Emily H. Bates's Blog, page 9

Hello there, Friday

You know those weeks where you’re planning on getting that Monday blog post up there, and then suddenly it’s Friday? I don’t know what happened to this week, but boy, am I glad it’s the weekend.

Next week I’m heading to a writing retreat, where I will hopefully be massively productive and make lots of new writing buddies and get all inspired for . . .

NANOWRIMO!

Yep, you convinced me. I now have a profile and everything. You can find me on the NaNo website under ehbates. Come connect with me!...

Pre-Sun Productivity

I woke up at 3:30 this morning with my brain listing all the things I needed to do, that I’ve needed to do for a week and haven’t had the time or energy for, and I spent an hour convincing myself that I was never going to survive the winter.

But then I decided that, as long as I was awake, I might as well start crossing some of those things off my list. And, my friends, I crossed almost every item off that list. In two hours, I accomplished what I had planned to spend a month doing. It’ll sti...

Dangers of reading

“Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint.” —Mark Twain

October changes

I thrive on trying new things. (In my writing life, obviously–don’t go trying to get me to use a different brand of toothpaste.) The past few weeks, in an effort to cut back on headaches, I’ve been spending as little time as possible in front of my computer screen. And let me tell you, it has been a refreshing change. Aside from completing a hard-copy edit of the sequel to Demon’s Heart, I also pulled out this fabulous little notebook:

…and starting writing by hand for the first time in year...

Words wasted

“Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say infinitely when you mean very; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.” –CS Lewis

Yet another of the plagues of storytelling: so much blown-up language, action, and drama that there’s no room for subtlety. This is one reason I really struggle with dystopian novels. The world is ALWAYS ABOUT TO END and EVERYBODY WILL DIE. Yes, in all caps. I can’t stand a book that feels like it’s shouting at...

Let them die!

I have a few pet peeves when it comes to stories. Love triangles. Zombies. Unnecessary swearing. Insta-love.

And CHARACTERS WHO WON’T STAY DEAD.

This is a plague that runs rampant in stories today, be they in books, TV shows, or movies. If a character you like dies, have no fear! The writer(s) will find a way to prove that the character actually cheated death. Even if this character has “died” three or four times before, there’s no need to worry.

Last night, I watched the newest Doctor Who. T...

Joy from Pain

“Nobody suffers here,” Charles intoned. “Nobody is ever unhappy.”
“But nobody’s ever happy, either,” Meg said earnestly. “Maybe if you aren’t unhappy sometimes you don’t know how to be happy.” (Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time, 130)

Fireweed

Today, I’m pleased to present an excerpt of Fireweed by Terry Montague. Enjoy!

When I was
about three, my mom said, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I think she was expecting me to say, “A mommy,
like you.” Instead, I popped off with,
“I want to be a writer.” I can still remember her face. She said, “Well, don’t you think you need to
learn to read first?” I didn’t
think so. Terry Bohle
Montague is a BYU graduate and a free-lance writer, having written for
television, rad...

Satisfaction in creation

I was probably eleven or twelve when I first picked up James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small. To this day, it remains one of my all-time favorite go-to books for a good laugh. Herriot has a gift for impeccable depictions of idiosyncrasy, and his books neatly temper the absurd and hilarious with the somber and uplifting.

A few months ago, I discovered that Herriot’s son had written a biography of his father, and I had to read it. And I only love the man more.

Toward the end of the book...

I missed September 11, 2001. I was at a school nature ca...

I missed September 11, 2001. I was at a school nature camp, and the teachers chose not to tell us what had happened, leaving it for our parents to do four days later.

As such, my memories of that time are different from most. By the time I got home and saw the video footage, the paralysis of shock and fear had already passed by. There was still so much grief and pain, but the country was moving again, people pulling together to do what needed to be done. Churches of all denominations united...