Jami Gold's Blog: Jami Gold, Paranormal Author, page 11

Author Insights: What’s Our Core Story?

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As readers, we often enjoy stories that make us feel seen or understood. Or maybe stories that help us understand others by sharing a perspective we hadn’t considered or fully grasped before.

That means, as writers, we need to possess those deep understandings or perspectives to share them with readers. In other words, the better we understand ourselves, the better writer we’ll be.

One way we can better understand ourselves is to explore ...

Holiday Giveaways and Workshop News!

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author :

My life can now be divided into pre-house-flood and post-house-flood. (Three weeks later, and they were still doing demolition yesterday. *sigh* So we won’t be moving our belongings back into the house anytime in the next few months.)

Luckily, I’d set up a few fun things for all of you in the before time. *grin*

Introducing the Advent Calendar Giveaway!

It’s the season of giving, so I want to let you all know about the Writers Helping...

What Can Our Reading Choices Tell Us about Our Writing?

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(*psst* Did you catch my annual mega-ultimate list of gift ideas for writers last time? My newsletter program didn’t want to send it out because it had so many links, so if you missed the post, check it out! Now back to today’s post…)

If we’re a writer, we should also be a reader. I know that between day job, family obligations, and our desire to write, it can seem like we don’t have any time to read.

But for most of us, our love of...

The Ultimate Gift Guide for Writers — 2019 Edition

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How’s everyone doing on their shopping so far this year? Are you ahead because you’re just that organized? Or have you not started yet because this year’s calendar—with Thanksgiving falling so late—is tricking you into thinking there’s more time than there really is?

Uh… *raises hand to that second one* I’ve been so busy working on recovering from our house flood that I haven’t started yet. Get on that, self. *grin*

Need ideas for...

The Best Reason to Blog — 2019 Edition

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author :

Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S. The day we eat too much food, roll our eyes at the antics of our extended family, and think about all the things we’re grateful for. Or in my case, try not to worry about my pathetic NaNoWriMo word count while I grab a second serving of dessert something healthy. *cough*

This Thanksgiving post—where I express what I’m grateful for when it comes to my blog—is now an annual tradition on my blog:

Nine years...

Weaving Story Threads Together — Guest: Rosie Danan

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author :

When studying writing craft, we often separate the lessons for developing our story’s plot from those of our characters’ arcs because it’s easier to focus on one thing at a time. But as I explain in my Lost Your Pants? workshop, the two threads work in tandem.

The romance genre is even more complicated, as we have the plot arc, two protagonist-character arcs, and the romance arc to intertwine. Exploring how to tie all four of those threads...

Professional Beta Readers: What to Expect — Guest: CeCe Downs

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I’ve shared many tips about beta readers before, from advice on where to find beta readers to how to make beta reading work for us. One assumption throughout most of my posts is that we find beta readers through a beta-reading exchange with other writers.

When that option works for our situation, it can work well. We get the benefit of free feedback on our story, and at the same time, we learn about what makes for good writing through the...

Writing a Series? 7 Do’s and Don’ts — Guest: Kassandra Lamb

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author :

So far this NaNoWriMo, I haven’t gotten in many words because my life has been blowing up in increasingly ridiculous ways, from a nearly exploding cellphone to a seriously damaging house flood (no, I’m not kidding). *sigh*

Even though I haven’t been able to get words in (and I’m beginning to wonder if Novembers are simply unlucky for me), I’m still extremely grateful for my guest posters. Otherwise, all I’d have for you today is video of our carpet being stripped with th...

Developing a Beat Sheet into an Outline — Guest: Marty C. Lee

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author :

As we’ve talked about many times here, we all have different writing processes because our brains all work differently. Some of us plot our stories in advance, and others of us write by the seat of our pants (otherwise known as “pantsing”).

Far from one method being better than another, whatever works for us is the right answer to “how should we draft our story?” In fact, most of us use a process somewhere in between the strict options of plotting or pantsing, whether we call...

Story Conflict: It’s Not as Simple as We Think — Guest: L. Deborah Sword

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author :

Over the years, I’ve talked many times about the role of conflict in our stories, as conflict is far more than just “fighting.” Conflict refers to whatever stands between our characters and their goals.

Those obstacles are often other characters, as any character with goals different from our protagonist can be an antagonist. However, those characters won’t necessarily be villains, and in fact, we might need to be careful we don’t portray conflict in ways that vilify characters, especially in stories and genres wit...