Jami Gold's Blog: Jami Gold, Paranormal Author, page 55

Need Help Understanding Story Structure?

Some writers are instinctively able to put together (mostly) coherent stories while drafting. But without conscious knowledge of the underlying structure of stories, they might struggle to fix problems in revisions.

Other writers put together words willy-nilly and end up with tangents and a story that doesn’t hold together. Or they might zoom through the first several chapters, but then get stuck halfway and not know where to take the story next.

And still other writers want to plan their st...

Internal Dialogue: The Secret Sauce to Fixing Problems? — Guest: Marcy Kennedy

I’m so excited for today’s post, and I’m going to tell you a little story to explain why. Obviously, Marcy Kennedy is a fantastic, knowledgeable author and editor, and today’s topic is a favorite of mine, but there’s also a bit of “Wow, I’m honored” mixed in.

Back before Treasured Claim had even come out, Marcy contacted me to ask for a favor. She’s one of my developmental editors, so she’d seen my story months earlier, and she was wondering if she could use a few excerpts of Elaina (my drag...

Tangents and Subplots: When Do They Work?

My worksheets page is most often recommended for my beat sheets, but one of the other tools I share is the Elements of a Scene Checklist. The checklist (or the matching worksheet for use with multiple scenes) helps us identify whether a scene is truly necessary and contributing to our story.

Occasionally, I’ll receive questions about some of the elements on the list, like “what counts as character development?” I have no proof, but I suspect at least some of those questions come from writers...

What’s Your Author Self-Esteem?

One of the longest and most successful blog hops I know of in the writing world is the Insecure Writer’s Support Group, founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Once a month, writers across the web post about their doubts and concernsand share their support.

While I’m not a member of Alex’s group, I can relate to the idea behind it. In fact, here on my blog, I have a whole tag for self-doubt. I think it’s safe to say that we often doubt ourselves as authors.

We doubt whether we can do a story justice...

What Makes Your Story Unique?

If we follow agents, editors, or publishing trends on social media, we’ve probably heard the idea to write something “the same but different.” Writers the world over have scratched their heads at that phrase. *smile*

Usually what agents or editors mean is that they want something similar enough to other stories that they know they can sell the book. (If a story doesn’t fit into a genre or category, how would readers find it on a bookstore shelf?) Yet they also want the story to not feel like...

Release News! How Has the Writing Community Helped You?

Yesterday, I announced another book release, and the wave of congratulations and support gave me warm fuzzies all day. *smile*I feel so blessed to be part of the writing community.

Pure Sacrifice, my newest release, was my first NaNoWriMo novel. The encouragement I saw going in all directions during NaNo was beautiful to witness.

Although I participated as a NaNo “rebel” in 2012 (as I’d already completed the first 25% of the story), I ended that NaNo month with 61571 new words and almost fin...

Subjectivity and Reader Shaming

Throughout the history of fiction, a divide has separated literary fiction and genre fiction. We only have to look as far as the review pages of “serious” journalism sources to see the difference in how much respect each is accorded.

If we write genre fiction, we might bemoan the lack of respect or media coverage, but the same lack of respect occurs at the reader level too. At various times in recent history, readers of science fiction, fantasy, graphic novels, young adult, and romance have...

Self-Publishing? Which Path Is Best for You?

Here at my blog, I have a long history of covering all issues related to writing and publishing. That means I’ve covered writing craft, the various steps of the editing and publishing process, the publishing industry, and writing life.

Even though I’m now indie published, I don’t want my blog to turn into “all self-publishing tips all the time.” First of all, I know that’s not what all of you come here for. Secondly, I’d get bored without a variety of topics. *smile*

But I also do want to sh...

Can We Learn from Reading “Bad” Writing?

Much has been written about the “tsunami of crap” available now. Sometimes it seems like everyone and their brother thinks they can dash off a book.

Well, technically they can. We could publish our grocery list. But dashing off a book that’s good is an entirely different matter.

Hopefully, the Look Inside and free sample features of most vendors prevent us from making too many purchasing mistakes, but we’re likely to still end up with a dud every once in a while. What should we do when that...

When Does It Make Sense to Make Big Revisions?

As I mentioned last time, I’m gearing up for the release of the next novel in my Mythos Legacy series, Pure Sacrifice, coming out August 12th. In my previous post, I alluded to the fact that revisions for this book were difficult. Very difficult.

In truth, revisions are never easy. Unlike just plainedits, which might have us questioning a word, sentence, paragraph, or scene, revisions might have us questioning everything:

the characters and their arcs the plot arc and specific events the co...