An Empire of Notebooks

3/2/17

Life update

It's been a while...

Since last time, I've turned eighteen (yay, adulting is so much fun... Ugh why... D:), finished the first draft of my zombie story, completely dropped the zombie story because I started hating it way too much, and started rewrites on my fantasy novel.

Writing is going well. I'm currently at 40K words for 2017, which is better than I've ever done in the beginning of a new year. I'm proud of myself.

I'm going to graduate in a few months, so school is just really stressful right now. I have my matriculation exams this month, and after that I'll finally be free from school for good! Yay! Except if I go to uni, because then it'll be far from over... But I refuse to think about that yet.

What else...

I'm just really happy right now. I think I have my life in order. Everything's good, even though I'm SO DONE with studying now. Graduating is super fun but it also sucks a lot. So many things to worry about and stay up at night for... But I'm happy. Usually. So it's all right.

All right... Yep.

Camp Nanowrimo is coming soon! :D I'm so excited about that! I hope to finish my current manuscript then, so that I can go on to even more edits and maybe have it completely done before this year ends. It's kind of strange to think about 2018 in 2017, but now that I'm legally an adult, I've got to think about the future. Sigh.

No, but really. Even though I wished that Peter Pan would just come and take me to Neverland the day before my birthday, being an adult isn't entirely bad. I mean, it was a lot more fun not to worry about adult things, but I also feel like my life has begun now. I'm responsible for myself now and am the writer of my own fairy tale. And that's an amazing power to have. Muwahhahaa.

I'm really happy that 2017 is here. Last year wasn't a bad year for me, but I just look back and can't remember much anything that I accomplished, and I procrastinated on everything. 2017 will be different. I just know it. It already is different.

Keep writing, lovely people! I hope to be back soon (maybe).

/Em

6/27/16

'Walk' synonyms

My critique partners have said to me many times that I use the word 'walk' way too much, which I totally agree with. And that's why I decided to create this list. I hope you find this helpful :)

Happy writing!!

Limp: walk unsteadily because of injury, especially favoring one leg; see also falter
Pound: see lumber
Lumber: walk slowly and heavily
Roam: see ramble
Ramble: walk or travel aimlessly (also, talk or write aimlessly, or grow wildly)
Sashay: see parade
Saunter: to walk about easily
Scuff: to walk without lifting one’s feet
Shamble: see scuff
Shuffle: see scuff (also, mix, move around, or rearrange)
Prance: walk joyfully, as if dancing or skipping
Stagger: walk unsteadily (also, confuse or hesitate, or shake)
Lurch: walk slowly but with sudden movements, or furtively
March: walk rhythmically alone or in a group according to a specified procedure
Mince: walk delicately
Mosey: walk easily and/or aimlessly
Pace: walk precisely to mark off a distance, or walk intently or nervously, especially back and forth
Amble: walk easily and/or aimlessly
Bounce: walk energetically
Clump: walk heavily and/or clumsily
Falter: walk unsteadily
Traverse: walk across or over a distance
Footslog: walk through mud
Gimp: walk unsteadily because of injury, especially favoring one leg
Trample: walk so as to crush something underfoot
Plod: walk slowly and heavily, as if reluctant or weary
Hobble: walk unsteadily or with difficulty; see also limp
Trot: walk briskly or lightly, see nip
Nip: walk briskly or lightly, eg. brief walk to a certain destination, as if on an errand
Swagger: walk with aggressive self-confidence
Tiptoe: walk carefully on the toes or on the balls of the foot, as if in stealth
Troop: walk in unison, or collectively

6/8/16

5 rules to writing unforgettable characters that breathe on the page

Hi!

Someone asked me to write about how to create realistic and likeable characters, and since I struggle a little bit with this myself, I went on a journey to find the best articles on it. So... I didn't get any sleep last night either... But now I know how to write an awesome character. Win!

Here are some "rules", and at the end of this post are five links to the articles I read.

Rule nr. 1: All of your characters must change

In real life, people don't change that much, but in fiction, they have to. It's just unrealistic if they don't. Crazy, right? So, the theory is this:

In the beginning of your story, let's say your protagonist hates magic.
Then something happens to her that forces her to use magic.
In the end, she realizes that magic is a good thing if you use it the right way, and uses her magic to fight off the bad guys. Happy ever after.

Your protagonist is really sad because their life sucks.
Something happens that makes their life even worse.
They learn that they have to stay strong and not be miserable because life will suck anyways. The end.

(That was a pretty depressing example, but you get the point.) Your characters have to change in some way. It doesn't even be very drastic, but it has to make sense and be realistic. The characters have to have reason to change.

Rule nr. 2: Know your characters

If you don't know your characters better than yourself, then how are you going to write an entire book about them? The secret here is to write down as much as you think you need to know about them and then put it on the wall next to your writing desk or in a story bible. But don't ever make the mistake of info-dumping! Your readers don't need to know everything about the characters. When we talk about world building, we are often advised to know as much as we can about the world, but only spill the most important information to the reader, and that way, they'll automatically know that there's much we aren't telling them. And that same advice goes for characters too.

Character questionnaires are perfect for this. One is in the links below, but there's also plenty of them everywhere on the internet :)

Rule nr. 3: Listen to peoples' conversations

If you travel to school or work by bus, leave your phone in you pocket and your earphones at home. Dialogue is an enormous part of who we are, and its importance is unfortunately often underestimated. To be able to write good dialogue, you have to listen to people and also read a lot of dialogue in books. If you're an introvert, just watch a movie and make notes of how people speak and what their choice of words tell about them.

A big part of our personalities can be seen in the way we speak, so take your time to figure out how your character's voices stand out from each other.

Rule nr. 4: Study body language

There are great scientific articles online, and also a lot of helpful charts on how to write natural body language, so I won't write much about it. It's just as -- if not even more -- important as dialogue. Body language is what people say with their actions. Body language is extremely important when you for example want to show someone lying. Do your research!

Rule nr. 5: Don't neglect your secondary characters or villain

This is hard, because you don't want your secondary characters or your villain to be more fleshed out or more likeable than your protagonist, right?

No, no, no. No.

You have to flesh out all of your characters. It may be the protagonist and villain who make all the big decisions, but unless the reader cares about your supporting characters too, then why are they there? I hate it (and I know I'm not alone) when secondary characters are clearly only there to entertain or advise the protagonist. They need to have lives of their own too -- back stories, preferences, favorite foods, own voices -- or your story will be boring and flat.

I hope these "rules" (=tips) helped you. I'll see you again soon!

Please tell me if you know any websites that I haven't listed so that I can add them in :)

Happy writing!
Em

6/6/16

New website

Hello!

I had a website in 2014-2015 but deleted it last summer because I felt like I wanted to change my pen name to something cooler. But I never made a new one when I decided to use E. M. Redshaw as my author name, and last night I decided to change that. So I stayed up extremely late with our horrible internet connection and made this.

I'm pretty proud of it, so you should definitely check it out and tell me what's good and what I should improve. I know I'm not super active on the blog, but I'll try to keep the website up to date and at least remember to change my age in my bio when I turn eighteen xD

The website is just for people who are interested in me and my work and want a small peek into my personality and writing style. But the blog will be the place where I share my deep thoughts and feelings about random things, with no boundaries or stuff like that. So don't worry, the website won't affect the contents here at all.

Don't forget to go to wattpad and read the new part three of Poisoned Fire and check out my new website :)

Happy reading and writing!
Em

6/5/16

Broken pot art (cute little fairy garden diy)

Hi guys!

I've been really craftsy lately, I don't know why. Maybe it's because summer vacation just started and I finally have time to do the things I otherwise wouldn't. Wow, that's so sad. School sucks. (But you know, education is the greatest weapon you can have, and I want to be a warrior. So I guess the pain and stress is worth it..)

Aaanyways, I made a fairy garden into a broken pot today. And here's how YOU can do it too!

Yay!

First you have to break a clay pot or find a broken one that's been laying around for some time. We didn't have any pots that were broken in the "right" way, so I grabbed the hammer and screwdriver! I moisted the pot because I read somewhere that you have to do that before trying to cut it, but I don't know if that actually helped or not...

You may have to do this many times if you don't get the desired shape in the first try. When you have pot that looks like it could be filled and doesn't lay scattered all over your yard because you hit it a little too hard with the hammer (BE SUPER CAREFUL), you can pour in some sand or some kind of soil and plants. What I also did was silicone mushrooms. There's a really good video on youtube. Click here to see it. I just did what the guy on the video does but without the lights. It's so simple and so cute!

I hope this was fun to read! Comment and share if you want more posts like this :)

I'll see you again soon!

5/17/16

Looking for critique partners to improve your writing?

I need your help. Yes, YOUR help. If you have the time and interest to be my critique partner and want a critique partner yourself too, keep reading!

My novel Poisoned Fire is a fantasy multiple point of view story that follows different people in the kingdom of Norwood while they fight for survival as a powerful goddess plays around with their lives. Some of the most important characters are

Corran, the king of Norwood,
princess Itaýe, the king's niece,
Fylkir, a confused soldier,
Leithen, the smith's apprentice who happens to be in love with the princess,
Commander Hav, a honest but brutal man with high aspirations hoping to be part of the royal family,
Emery, a young Aruel who has been hunted by the king's soldiers for all of her life,
Ayess, Emery's best friend who can't stop getting into trouble, and
Kanryen, a sad orphan with a tragic backstory and healing abilities.

Together with a group of Aruels – a people hated for their abilities to manipulate nature – Emery and her new friends try to save the kingdom and show the king that they deserve better treatment.

Poisoned Fire is a fantasy novel written in three parts, of which I have already written half of part one. I'm however struggling with productivity and this whole process feels really slow. And that's why I need YOU to be my critique partner. If you think that this book sounds interesting and also have a story of your own (YA or NA fantasy or science fiction) that needs feedback, please contact me!

E-mail: author.e.m.redshaw@gmail.com

Instagram: an_empire_of_notebooks

Wattpad: demurendling

If you have any more questions about my story or anyhting that has to do with writing, please ask! :)

Love, Em.

5/7/16

"Why do you hate me?"

There's a question that has bothered me for a long time. Why do people hate me?

Last night I had something called a lucid dream. In case you've never heard about it, here's a quick explanation. Lucid dreaming is when you are asleep and dreaming, but can control the dream you're having. You can basically conciously change what's happening in your dream. Everyone has them at some point of their lives, but I've practised it for some time now, so I get them pretty often.

Anyway, I was in the middle of a nightmare. I was sitting at a table, and another girl was sitting on my left side. There was a huge assembley of people in front of us. It was like a dating game of some sort. If you were interested in one of us, you came forward and just talked to us -- I know, what a lame dream. How does my brain even come up with this stuff? xD

But that's not the point. The point is, nobody ever came up to me. I sat there and waited. It was like hours passed. Until I realized I was dreaming (because like I mentioned, what a stupid dream). I looked at all of the people, and then at the girl. She was prettier, skinnier, taller than me. Of course they would rather talk to her. I felt awful, even though I knew it wasn't real.

There was a board behind us, showing how many "points" we had gathered. The other girl had 300-something. Me: none. I was about to cry, but then I remembered, this is not real. Take a risk for once. So I stood up. On my chair. I grabbed a microphone (don't ask me how). I said something like: "Has anyone here planned on speaking to me?" The crowd was all silent. "Good", I said. "Now that we have that sorted, I won't waste your time any longer. Thank you for having me and giving me such a wonderful time here." And then I grabbed my bag and walked through the masses. To be honest, I felt like a queen.

I wish I could be myself and feel like a queen in real life too. I think that's what everyone of us want to feel about ourselves. I'm working on it every day. Right now it's scary to talk, but you have no idea how much I wish I could. People aren't quiet because they don't want to talk. I would actually love to have hour long conversations about the origins of the name ketchup! But I'm too scared! We should never make assumptions about others, and we should never let people make assumptions about us. I know people don't really hate me, because they have no reason to. It's taken a while for me to understand that. Maybe I'm not the only one who's scared.

I used to ask myself why people hated me, because I always assumed they did. Which was wrong. If I haven't done anything wrong, then why am I always lonely? Is it my face, my weight, my natinonality, my religion, my family? Am I ugly? Am I fat? Am I not worth to be spoken to? As a little sixth grader, I was really mad about this. Why was I always the last one chosen into a team in gym class? Why was I the one nobody wanted to be with in group assignments?

Now I know it doesn't matter. Humans are strange. They think someone is acting in a specific way because of some specific reason, but a lot of the time, we're wrong. The whole world isn't going to like us. No matter how rich, famous, goodhearted, beautiful, wise -- there will be people who want to change us. Why? I don't know, and I don't need to, because the most important thing is that we love ourselves and the people around us. Unconditionally.

Let's not make assumptions, let's not judge, let's not be afraid. Let's be fearless and strong. We need to accept each other and ourselves. We need to be kind to each other and take care of each other. We need to raise our voices for the ones who can't.

We can change the world one uplifting word at a time.

Have a happy weekend,
Em :)

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