Emily H. Bates's Blog, page 13
April 7, 2015
The Good Word
Checking in with some fun news today! A few weeks ago, I did a phone interview with Nick Galetti of the Good Word podcast, and today it’s up for the world to enjoy! You can listen to the interview here. And check out some of his other guests–they’re always good!
April 6, 2015
Stories within your story: Creation
It was a beautiful Easter weekend! I spent time with family, listened to leaders of my church speak at a general conference, and ate a lot of food. Scout wasn’t super into the egg hunt, but she was more than happy to eat the candy Daddy found for her.
I was explaining to someone this weekend that, although Easter is now widely viewed as a religious holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ, many of the widespread Easter traditions (e.g. Easter eggs, Easter bunny) come from its orig...
April 4, 2015
Because He Lives
Tragedy, trouble, despair, grief—all can be soothed, turned to peace and joy and love, because He lives. I wish you all a blessed and beautiful Easter!
March 28, 2015
Putting nettles to good use
When the world lost Terry Pratchett not so long ago, The Guardian posted an article from Neil Gaiman titled, “Terry Pratchett isn’t jolly. He’s angry.” The gist of the article is summed up in these two paragraphs:
“There is a fury to Terry Pratchett’s writing: it’s the fury that was the engine that powered Discworld. It’s also the anger at the headmaster who would decide that six-year-old Terry Pratchett would never be smart enough for the 11-plus; anger at pompous critics, and at those who t...
March 24, 2015
GIVEAWAY!
I’m giving away THREE copies of Demon’s Heart over on Goodreads! The giveaway ends April 6. Click below to enter, and tell all your friends!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Demon’s Heart by Emily Bates Giveaway ends April 06, 2015.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
March 23, 2015
Hearing voices everywhere . . .
Last week, I talked about the importance of giving your characters distinct voices. It takes a lot of work to find your character’s voice without completely overdoing it, so here’s another challenge to help you develop distinct voices:
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Rewrite part of a scene several times in first person, each time narrating the scene from a different character’s point of view.
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March 19, 2015
Venturing into Graphic Novels
In the continuing spirit of trying new things, I decided it was time to try that genre I’ve avoided for a long time: graphic novels. The book that convinced me it was time to try was A Wrinkle in Time: the graphic novel, originally by Madeleine L’Engle, adapted and illustrated by Hope Larson.
Honestly, I probably shouldn’t have started out my graphic novel adventure with an adaptation of one of my favorite books of all time. That’s just setting it up for failure. BUT I will say that I enjoyed...
March 18, 2015
NaNo in February?!
Today, I’m pleased to present Julie Holmes from Facets of a Muse! Julie writes adult mystery with psychic elements, mystery with a touch of romance, contemporary fantasy, and epic fantasy—and she’s got a decade of NaNoWriMos to her credit! That’s amazing. Keep reading to see how NaNoWriMo reshaped her writing process, and click here to see a sample of her novel Daughter of Pele. Thanks for visiting, Julie!
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First, thank you, Emily, for writing our first guest blog post for the Meet Your Ma...
March 16, 2015
Finding whose voice?
When I started to get more serious about my writing, one piece of advice I frequently heard was, “Find your voice.” Like most advice, it’s nebulous and somewhat misleading.
Writing is not just about finding your voice, because books are about so much more than the author. Beyond finding your “authorial” voice (whatever that is), you have to find the voice of your narrator and each of your characters.
It’s amazing how much characterization can be done solely through the way your character talk...
March 14, 2015
The Power of the New
I’ve been writing stories since I was ten years old. Earlier, if you count the ridiculously detailed games of make-believe I used to press on my friends. And yet my method is always changing, morphing, expanding. In the past two months, I’ve done a whole lot of things that I’ve never done before, and it’s improving my writing in a way I never could have done while staying in my comfortable habit zone. Here’s what’s new in my writing world:
Outlined an entire series before starting on the fir...
