Colors, shapes, smells, sights. I see it all, those images that are hard to picture for some. I see the beginning, the middle, and the end. I know the story before it’s even written down, before it’s even told. My mind is like a movie, continuously playing out for millions, if not trillions,of characters that will never get their stories told. I’m a writer, a storyteller, a spinner of tales. I know what the audience wants to see, what they want to read, what they want to hear. They want to know my characters, want to see them come to life on the pages. Not many have this ability to move the minds of our readers, but I have it, and I love using it.

My mind is hectic, quick, even insane, you might say with the characters I can manifest. Images, scenes, movies, stories, words, lyrics, songs, even sounds inspire some of the greatest characters to come to life. It starts like that, though, a single flash of something to get my mind going, to start those gears up once again. The creativity that my mind seems to run on allows me to make my imaginative characters come to life. As my brain molds them into something, they gain significant looks, traits, even possessions. They are no longer something locked away in the recesses of my mind. They are no longer memories. They are people that desire their stories to be told. They crave the attention that a writer can give their creations. They want to break out.

There are some characters in my head that are very distant, quiet, fuzzy even, because they are not ready, because they have not finished the process of being molded. They have little story, little meaning, little else than a beginning, middle, and end. They don’t have that element that makes a memory real, that makes a memory come to life. I have thousands of characters locked away as I wait for their stories to be finished. They may live in a dark place, but they will never lose their light that shines bright in my head. I will always remember them, the untold, the unfinished, the untouched…

Then there are the ones that have more than a beginning, middle, and end. They have a past, present, and future. They tell me the story and I write. They tell me how they feel, how they saw, who they were. These characters sit in the front of my mind, lined up in a long row, waiting as one after the other is drawn onto pages with words that create the character into who they are. Some characters have already explained their stories, making me feel like I know them from the inside out, like I know their very being, their very essence. Sometimes, I even know them like they’re a friend or a sibling. Some, I even know like a real person. You can’t just write a story without really knowing your characters, without really knowing their stories. Storytelling is a gift, is something unique that only few can truly master.

So many characters to pick from… Where do I begin? Well… there is Becca, a zombie apocalyptic survivor who has military background, has a father who was also in the military, is the leader of her own little band if ex-military and veterans, and who so happens to also be immune to the disease. She’s blonde, rugged, and has some kicking moves when defending herself against the undead. She’s told me her story as she fights off a hoard of zombies, how she knows she’s the cure, but can’t, without the help from doctors and scientist, seem to make a vaccine. She’s even told me about how she attempted to inject her blood into her best friend. Doing that, of course, only sped up the disease as it spread throughout his entire body from where he had been bitten in the side. He died only a few hours later…

Then there’s Alexander Montgomery. A rich and spoiled guy who’s spent his entire life knowing he’s been adopted by one of the city’s most richest couple ever. Of course, he never really knew his parents, or who they actually were--- more like what they were. Alex is a nephilim, son of another nephilim and an incubus demon, apart of another generation of ancient angel-made warriors meant to keep the peace between them and the demons. He’s got a tongue, he’s a flirt, and he knows little to nothing about saving the world. Luckily, though, he’s got his fellow nephilim brethren to help him out as they all work together to found out what their futures will really hold.

And returning to the more realistic route, is a character that is more heroic than any nephilim any day. Mike Thaler, nerd of the year, is benevolent, a genius, and a hopeless romantic who falls in love with a tall, brilliant blonde who could easily be his other half. His love for her is stressed when he has to deal with the stereotypical society his school is built on. He is a nerd and she is a cheerleader, and to everyone at the school, that’s like soiling the holy grail. The two learn to deal with the gossip and barriers that force the two apart, but as they begin to come closer, nothing seems to bother these two anymore.

Characters like that are born from flashes of inspiration in the forms of everyday life. Their first breaths are breathed when I see their faces come to life, when I see their stories unfold like a blanket before me. My mind is unusual. My mind is obscure. My mind is a storybook with endless opportunities to create the ultimate character, to create the next big thing. My imagination has no limits as I write day in and day out about those characters that burst with excitement inside my head. They desire a story and I desire to tell it. We are a team, my characters and I. They are the thoughts of a storyteller.