Jami Gold's Blog: Jami Gold, Paranormal Author, page 33

How to Create Scene Endings that Hook Readers

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We’ve been talking about the difference types of transitions we can create between scenes and plot events. At the end of every scene, readers might put down our book and decide against picking it up again, so it’s important to understand transitions and what we can do to keep readers interested.

We first discussed how how to avoid the types of transitions that make our writing feel more episodic. Then we dug into another type of transition...

Transition Techniques: Meanwhile, in Our Subplot…

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Last time, I shared my guest post for Writing Helping Writers. In that post, we discussed how to identify and fix episodic writing to make our stories stronger.

One tip I shared in that post we’ve also talked about here before: the “But” and “Therefore” rule. When we’re describing our story…:

Can we use “therefore/so” or “but” to link scenes and plot events? Or would we need to use an “and then” transition to explain the jump from one plo...

Is Your Writing Episodic—or Epic?

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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:

encouragement for approaching an overwhelming revision how to increase the stakes (the consequences for failure) in our story 7 ways to indicate time passage in our stories (and 2 issues to watch out for) how to translate story beats to any genre

With this...

Story Immersion: How Can We Improve Our Readers’ Experience? — Guest: Jefferson Smith

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Earlier this year, we shared what pulls us into a story. As I mentioned in that post, the sense that I’m not just reading words on a page but experiencing a story is why I read fiction.

That idea of feeling and seeing the story—or at least of the real world fading into the background—is called story immersion. While some readers don’t prioritize that aspect of stories (and that’s okay), for me, the words need to disappear from the page for...

The Ultimate Gift Guide for Writers — 2017 Edition

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How’s everyone doing on their shopping so far this year? Are you ahead because Black Friday and Cyber Monday came early? Or have you not started yet because this year’s calendar—with Christmas falling on a Monday—is tricking you into thinking there’s more time than there really is?

Uh… *raises hand to that second one* I haven’t quite gotten serious yet. Get on that, self. *grin*

Need ideas for writing-related gifts? Here's something for ev...

How to Write Despite … Whatever — Guest: Jenna Victoria

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We’ve probably all heard the quote from Dori of Finding Nemo to “Just keep swimming.” That idea encourages us to keep going no matter the obstacles.

We’ve talked about that perspective here many times: The only way we fail is if we give up—if we stop “swimming.” As I’ve said before:

Failure isn’t the opposite of success. It’s part of the journey to success. … “Real” failure—the opposite of success—is when we give up or stop trying to reach...

Understanding Our POV Choices — Guest: Susan Tuttle

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When we first start writing, we might imitate the styles we’ve seen in books we’ve read. However, once we learn more about writing craft, we tend to explore our voice and what makes our storytelling unique.

One aspect of writing that we often emulate without thinking is point of view (POV), which we’ve talked about here before. The POV we use for our writing is likely one we’ve seen in other stories, so it’s what feels natural or normal.

B...

The Best Reason to Blog — 2017 Edition

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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 let my pathetic NaNoWriMo performance dampen my enjoyment of the day. *sob*

(Eh, since I was never planning on winning—just hoping to get words in—my only disappointment is that I haven’t been as good at getting words in as I’d like, but it really ha...

5 Ways to Recover from Being Stuck — Guest: Lisa Gail Green

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Sometime during our writing career, we’re bound to feel stuck. Maybe our story isn’t going the way we thought (or the way we’d like it to go), or maybe our career isn’t progressing the way we want (or the way we expected).

Either way, we don’t want that feeling of being stuck, blocked, or hemmed in by a dead end lead to a decision to give up.

As I wrote about last month, giving up is the only way we truly fail. Everything else comes down t...

Don’t Let Worries Hold You Back from Writing — Guest: Christina Delay

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As writers, we struggle with many aspects of our career that we don’t have control over. We can’t make agents or editors like our story. We can’t force readers to buy our books. We can’t will our way to success.

So we’re always faced with lots of uncertainty no matter what we do. Add in the worries of life, family, day job, etc., and anxiety can surround us.

That’s a problem, as anxiety can make it hard to concentrate, tap into the writing...