SURPRISE!
Yes, my lovelies, did or did I not promise a weekly CF article? I know it's been forever, but you know I can't fail you, right? ;)
Well, what are we waiting for? So much happened this month! Let's go go go!
No need to praise me for the cover, I know I'm awesome.
That counts as a little "word from the author/editor" right? Right. Let's get started then.
-So, what has been going on in CBF?
Well, as all of you've probably noticed, we'e growing pretty quickly. We also kept going for more than a whole year.
Some other family clubs ended in months, weeks, days. But we are one of those strong clubs here on fanpop that stay. We have our active/inactive days, but we're still here. And it's because of everyone of us that we still are, yay us!
As in for recent news, most of us who are still in school or college (i.e myself) have finals coming up. We all wish the best of luck to all of us who are starting/started with them.
Two of our most loved shows on here had their season finales a couple of weeks ago. Guess what shows are these? Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries. If you guessed both, you get a cookie.
So, what do we think about the finales? Let's see.
TVD:
**SPOILER ALERT** If you haven't seen that yet, I strongly advise you to turn away from your screen and go eat an oreo.
Well, what can I say, some of us liked it, others didn't. We all loved the return of Alaric, Jeremy and Lexie. Most of us loved the Klaroline, Delena and Mebekah scenes. But our feelings were mixed.
"I was pissed that JP wrote Stefan to be Silas doppelganger & that Silas threw Stefan down a lake." -Aria
"The ending though is so surprising with Silas being Stefan's doppelganger and what not." -Albie
The thing that seemed to bother many of us, though, is Katherine taking the cure. Many of us loved Katherine, we've seen her human, but we all liked Vampire!Katherine best.
It turned out amazing for the Delena fans on here. However, SE fans were disappointed.
"I feel sorry for Stefan, but VERY HAPPY for DE. Well I'm satisfied." - Mariam
"Stelena is my OTP so I was very disappointed about Delena & Elena's choice." -Ray
We all loved Klaus this epi though. And why not? He was epic, as always, only especially then. Our Klaroline fans weren't disappointed either.
"It was freaking awesome, mostly because of Klaroline." -Sara
SPN:
***SPOILER ALERT!*** If you haven't seen that yet, I strongly advise you to turn away from your screen and go eat an oreo.
Not many of us watched it yet, but we have mixed feeling on that, too. Basically, we mostly think it was epic. But I tell you, it hit us right in the FEELS. We loved Sam & Dean this episode, their brotherly love showing and all that. I, personally, loved Crowley so much this episode, mostly because Sam exposed his human side, and he showed it to us.
We do hate the idea of angels falling and Cas becoming human, though. But we all agree it promises a lot in the upcoming season.
-New People!
We've been getting a lot of new members lately. So, welcome guys! I'd like to say, all of us welcome you with open hearts, when I interviewed everyone, they welcomed all of you. But I specified some, because everyone is special here.
Albie would like to welcome Nic: "We've been friends for a while now, and I have to say, he is like my brother on here. He's so kind and lovely."
Ems sends her welcome to Ines: "Ines, hi! Thank you for participating in my icon competition and, well becoming a member of our family in the first place! I'm sure you'll fit in brilliantly here."
Aline welcomes Sofie: "We've talked a lot and she's so amazing & kind. we are so alike! We agree on a lot of things when we're talking about a show, episode etc. I'm really really glad I met her and hope we'll get to talk even more"
And I would like to welcome Anna: You will not believe how happy I was when you joined. I'm so, so glad to have you in our family.
-Come back, guys!
Along greeting new people, we also want to say how much we miss our "old" family. Some of you who came later on may not know them, but we all miss them dearly, and if they ever come back (they better), you'll love them.
Sara: "Rosa, l miss you so freaking much and you better drag your blond ass back ASAP! "
Atie: "Yousi. I miss her so much.We were becoming such good friends.I loved talking to her.She's the one who taught me how to walk on heels, haha."
Em: "Laura - Come back and talk to me!! We hadn't finished our Revenge chat ;/"
Smiley: Luis, I miss you so much, buddy. Where in seven hells are you? Come back!
-New Spot Look!
We recently renewed our spot look (about time), LET'S PARTY WOOO!!!
The banner and icon were made by our amazingly talented Marty. And the "theme" for our current spot look is Em. If you're new and don't know what the "spot theme" is, you can check it out link. Basically, members are nominated every now and then, we later vote based on the most contributing people to this club. The winner then lists everything he/she wants to include in the banner and we begin our magic. After that, the polls are put up with different motos, banners and icons that we made, and the winning ones are our new spot look. The icon is always Chair with our symbol.
But not everything the person lists makes it to the banner, they might not (by might not I mean they never) fit because we just love everything!
This time, it was Emsy who won, and it's her banner (made by Marty, of course) which is up there. And she was kind enough to give us a little bit of an insight from there.
"Well, there are my 6 fave actresses; Candice, Ashley, Kristen, Jenn and the 2 newer additions (who are actually now quite old additions) Shai and Lily! I had to include these because they're basically the loves of my life.
Then there's One Direction and I simply had to include those babes based on how much I adore them! Clace are one of my main OTPs whom I ship with a passion, and then there's Divergent which pretty much equals life. (Those are just the ones that made it onto the banner, there is a more extensive list somewhere)"
So, that banner practically describes Emily, or at least a big part of her. We'll see who gets the pot look next time.
GAME TIME!
Let's see which one of four members four family do you have most things in common with.
Marty, Em, Villy, or Ray?
How to play, you ask? Take this trivia, remember which letter you chose for every question (I recommend writing it down) and see your results below. Tell us what you get in the comments!
Out of the series below, which ONE is your favorite?
a) Lord of The Rings
b) The Hunger Games
c) Harry Potter
d) Supernatural
Chose ONE eyecandy.
a) Ed Westwick
b) Robert Pattinson
c) Christian Bale
d) Jensen Ackles
What are you most into?
a) Icon/Banner/Fanart making
b) Reading
c) Writing
d) Football (Soccer)
If you were to compliment yourself with one word, what will it be?
a)Creative
b)Sweet
c)Smart
d)Fun
Favorite actress out of these?
a)Troian Bellisario
b)Jennifer Lawrence
c)Nina Dobrev
d)Ashley Greene
RESULTS:
Mostly A's: Marty!
Marty is an amazing, smart, caring, kind and awesome person. She'll never leave you deserted. Ever. Not mentioning she's a walking encyclopedia of awesomeness. You are lucky to have so much in common with her.
Mostly B's: Em!
The nicest person you'd ever meet. She never judges you by what you like or what you believe in. A Perfect example of what all of us should be these days. Emsy is an amazing role model, and you can't help but love her. If you're like her, then you, my friend, have a big future.
Mostly C's: Ray!
Smart, fun, talented, what else do you need to describe this amazing person? Maybe every single good adjective from the dictionary. Ray has the awesomest(that's a word now) brain I've ever seen, apart from my own of course. So, if you are most like her, you're either super awesome, or Einstein.
Mostly D's: Vills!
One word to describe Villy? Badass. If you need a laugh, some epicness, anyone's ass kicked, she's the girl to ask for. Absolutely hilarious and very caring. (Also a huge football fan) You better feel epic if you're most like her.
-Ray & Smiley's Writing Lives
Now, as you all know, Ray & I really enjoy writing. So, I did a little Q&A with Ray and answered the questions myself as well. Yeah, schizophrenic me asking myself questions. Sort of an inside scoop of writing. If we're ever gonna become published authors, we're gonna have a lot of that. So, suit yourselves, here we go!
At our age, as a published author to be, one has to catch up with school crap, personal crap, and writing crap. How do you catch up with all that crap?
Ray: Well, I am kind of a lazy bitch, so school is never a priority for me at heart, but I know I have to do well in school to get into med school, so I study my ass off and on those weeks when I do, writing kind of stops. And when I'm done, I'm back on the writing path ;) And as for personal crap, writing has really helped me with it. This has been a particularly difficult year for me emotionally, and I always feel better when I write.
Smiley: Honestly, it's not as easy. Catching up with all of that. But I try my best to divide my time. Usually, when I'm too pressured I don't get the inspiration I do to write. That's why it takes me such a long time to post new material. But eventually, I manage, divide my time, the usual.
Would you say writing is your best talent? Or do you think you're better at something else?
Ray: Yes, writing is my best talent. It's my only talent, if you ask me :/ I just love to write and create worlds, characters & relationships and then be in charge of them growing and changing over time. I absolutely love that. So yes, writing is my talent - even if others disagree on this XD
Smiley: Uhm, I don't know, to be honest. Lots of people think I'm talented at many things. i.e photoshop, acting and videomaking. But I always accepted my true talent as writing. I guess I can sing, too. But I've always seen myself as one awesome writer. If there's anything other than that, I'd say I'm good in photoshop, but I learn and forget stuff there very often (if you haven't noticed how my style often changes), while writing always stays with me forever. I also think it's way more interesting to write and create mentally than visually, because the human brain works wonders.
What would you say one needs to be a good author?
Ray: Imagination. It's the only thing you need to have to be a good writer. Well, that and interest, of course. And maybe a computer..
Anyway, yes, imagination. If nothing comes to mind, what is there to write about?
Smiley: I think this is one of the things you need both talent and skill in. If you write a book with talent and imagination, but no grammatical or literal skill whatsoever, we wouldn't understand crap. And if your skills are good, but you don't have the talent to make your story worth reading, then what's the whole point? Being an author is easy, being a good one isn't. Because you also have to socialize a lot, to know the way people think around you. Also, organizing events in the plot can be very hard. So I think a good author should master both talent and skill.
Are your works inspired by anyone?
Ray: Well, my books and fics (strangely enough) are usually kind of based on movies and tv-shows. Of course authors like Rowling have helped me to develop my story-telling, but as for storylines, the only ones I ever even think of using in my books are from tv-shows/movies. Not that I copy storylines :P you know what I mean!
Smiley: I have different inspirations for different books. Right now, The Power Of Nine, is mostly inspired by Lemony Snicket and Suzanne Collins. But, if you talk in general, it's J.K. Rowling who inspired me to be an author in the first place. I also get many ideas from Supernatural, because I just love it very much.
Would you say writing is "hard"?
Ray: No, writing is not hard at all. Like I said before, it's all about imagination & the will. If you don't wanna do it, then don't do it. Don't bitch about how you can't. If you don't have the time, that's a proper reason, but if you can't, it's usually a writer's block or you're just not that into it.
Smiley: Well, like I said before, I don't think writing is hard, but good writing can be hard. And by good, I mean breathtakingly perfect, the sort of writing that gets you hooked by the first word and makes you sit there like a freak until someone slams the book shut before your eyes making you end their life bloody. Imagination plays an important role here, and so do, like I also said before, talent and skill. You just need to know how to combine all these and throw it out there. Not everyone can do that. So, it's sort of easy, but a little difficult at some point, too. And, if you have inspiration, if it's actually something you love doing, and have a good purpose, then you'll achieve all of the above.
Do you prefer writing a series or individual stories? Is writing more than one story at the same time a good idea?
Ray: I prefer writing multipart stories like Group 7, because I'm all about character development, couple development, storyline development. Basically development :P But I sometimes write oneshot fics or short fanfics, but they're never as interesting.
And writing one than one story at the time or even planning more than one can be confusing. But me, right now I'm writing/planning about.. 8 stories, and here I am, still :P Group 7 is my main project, and the others are just like.. smaller babies XD I love it all, though!
Smiley: Multipart, by far. Writing novels or short stories is fun, but series gives you opportunity for more detail, more suspense, more stories within stories, more than one plot, even. Series are always more interesting. And I don't think it's a bad idea to write more than one story at the same time, but choose a main one and focus mostly on it, otherwise it will take you forever, and you might get confused.
Do you ever base your characters off someone?
Ray: I do sometimes base my characters on people. Like when I pick actors for the roles (which is what I always do), I might make the characters sometimes just a litttlleee like the actual character the actor has played. It's a bad habit, but I think I'm getting past it. It's important to just let the character live their own life and not try to make them like characters that ALREADY exists. No one likes a copycat, just ask Katherine Pierce and Elena Gilbert.
I never base characters on myself, though. Never. I'm not a person to write about. I'm not interesting.
Smiley: I losley base some character's appearances on people I know, people that are close to me. And my character's personalities on different people from here and there, like a tiny piece of each of twenty different people in one character. I don't even know of the people, they might be some I talked to once in my life or my sister or brother, I never focus on that, but I know every character has a little bit of something from some people in my life.Maybe a little bit of me, too.
Who would you say is the best author among us (CF)?
Ray: Best writer on the CBF is you, Smiley. By miles. Your stories are incredible & you're so creative and unique. I've never read a story like yours and I know I never will. It's perfect!
Smiley: I'm not saying this because she said that about me, but because it's true, Ray. It's so rare that I meet such a talented and amazing author. If I had more time on my hands, I'd read G7 over and over again and go to a publishing company to ask if they can get her published. Because, really, there's so few people as talented and skillful as her in this world. You have the brain of an epic genius and author, Ray.
If getting published wouldn't work, what will you do for a living that involves writing?
Ray: Well, I don't know.. Since what I wanna do is be a surgeon & a writer, but if that doesn't work out, I suppose I could be an editor. Not as fun, but I could make it work :)
Smiley: I'll probably be a screen writer or a Journalist. If something not involved in writing, then graphic design or production.
Yep, there's a lot more to writing than you think.
-New Fandoms & Descoveries! + Epic quotes
Here are a few updates on what we recently discovered on the big & small screens, what we think of them and what we advise you to watch. And a family quote from almost each of us.
Mariam: Hannibal - Like it very much. It makes me want to eat =D
"When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses." -Joyce Brothers.
Sara: I hope Arrow counts, it's freaking amazing, more people need to watch it. Latest movie I've seen is The Big Wedding which totally rocked.
"Family is not an important thing. It's everything." -Michael J. Fox
Albie: Private Practice, and it's pretty bad. I only love a few characters and ship only a couple of couples. It's getting better though. Grey's I started in February and hopefully you know how I feel about that... [Oh, yes, Albie, we do ;)] Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. Oh my flipping jesus, I love it so much! Big George/Winona shipper here! Chris Pine is beautiful and amazing in it! Can I marry him please? Also I recently watched Iron Man 3 and that was freaking epic!!
"Ohana means family, family means nobody left behind" - Daveigh Chase as Lilo Pelekai
Emsy: One show I recently started watching was Once Upon a Time, It's very interesting, I liked it a lot :) The last movies I watched were The Twilight Saga, marathon style! And as you can probably imagine, IT. WAS. EPIC.
"I value that some of life's best moments happen over a meal with your family or a glass of wine with your friends." -Candice Accola (Cover quote)
Aria: Tv: Hemlock Grove, Game of Thrones & Vikings. Movies:Magic Mike (I'm so late watching it lol). Thoughts: AWESOMENESS.
"Family is not an important thing. It's everything." -Michael J. Fox (Sara's quote too)
Aline (This is something a little different): I didn't really start watching a show recently (except the ones that are new on TV but they are so recent that I don't even have an opinion on them)
So if that's okay I'm going to talk to you about a show that I really love & was cancelled this year: The Office.
The show had a good run (9 seasons) but I'm going to miss it so so much. It has everything I like in a show: Tons of fun stuff, some romance, some drama, emotional moments, etc. Now that the show is done, I feel like I've lost 16 of my closest friends at the same time. It's like the same effect in Friends: you watch them for so long it feels like you're a part of their life as you saw everything.
[We feel you, Ali, we feel you.]
Well it's not that recent but one movie that I absolutely loved this year is Les Misérables. It was amazing. The settings, the costumes, the songs! Everything. I've read the book so I knew the story and all but the fact that it was musical made it so much better. There are 2 of my favorite actors in it (Amanda Seyfried & Eddie Redmayne) but I didn't know that Aaron Tveit (who I've such a crush on :p) was also in it, so I was thrilled, really.
"When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ” ― Jim Butcher
And that's it for this time. Note this took me 3 days to write because school is, uhm killing me. I hope you guys liked the little surprise. Better prepare for next week if you did. Love you all to death <3
"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing." - Unknown (Bonus quote by Aline)
Yes, my lovelies, did or did I not promise a weekly CF article? I know it's been forever, but you know I can't fail you, right? ;)
Well, what are we waiting for? So much happened this month! Let's go go go!
No need to praise me for the cover, I know I'm awesome.
That counts as a little "word from the author/editor" right? Right. Let's get started then.
-So, what has been going on in CBF?
Well, as all of you've probably noticed, we'e growing pretty quickly. We also kept going for more than a whole year.
Some other family clubs ended in months, weeks, days. But we are one of those strong clubs here on fanpop that stay. We have our active/inactive days, but we're still here. And it's because of everyone of us that we still are, yay us!
As in for recent news, most of us who are still in school or college (i.e myself) have finals coming up. We all wish the best of luck to all of us who are starting/started with them.
Two of our most loved shows on here had their season finales a couple of weeks ago. Guess what shows are these? Supernatural and The Vampire Diaries. If you guessed both, you get a cookie.
So, what do we think about the finales? Let's see.
TVD:
**SPOILER ALERT** If you haven't seen that yet, I strongly advise you to turn away from your screen and go eat an oreo.
Well, what can I say, some of us liked it, others didn't. We all loved the return of Alaric, Jeremy and Lexie. Most of us loved the Klaroline, Delena and Mebekah scenes. But our feelings were mixed.
"I was pissed that JP wrote Stefan to be Silas doppelganger & that Silas threw Stefan down a lake." -Aria
"The ending though is so surprising with Silas being Stefan's doppelganger and what not." -Albie
The thing that seemed to bother many of us, though, is Katherine taking the cure. Many of us loved Katherine, we've seen her human, but we all liked Vampire!Katherine best.
It turned out amazing for the Delena fans on here. However, SE fans were disappointed.
"I feel sorry for Stefan, but VERY HAPPY for DE. Well I'm satisfied." - Mariam
"Stelena is my OTP so I was very disappointed about Delena & Elena's choice." -Ray
We all loved Klaus this epi though. And why not? He was epic, as always, only especially then. Our Klaroline fans weren't disappointed either.
"It was freaking awesome, mostly because of Klaroline." -Sara
SPN:
***SPOILER ALERT!*** If you haven't seen that yet, I strongly advise you to turn away from your screen and go eat an oreo.
Not many of us watched it yet, but we have mixed feeling on that, too. Basically, we mostly think it was epic. But I tell you, it hit us right in the FEELS. We loved Sam & Dean this episode, their brotherly love showing and all that. I, personally, loved Crowley so much this episode, mostly because Sam exposed his human side, and he showed it to us.
We do hate the idea of angels falling and Cas becoming human, though. But we all agree it promises a lot in the upcoming season.
-New People!
We've been getting a lot of new members lately. So, welcome guys! I'd like to say, all of us welcome you with open hearts, when I interviewed everyone, they welcomed all of you. But I specified some, because everyone is special here.
Albie would like to welcome Nic: "We've been friends for a while now, and I have to say, he is like my brother on here. He's so kind and lovely."
Ems sends her welcome to Ines: "Ines, hi! Thank you for participating in my icon competition and, well becoming a member of our family in the first place! I'm sure you'll fit in brilliantly here."
Aline welcomes Sofie: "We've talked a lot and she's so amazing & kind. we are so alike! We agree on a lot of things when we're talking about a show, episode etc. I'm really really glad I met her and hope we'll get to talk even more"
And I would like to welcome Anna: You will not believe how happy I was when you joined. I'm so, so glad to have you in our family.
-Come back, guys!
Along greeting new people, we also want to say how much we miss our "old" family. Some of you who came later on may not know them, but we all miss them dearly, and if they ever come back (they better), you'll love them.
Sara: "Rosa, l miss you so freaking much and you better drag your blond ass back ASAP! "
Atie: "Yousi. I miss her so much.We were becoming such good friends.I loved talking to her.She's the one who taught me how to walk on heels, haha."
Em: "Laura - Come back and talk to me!! We hadn't finished our Revenge chat ;/"
Smiley: Luis, I miss you so much, buddy. Where in seven hells are you? Come back!
-New Spot Look!
We recently renewed our spot look (about time), LET'S PARTY WOOO!!!
The banner and icon were made by our amazingly talented Marty. And the "theme" for our current spot look is Em. If you're new and don't know what the "spot theme" is, you can check it out link. Basically, members are nominated every now and then, we later vote based on the most contributing people to this club. The winner then lists everything he/she wants to include in the banner and we begin our magic. After that, the polls are put up with different motos, banners and icons that we made, and the winning ones are our new spot look. The icon is always Chair with our symbol.
But not everything the person lists makes it to the banner, they might not (by might not I mean they never) fit because we just love everything!
This time, it was Emsy who won, and it's her banner (made by Marty, of course) which is up there. And she was kind enough to give us a little bit of an insight from there.
"Well, there are my 6 fave actresses; Candice, Ashley, Kristen, Jenn and the 2 newer additions (who are actually now quite old additions) Shai and Lily! I had to include these because they're basically the loves of my life.
Then there's One Direction and I simply had to include those babes based on how much I adore them! Clace are one of my main OTPs whom I ship with a passion, and then there's Divergent which pretty much equals life. (Those are just the ones that made it onto the banner, there is a more extensive list somewhere)"
So, that banner practically describes Emily, or at least a big part of her. We'll see who gets the pot look next time.
GAME TIME!
Let's see which one of four members four family do you have most things in common with.
Marty, Em, Villy, or Ray?
How to play, you ask? Take this trivia, remember which letter you chose for every question (I recommend writing it down) and see your results below. Tell us what you get in the comments!
Out of the series below, which ONE is your favorite?
a) Lord of The Rings
b) The Hunger Games
c) Harry Potter
d) Supernatural
Chose ONE eyecandy.
a) Ed Westwick
b) Robert Pattinson
c) Christian Bale
d) Jensen Ackles
What are you most into?
a) Icon/Banner/Fanart making
b) Reading
c) Writing
d) Football (Soccer)
If you were to compliment yourself with one word, what will it be?
a)Creative
b)Sweet
c)Smart
d)Fun
Favorite actress out of these?
a)Troian Bellisario
b)Jennifer Lawrence
c)Nina Dobrev
d)Ashley Greene
RESULTS:
Mostly A's: Marty!
Marty is an amazing, smart, caring, kind and awesome person. She'll never leave you deserted. Ever. Not mentioning she's a walking encyclopedia of awesomeness. You are lucky to have so much in common with her.
Mostly B's: Em!
The nicest person you'd ever meet. She never judges you by what you like or what you believe in. A Perfect example of what all of us should be these days. Emsy is an amazing role model, and you can't help but love her. If you're like her, then you, my friend, have a big future.
Mostly C's: Ray!
Smart, fun, talented, what else do you need to describe this amazing person? Maybe every single good adjective from the dictionary. Ray has the awesomest(that's a word now) brain I've ever seen, apart from my own of course. So, if you are most like her, you're either super awesome, or Einstein.
Mostly D's: Vills!
One word to describe Villy? Badass. If you need a laugh, some epicness, anyone's ass kicked, she's the girl to ask for. Absolutely hilarious and very caring. (Also a huge football fan) You better feel epic if you're most like her.
-Ray & Smiley's Writing Lives
Now, as you all know, Ray & I really enjoy writing. So, I did a little Q&A with Ray and answered the questions myself as well. Yeah, schizophrenic me asking myself questions. Sort of an inside scoop of writing. If we're ever gonna become published authors, we're gonna have a lot of that. So, suit yourselves, here we go!
At our age, as a published author to be, one has to catch up with school crap, personal crap, and writing crap. How do you catch up with all that crap?
Ray: Well, I am kind of a lazy bitch, so school is never a priority for me at heart, but I know I have to do well in school to get into med school, so I study my ass off and on those weeks when I do, writing kind of stops. And when I'm done, I'm back on the writing path ;) And as for personal crap, writing has really helped me with it. This has been a particularly difficult year for me emotionally, and I always feel better when I write.
Smiley: Honestly, it's not as easy. Catching up with all of that. But I try my best to divide my time. Usually, when I'm too pressured I don't get the inspiration I do to write. That's why it takes me such a long time to post new material. But eventually, I manage, divide my time, the usual.
Would you say writing is your best talent? Or do you think you're better at something else?
Ray: Yes, writing is my best talent. It's my only talent, if you ask me :/ I just love to write and create worlds, characters & relationships and then be in charge of them growing and changing over time. I absolutely love that. So yes, writing is my talent - even if others disagree on this XD
Smiley: Uhm, I don't know, to be honest. Lots of people think I'm talented at many things. i.e photoshop, acting and videomaking. But I always accepted my true talent as writing. I guess I can sing, too. But I've always seen myself as one awesome writer. If there's anything other than that, I'd say I'm good in photoshop, but I learn and forget stuff there very often (if you haven't noticed how my style often changes), while writing always stays with me forever. I also think it's way more interesting to write and create mentally than visually, because the human brain works wonders.
What would you say one needs to be a good author?
Ray: Imagination. It's the only thing you need to have to be a good writer. Well, that and interest, of course. And maybe a computer..
Anyway, yes, imagination. If nothing comes to mind, what is there to write about?
Smiley: I think this is one of the things you need both talent and skill in. If you write a book with talent and imagination, but no grammatical or literal skill whatsoever, we wouldn't understand crap. And if your skills are good, but you don't have the talent to make your story worth reading, then what's the whole point? Being an author is easy, being a good one isn't. Because you also have to socialize a lot, to know the way people think around you. Also, organizing events in the plot can be very hard. So I think a good author should master both talent and skill.
Are your works inspired by anyone?
Ray: Well, my books and fics (strangely enough) are usually kind of based on movies and tv-shows. Of course authors like Rowling have helped me to develop my story-telling, but as for storylines, the only ones I ever even think of using in my books are from tv-shows/movies. Not that I copy storylines :P you know what I mean!
Smiley: I have different inspirations for different books. Right now, The Power Of Nine, is mostly inspired by Lemony Snicket and Suzanne Collins. But, if you talk in general, it's J.K. Rowling who inspired me to be an author in the first place. I also get many ideas from Supernatural, because I just love it very much.
Would you say writing is "hard"?
Ray: No, writing is not hard at all. Like I said before, it's all about imagination & the will. If you don't wanna do it, then don't do it. Don't bitch about how you can't. If you don't have the time, that's a proper reason, but if you can't, it's usually a writer's block or you're just not that into it.
Smiley: Well, like I said before, I don't think writing is hard, but good writing can be hard. And by good, I mean breathtakingly perfect, the sort of writing that gets you hooked by the first word and makes you sit there like a freak until someone slams the book shut before your eyes making you end their life bloody. Imagination plays an important role here, and so do, like I also said before, talent and skill. You just need to know how to combine all these and throw it out there. Not everyone can do that. So, it's sort of easy, but a little difficult at some point, too. And, if you have inspiration, if it's actually something you love doing, and have a good purpose, then you'll achieve all of the above.
Do you prefer writing a series or individual stories? Is writing more than one story at the same time a good idea?
Ray: I prefer writing multipart stories like Group 7, because I'm all about character development, couple development, storyline development. Basically development :P But I sometimes write oneshot fics or short fanfics, but they're never as interesting.
And writing one than one story at the time or even planning more than one can be confusing. But me, right now I'm writing/planning about.. 8 stories, and here I am, still :P Group 7 is my main project, and the others are just like.. smaller babies XD I love it all, though!
Smiley: Multipart, by far. Writing novels or short stories is fun, but series gives you opportunity for more detail, more suspense, more stories within stories, more than one plot, even. Series are always more interesting. And I don't think it's a bad idea to write more than one story at the same time, but choose a main one and focus mostly on it, otherwise it will take you forever, and you might get confused.
Do you ever base your characters off someone?
Ray: I do sometimes base my characters on people. Like when I pick actors for the roles (which is what I always do), I might make the characters sometimes just a litttlleee like the actual character the actor has played. It's a bad habit, but I think I'm getting past it. It's important to just let the character live their own life and not try to make them like characters that ALREADY exists. No one likes a copycat, just ask Katherine Pierce and Elena Gilbert.
I never base characters on myself, though. Never. I'm not a person to write about. I'm not interesting.
Smiley: I losley base some character's appearances on people I know, people that are close to me. And my character's personalities on different people from here and there, like a tiny piece of each of twenty different people in one character. I don't even know of the people, they might be some I talked to once in my life or my sister or brother, I never focus on that, but I know every character has a little bit of something from some people in my life.Maybe a little bit of me, too.
Who would you say is the best author among us (CF)?
Ray: Best writer on the CBF is you, Smiley. By miles. Your stories are incredible & you're so creative and unique. I've never read a story like yours and I know I never will. It's perfect!
Smiley: I'm not saying this because she said that about me, but because it's true, Ray. It's so rare that I meet such a talented and amazing author. If I had more time on my hands, I'd read G7 over and over again and go to a publishing company to ask if they can get her published. Because, really, there's so few people as talented and skillful as her in this world. You have the brain of an epic genius and author, Ray.
If getting published wouldn't work, what will you do for a living that involves writing?
Ray: Well, I don't know.. Since what I wanna do is be a surgeon & a writer, but if that doesn't work out, I suppose I could be an editor. Not as fun, but I could make it work :)
Smiley: I'll probably be a screen writer or a Journalist. If something not involved in writing, then graphic design or production.
Yep, there's a lot more to writing than you think.
-New Fandoms & Descoveries! + Epic quotes
Here are a few updates on what we recently discovered on the big & small screens, what we think of them and what we advise you to watch. And a family quote from almost each of us.
Mariam: Hannibal - Like it very much. It makes me want to eat =D
"When you look at your life, the greatest happinesses are family happinesses." -Joyce Brothers.
Sara: I hope Arrow counts, it's freaking amazing, more people need to watch it. Latest movie I've seen is The Big Wedding which totally rocked.
"Family is not an important thing. It's everything." -Michael J. Fox
Albie: Private Practice, and it's pretty bad. I only love a few characters and ship only a couple of couples. It's getting better though. Grey's I started in February and hopefully you know how I feel about that... [Oh, yes, Albie, we do ;)] Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness. Oh my flipping jesus, I love it so much! Big George/Winona shipper here! Chris Pine is beautiful and amazing in it! Can I marry him please? Also I recently watched Iron Man 3 and that was freaking epic!!
"Ohana means family, family means nobody left behind" - Daveigh Chase as Lilo Pelekai
Emsy: One show I recently started watching was Once Upon a Time, It's very interesting, I liked it a lot :) The last movies I watched were The Twilight Saga, marathon style! And as you can probably imagine, IT. WAS. EPIC.
"I value that some of life's best moments happen over a meal with your family or a glass of wine with your friends." -Candice Accola (Cover quote)
Aria: Tv: Hemlock Grove, Game of Thrones & Vikings. Movies:Magic Mike (I'm so late watching it lol). Thoughts: AWESOMENESS.
"Family is not an important thing. It's everything." -Michael J. Fox (Sara's quote too)
Aline (This is something a little different): I didn't really start watching a show recently (except the ones that are new on TV but they are so recent that I don't even have an opinion on them)
So if that's okay I'm going to talk to you about a show that I really love & was cancelled this year: The Office.
The show had a good run (9 seasons) but I'm going to miss it so so much. It has everything I like in a show: Tons of fun stuff, some romance, some drama, emotional moments, etc. Now that the show is done, I feel like I've lost 16 of my closest friends at the same time. It's like the same effect in Friends: you watch them for so long it feels like you're a part of their life as you saw everything.
[We feel you, Ali, we feel you.]
Well it's not that recent but one movie that I absolutely loved this year is Les Misérables. It was amazing. The settings, the costumes, the songs! Everything. I've read the book so I knew the story and all but the fact that it was musical made it so much better. There are 2 of my favorite actors in it (Amanda Seyfried & Eddie Redmayne) but I didn't know that Aaron Tveit (who I've such a crush on :p) was also in it, so I was thrilled, really.
"When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ” ― Jim Butcher
And that's it for this time. Note this took me 3 days to write because school is, uhm killing me. I hope you guys liked the little surprise. Better prepare for next week if you did. Love you all to death <3
"The love of a family is life's greatest blessing." - Unknown (Bonus quote by Aline)