here we go ...

For Soundtrack Sundays I have a track from the Host. Though I'm not a Twilight fan I really enjoyed this film. I'd like to read the book sometime. Anyway ... this piece is a romantic with sweet little plucks of a guitar throughout. I've been listening to it all week lol. I hope you all enjoy it.  Check out other Soundtrack Sundays tracks in the Soundtracks Sundays playlist on my YouTube channel.

Have you heard this soundtrack piece before? What do you think of it? Have you seen the Host?

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Finding and Taming Inspiration Part 1: I Just Can't Come Up With A Good Idea!

I'm a member of a fantastic young writers group on Facebook called Go Teen Writers. In the group, writers post about the need for critique or accomplishments or problems and such. Two problems I see frequently: "I just can't come up with a good idea!" and "I just got this new idea now I can't concentrate on my current work in progress!" Over two posts, I'm going to try to assess these issues and hopefully give some relief to them. Go Teen Writers, this is for you guys.

Inspiration is a tough little creature to find. Some bait to lure it is always asking "What if?" What if squirrels took over the world? What if little kids had special abilities adults don't? And so on.

Now we just need to search in the right habitats. Here are some places I've found the Muse hangs out:

1.) Art - Just recently I was messing around on YouTube and a picture for a soundtrack piece in one of the videos caught my eye. I clicked on it and stared at the picture for a while. That's when the idea for my steampunk fantasy Red Hood was born. Look at art either in a gallery or just on Pinterest, Deviant Art, or other picture sites. Personally I enjoy Pinterest and Deviant Art.

The picture that inspired Red Hood

2.) Music - I can't even describe how much music is an inspiration hot spot. Listen to songs with lyrics and perhaps a character will step out of them. I personally prefer movie scores. Scenes just unfold when I find some epic music. Listen to music you don't normally and that could jolt something.

If you'd like to try scores and don't know where to start either think of your favorite movie and look it up. These are some really good ones: Lord of the Rings (Fantasy), I Am Number Four (Sci-Fi) and The Host (Romance, Sci-fi). Also the artists Two Steps From Hell (No, they are not a heavy metal band) are fantastic. You can check them out and some of my other favorite soundtrack pieces in my Soundtrack Sundays playlist. A new piece is added every Sunday.

3.) Random Little Ideas - If you get any little idea from anything even if it's totally random, write it down. For example: I was reading an article in a magazine at the mechanic shop about introverts and that spurred an idea. Just anything that sounds interesting to you, save it. They could puzzle piece together into a book.

4.) Memories - Sometimes memories of events can spur an idea. I came up with my fantasy by drawing from the experience of me and little sister riding on our scooters around our driveway and talking about fairies. Though that series has far expanded from fairies. That memory was the root of it. You can draw from that hard break up you had with your boyfriend or that amazing trip to Hawaii.

5.) Interests - What is something you like to do? You could write about a character who likes to do what you do. Whether is be karate or soccer or singing. That character can pursue to be a great singer or a karate master or participate in the Olympics. This incorporated into a recent idea I got with a friend to write a book about a young writer who meets a superhuman.

6.) Other Media - Books, movies, shows, random videos all can be inspiration. Like if you watched a movie and you thought what if a world went this way or if you saw a tiny cool video and decided to expand on the idea they had. Maybe a concept in a movie can inspire you. My sci-fi series Subsapien was partially inspired by the movie Iron Man. It was the first Sci-Fi movie I ever got into. Tony's armor made me come up with my biomechs thus started half of Subsapien.

7.) Dreams - I cannot tell you enough how much dreams have inspired me. I've had several books inspired by them. That happened with the other half of Subsapien. I had a dream about five kids running away from some people in a supermarket with orange Fanta (I know random). I woke up and thought "Why are those kids running from those people?" I had Biology that day so I looked at my school book and it had a chameleon on it and I thought "What if they have animal powers?!" So write down your dreams no matter how dumb they are and perhaps look back at them when you're searching for inspiration.

Bonus Round!

Bonus Tip #1 - Keep a notebook! Whether it's on your phone, your iPod or (technology forbid) an actual notebook. Dark ages I know. Trap inspiration in there or you could lose it, because no matter how much you deny it you can forget ideas.

Bonus Tip #2 - Keep an open mind. Don't dismiss an idea as "stupid." Don't be afraid to listen to or watch new stuff. Watch a movie that isn't what you write or listen to songs from a different genre.

Bonus Tip #3 -  Don't force it. You have to coax inspiration. You can't conjure it out of thin air. Let it come. As long as you're searching for it you will find it.

Bonus Tip #4 - Fan the Flame - Talk about your idea to someone or just start writing a blurb about it. Keep thinking about it. It will grow.

In conclusion, though inspiration is a fleeting thing, it is obtainable. Search and you will find. :)

Do any of these methods work for you? Do you have a method to find inspiration I didn't list?

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Writing Humor Into Your Story
Write What You Know ... And What You Don't Know
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Interview with Ingrid (Subsapien)

Ingrid (Subsapien)

Hey! I'm back with another character interview! This time it's with Ingrid from my science-fiction novel Subsapien Grafting interviewed by my lovely Canadian friend Cassia. 

Cassia: 

*settles into chair, smiles* Thanks, Tori.

Ingrid: 

*walks in, has wings folded on her back, smiles*

Cassia: 

Hi Ingrid. *notices the wings* I love your wings!

Ingrid:

*blushes* Thanks. *sits down in the chair across from you*

Cassia: 

Have you ever done an interview like this before?

Ingrid:

No. I was hoping I'd get to.

Cassia: 

Well I guess now's your chance. So I've just got a few questions here for you if you're ready to start.

Ingrid:

Bring them on. *huffs a laugh*

Cassia: 

Alrighty then, first question: What would you say is one of your greatest talents?

Ingrid:

Oh gosh. I don't know ... I'm good at making jewelry. Does that count?

Cassia: 

You make your own jewelry? That's awesome! Of course that counts. What kind of jewelry do you make?

Ingrid:

*blushes again* Thanks. Macrame I think it's called.

Cassia: 

Neat. *smiles, glances down at writing on the palm of my hand* Next question. *looks up* If you could go back in time and change one thing, what would you change?

Ingrid:

Hmm ... That's a tough question. Honestly ... Sometimes I wish I wasn't grafted.

Cassia: 

Yeah? Why's that?

Ingrid:

It's hard to have to hide part of yourself.

Cassia: 

Hm. Yeah, I can see that being hard. So, moving on to the next question, is there something you’re especially proud of?

Ingrid:

I'm kind of proud of Brian if that counts. He's like a little brother to me.

Cassia: 

*smiles* That counts. What makes you proud of him?

Ingrid:

He's so smart. Much smarter than me. I wish I could read as well as he can.

Cassia: 

Maybe he can teach you some time.

Ingrid:

He's taught me a little.

Cassia: 

That's nice of him. He seems to have good brother qualities. *folds arms onto of the table, checks hand again* So, what's your favorite season?

Ingrid:

*looks up* Spring.

Cassia: 

Why's that?

Ingrid:

It's warm but not too warm and I like the butterflies.

Cassia: 

Yeah, spring is a great season.

Ingrid:

Is it your favorite season?

Cassia: 

Yeah, one of them. I like fall best though. Last question: would you ever get revenge on anyone if you had the chance?

Ingrid:

Hmm ... That's another tough question ... *pulls on her braid* That's kind of private. Sorry.

Brian: 

*peeks in the room*

Cassia: 

Alright. I won't force you to answer anything you don't want to. *looks over at Brian, smiles* Hey.

Brian: 

*steps into the doorway, glances at Cassia, looks at Ingrid* Matt commanded me to inform you that our departure is in minutes.

Ingrid: 

*smiles at him* Okay. We're almost finished.

Cassia: 

*nods* That was the last question actually.

Ingrid: 

Oh really? Okay.

Brian: 

*stares at Cassia, is solemn, blinks*

Cassia: 

Unless you want to add anything, we can wrap up. *glances at Brian, smiles*

Ingrid: 

I should go ... It was nice meeting you.

Brian: 
*doesn't smile back*

Cassia:

*looks back at Ingrid* Yeah you too. Thanks for answering some questions.

Ingrid:

No problem. Maybe we can do it again.

Brian: 

*sniffs, rubs his nose*

Cassia:

Yeah, for sure.

Ingrid: 

Bye. *waves a little*

Cassia:

Bye, Ingrid. *looks to Brian, lifts a hand* See ya.

Brian: 

*nods at cassia*

Ingrid:

 *smiles, leaves with Brian*

Me:

And that's all for this interview! You can check out more about Ingrid's book in current projects, her book's Pinterest board, pictures I've drawn for the book on deviantART and fan art on my Facebook page.
 Lastly if you got questions for Ingrid or Brian leave them in the comments and they'll be included in another interview! :D

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Interview with Bryce

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Interview with Matt
Interview with Brian

How to Write A Good Character Interview

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

A Book Review of The Emotion Thesaurus

Find it on Amazon here! :)

One of the biggest problem areas for writers is conveying a character's emotions to the reader in a unique, compelling way. This book comes to the rescue by highlighting 75 emotions and listing the possible body language cues, thoughts, and visceral responses for each. Using its easy-to-navigate list format, readers can draw inspiration from character cues that range in intensity to match any emotional moment. The Emotion Thesaurus also tackles common emotion-related writing problems and provides methods to overcome them. This writing tool encourages writers to show, not tell emotion and is a creative brainstorming resource for any fiction project.

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 6, 2012)

Page Count: 172

What I liked: When my mentor read over my manuscript last year she said I had a lot of generic actions (frowned, sighed, smiled, ect.). The first thing I thought was "How in the heck do I fix that? No one told me about this problem!"

So last year I struggled with trying to eliminate as many of those as I could during a rewrite, but for Christmas I got this Emotion Thesaurus and using it while editing my book has made keeping the emotional tags varied much easier!

The book has just about everyone emotion you could think of and many ways to portray them either physically or internally or mentally and more. Some of the physical ways I never thought of but when I pondered on it I thought to myself "Yeah ... wow people do actual do that. Heck, I do that!"

It has come in so much handy and is much better than wracking my brain to come up with something and I end up spending forty-five minutes on one paragraph (Yes, that happened to me. Don't judge!). Throughout the book it also has helpful tips on how to get the most out of your emotion. This is a great tool and not too expensive either! It definitely has permanent residence on my desk. :)

What I didn't like: I can't really think of anything I didn't like ...

Content Cautions: It's a thesaurus ... Nothing to set off alarms here unless you consider some mention in a PG way of some ways some emotions are expressed bad.

Over all I totally recommend this for any writer! :D Five stars!

About the Authors:

Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi are the creators of the award winning online resource for writers, The Bookshelf Muse (now Writers Helping Writers). Members of SCBWI, both authors write in the Middle Grade and Young Adult genres.

If you enjoyed this review, you can find more over on the Book Reviews tab of click the link. :)

If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

A Little Late Year's Beginning Post!

Matt and Ingrid from Subsapien Grafting (Drawn in 2013)

Hey I know it's late, but better late than never to do a beginning of the year post! It's in the first month so I'm good lol. XD Well firstly, I want to say thank you to all my followers of here, my Facebook page and Pinterest. I really appreciate all of you and you encourage me to keep on writing.

Hello to my new readers! I'm a young writer who works at a yogurt shop by day and writes by night. I'm a nerd and I love all things Whovian, Middle Earth, and Narnian. My dream is to be a published author. Thanks so much for viewing!

Some posts you all really enjoyed looking at last year were:
How to Write a 3D Villain Part 2
What Anime Can Teach Us About Writing
Tone Down But Don't Water Down

Last year I really got serious with writing and platform building. I wrote two drafts last year, edited a bunch, entered in contests, and did more blog posts than ever before. And thanks to you readers you've helped that grow. :) I've grown mentally and spiritually during its course. It was a good year for the most part, but I have a feeling this year will be even better.

Here are some of my goals for this year:

1.) This year I really want crack down on writing -  I'm going to finish editing Subsapien Biomech (the first book of my science fiction series Subsapien), work on the second and third book of that series, my fantasy Starbloods, and my newest idea for a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood. It's set in a fantasy steampunk environment where Little Red (called Mor in the book) is a werewolf huntress. You can check out more about it on my Pinterest board for Red Hoods.

2.) I want to do a new character drawing at least once a month - I love drawing and it really helps me visualize my characters. Below are a few drawings I did last year. ^ ^

Emil (Subsapien Grafting)

Brian (Subsapien Grafting)

Serra (Subsapien Grafting)

3.) This year I'm going to work very hard on posting consistently - I know I have a problem with that lol.

An update about what's going on now concerning progress for my dream: currently I'm editing Subsapien Biomech. I'm aiming to pitch it to an agent who was interested in my at a writer's conference in February/March. If I don't get one there I'm gonna start querying. :)

Now for some questions for you all ...

How have you all liked the blog this past year? Would you like to see any more of anything? Less of anything? What are some of your goals for this year?

Thank you again for your support! Happy Late New Year! :D

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If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)

Writing Humor Into Your Story

Hey, all! I'm finally back with another blog post! I took an end of the year hiatus but now I'm back. :) And I'm working hard on editing my sci-fi novel Subsapien Biomech. ^ ^ But anyway ... on to the post!

Humor is important for your story whether it's a dystopian, a fantasy, or a contemporary. It isn't just for comedies. It endears you to the characters of the story. It can help relieve tension in the story, because though tension can be good it becomes exhausting at times so a little joke or a funny incident can be a nice break. And hey, everyone likes to laugh.

Mahogany!

A tool used a lot by writers is the Comic Relief Character. They crack the most jokes or do the most funniest things either on purpose or naturally and bring a little humor into the story.

Some examples are Sokka from Avatar: the Last Airbender, Walter Foley from the Dragons in Our Midst series by Bryan Davis, Merry and Pippin from the Lord of the Rings, and Effie Trinket from The Hunger Games trilogy. One from my science-fiction series Subsapien is Emil.

Though these characters are often funny that shouldn't be the sole role of the character. These characters are also vital to the plot of their stories. Keep that in mind if you decide to include a comic relief character.

What makes you laugh? What do you laugh about with your friends? Do you like random humor? Like a character thinking up something totally out of the blue like Si Robertson from Duck Dynasty? Do you like witty humor like from Jane Austen books and films? Do you prefer goofy humor like Sokka from Avatar: the Last Airbender? Do you like slapstick like when a character does something klutzy?

You can find a way to weave this into your books during a rest period in your story or possibly in the middle of the action. If it makes you laugh, the reader most likely will too. A couple funny lines scattered here and there makes your story more enjoyable and this especially helps with darker stories. Effie Trinket not intentionally is the humor of the Hunger Games. She lightens up the mood when things get too tense.

Be careful about having too many funnies or your book becomes a comedy or they will become tedious. Strategically place your jokes at appropriate times in your story and they'll be the most effective. Sometimes a funny scene is good, but if it slows down the story too much you'll want to cut back.

Some examples of some good well-placed humor:

1.) In Avatar: the Last Airbender Season 2 Book 2 Earth Episode 11 "The Desert" the gang was stuck in the

Sokka (Avatar the Last Airbender)

desert and wandered for quite some time. To add in a way to make the journey less tedious the writers had Sokka drink some hallucinogenic cactus juice and it was hilarious.

2.) In the Hunger Games film, Haymitch, Peeta and Katniss were having a conversation over breakfast that got a little tense. When Katniss stabbed the table the with a knife Effie Trinket shouted from across the room, "That's mahogany!" This was both funny in its randomness and showed the character's over the top concern with materialistic things.

3.) In the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, Merry and Pippin were fleeing from an orc in Fangorn Forest. Pippin climbed up a tree to avoid their pursuer while Merry was being attacked by the orc, but the tree turned out to be an ent (a living tree creature).

The Ent saved Merry from the orc, but held both the hobbits in a crushing grip unsure if they are friend or foe. In the middle of the Ent's indecision on whether to kill them or not Pippin said, "It's talking, Merry! The tree is talking!" This effectively broke up the tension a little.

I hope this post helped you in writing humor! Happy writing and may the muse be ever your favor! ;)

Do you have a Comic Relief Character? What are some funny jokes in your books? 

You may also like:
Six Tips For Line Editing
Tone Down But Don't Water Down
Write What You Know ... And What You Don't Know
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If you liked this post, come back every Saturday for more writing advice, character interviews, book reviews and more! On Sundays I have Soundtrack Sundays where I post a new score piece, Tuesdays are Tea Tuesdays with tea reviews, Wednesdays I have Wonderful Word Wednesdays where I post a new vocabulary word, and Fridays are Fan Fridays where I post tags and other goodies. To help support my dream to be an author follow this blog, like me on Facebook, watch me on deviantART, and follow me on Pinterest and Twitter. If you want to know more about my books check out them out here. Thank you! :)