Jami Gold's Blog: Jami Gold, Paranormal Author, page 6

How Should We Format Non-Verbal Communication?

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The last few weeks have been hard for many. Between COVID deaths and ongoing pandemic issues, George Floyd’s murder, and the escalating behavior of too many of those in power, it’s likely most of us are struggling in one way or another.

Before I get into today’s topic, I just want to wish love and support to all those fighting injustice with the protests. Black lives do matter. *hugs to you all*

Personally, I’ve been dealing with another medi...

What’s the Point of Foreshadowing?

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When faced with the various “rules” of writing, writers often want to know when, if, or how they can break the rules. The truth is that if our writing is strong enough, we can get away with just about anything because our readers will trust us.

Obviously, just about any aspect of writing contributes to readers’ sense of whether our writing is “strong.” However, certain elements are more important in contributing to readers’ sense of whether w...

Word Choice: What Does It Mean for Our Writing?

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In the writing world, one of the terms that we often hear in tandem with point of view (POV) and voice is word choice. Like many things in writing, what the term means outside of our writing sphere isn’t quite the same as what it means within the context of writing.

So in the comments of my previous post, Sam asked me to do a post about word choice. Great idea, Sam! *smile*

I haven’t done a post specifically about the topic before, so let’s t...

What Do Readers Want from a Story’s POV?

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We’ve been talking a lot about point-of-view (POV) here lately, most recently with a post exploring how the POV of our story shapes readers’ impression. As we discussed, from our readers’ perspective, our story is—in many respects—what our chosen POV tells readers it is.

The same plot and story events will feel very different to readers depending on if we use omniscient POV or 1st-person POV. Or if we write a story of a murder only from the p...

How Does Our Character’s POV Affect Our Story?

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Over the years, I’ve written many posts about point of view (POV). Several of my guest posters have added even more.

But why is POV so important to understand? We might know that a character’s POV is about their voice or word choice, their thoughts or emotions. However, a strong POV is about more than those simple writing elements.

The better we understand the power of our character’s POV, the stronger and more compelling we can make our char...

Is Our Story’s Point of View Really What We Think It Is?

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If we write our story using first or second person point of view (POV), we know what POV we’ve written. First person uses I/we pronouns in the narrative as the character shares their story, and second person uses you pronouns in the narrative.

But if we write in third person—using he/she/they pronouns in the narrative—the POV situation gets a ton trickier. Third-person POV ranges over a spectrum from the most distant and objective to the deep...

What Does It Mean to “Write to Market”?

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If weve ever researched how to be more successful as a writer, chances are weve heard the advice: Write to market. And if weve heard that advice, theres a good chance weve had a strong reaction.

Some writers hear that advice and think, duh. Others hear the advice and feel a visceral protest.

What does the advice mean? Is there a way we can recognize the benefits of writing to market without running into the negatives?

What Does Write to...

Breaking the “Rules”: Will It Be Easy or Hard?

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Weve probably all heard the advice: Dont edit as you go. Finish the draft first, then edit.

But as Ive talked about here many times, most advice out there is not one size fits all. Like many other tidbits of advice, this common tip about drafting vs. editing definitely shouldnt be taken as a rule.

Can we know how to treat writing advice that we come across? When should we treat a tip like a hard-and-fast rule? When is it more like a...

Do Your Characters Take on a Life of Their Own?

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Ever get one of those injuries where you wish you had a better story to go with it? *sigh*

When a bundle of bamboo sticks I was trying to separate slipped, one punctured the tip of my index finger, right by the curve of my nail. Three hours of pressure and paper-towel-wrapped ice cubes later, the bleeding stopped so I could apply a bandage, but typing isnot fun.

So lets do a shorter, fun post today. *grin*

Theres no end to the variety of...

How to Improve Our Story with Action Beats

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A bit over a month ago, we covered the basics of dialogue formatting. As I mentioned in that post, one of the main things we need to accomplish when formatting our storys dialogue is ensure weve clearly attributed who said what.

The first method we explored was dialogue tags (sometimes called dialogue cues). Dialogue tags not only let readers know which character said the quote but also share tone of voice and other cues for how the words...