Jami Gold's Blog: Jami Gold, Paranormal Author, page 2

Short Stories: Can They Still Have Character Arcs?

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

It’s time for another one of my guest posts over at Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s Writers Helping Writers site. As one of their Resident Writing Coaches, I’ve previously shared:

insights on how to approach an overwhelming revisionhow to increase the stakes (the consequences for failure) in our story7 ways to indicate time passage in our stories (and 2 issues to watch out for)how to translate story beats to any genrehow and why we sh...

Point of View: What’s the Best Choice?

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Once we have a story idea and we’re ready to put fingers to keyboard, one of the first things we usually need to decide is: How do we want to tell the story? What perspective are we going to use? What tone or style or voice are we going to use? Do we know when the story starts or what to emphasize?

Those questions all tie into the point of view (POV) of our story. Our story’s perspective—whether a broad overview of a family saga from an o...

Foreshadowing vs. “Spoilers”: What’s the Difference?

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

It’s time for another one of my guest posts over at Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s Writers Helping Writers site. As one of their Resident Writing Coaches, I’ve previously shared:

insights on how to approach an overwhelming revisionhow to increase the stakes (the consequences for failure) in our story7 ways to indicate time passage in our stories (and 2 issues to watch out for)how to translate story beats to any genrehow and why we sh...

Creativity: Avoiding Blocks and Refreshing Ideas — Guest: Christina Delay

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

At some point in our writing career, we’re likely to experience times when our creative well runs dry. Sometimes our “failure of creativity” might occur as common writer’s block, and other times we might struggle on a more fundamental level, such as overwhelming burnout.

Whatever our circumstances, problems with creativity can manifest in multiple ways. We might want to push forward but lack the ideas for how to work through the obstacles...

Is Deep POV Always the Best Choice?

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

It’s time for another one of my guest posts over at Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s Writers Helping Writers site. As one of their Resident Writing Coaches, I’ve previously shared:

insights on how to approach an overwhelming revisionhow to increase the stakes (the consequences for failure) in our story7 ways to indicate time passage in our stories (and 2 issues to watch out for)how to translate story beats to any genrehow and why we sh...

Does Conflict Really Belong on Every Page? — Guest: Angela Ackerman

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

As I mentioned a few months ago on Angela Ackerman’s last guest post here:

“A common piece of advice is to include some type of conflict on every page. For new writers, that advice might bring to mind scenes of characters fighting, but the truth of what counts as conflict is much broader than that.”

I’ve often pointed out that when we become writers, we have to “relearn” what some common terms mean in the context of writing and storytell...

How Can We Improve Our Writing? — Guest: Wendy Sparrow

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

Once our story’s flow is in good shape, we might struggle with knowing how to tackle the next step of editing. If we just do another “editing pass” without having specific thoughts of how to improve our writing, our results are likely to be lackluster. After not having much luck with that approach, writers tend to jump to the copy editing stage and start looking for typos or missing commas, but there’s another step between “develop the big p...

12th Annual Blogiversary Contest — Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

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

It’s that time of year again. Today, July 12th, is my twelve-year blogiversary. Yes, twelve years.

For the first ten years, I blogged consistently every Tuesday and Thursday, building up over 1000 posts of advice and information about the writing world. Two years ago, for my tenth blogiversary, I finally gave myself the gift of an irregular schedule.

Initially, my plan was to post about 2-4 times a month. However, things didn’t quite w...

Character Talents & Skills: Beyond the Superficial — Guest: Becca Puglisi

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

Many layers go into the creation of a well-rounded character. We might think of their emotional/internal arc. With Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s fantastic Thesaurus books in hand, we might think about their backstory wound or their positive and negative traits. Or we might think about their backstory, voice, or false beliefs.

Often, however, writers tend to consider figuring out whether their characters have any talents or skills as...

What Gives Our Story Meaning?

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

It’s time for another one of my guest posts over at Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi’s Writers Helping Writers site. As one of their Resident Writing Coaches, I’ve previously shared:

insights on how to approach an overwhelming revisionhow to increase the stakes (the consequences for failure) in our story7 ways to indicate time passage in our stories (and 2 issues to watch out for)how to translate story beats to any genrehow and why we sh...