Jami Gold's Blog: Jami Gold, Paranormal Author, page 7

How Should We Format Non-English Words?

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

Last month, we discussed if we should use italics for a characters thoughts. As part of that post, we mentioned the risk of overdoing italics. Words are emphasized when in italics, so by italicizing too much, we end up emphasizing nothing.

A similar problem with italics can crop up when we include non-English words (including invented words) in our stories. Especially as authors and audiences have grown in diversity, many have advocated...

What’s the Difference Between an Inciting Incident and a First Plot Point?

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Many of us start with great ideas for our story, so we begin our draft in an energetic scramble to get our ideas down on the page. But how do we get from those opening pages to the rest of our story?

Can the story beat of an Inciting Incident help us? What about the story beat of a First Plot Point? And whats the difference between those two anyway?

Lets take a look at Inciting Incidents, First Plot Points, and how we can use them to help...

How to Develop a Mentorship

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Over the years, Ive received many emails from writers asking me to be their writing mentor. Im honored by the requests, but like many authors with larger-than-they-can-keep-up-with platforms, I simply dont have time to fulfill every request for help I receive.

Instead, I hope my blog here can act as a virtual mentorship, as many of my posts are essentially brain dumps of everything I know about a topic. Ive joked before that one reason my...

How Do We Use Sequels with Our Scenes?

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In various posts here, weve explored how many concepts in writing dont quite match the general understanding of a word or phrase. Thats why I start many posts with basic definitions to ensure were all on the same page.

But of the many words with confusing meanings in the writing world, probably none are more confusing than scenes and sequels, both words that refer to multiple concepts in the writing world. Once were all clear on some...

Is Coronanxiety Forcing Everyone to Count “Spoons”?

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Its been a month since we talked about the struggles we might face in trying to write while dealing with a pandemic. So I figure its time for a check in to see how everyone is doing. *smile*

Even if we think were handling everything just fine, the world has forced us to make adjustments. So now might also be a time when we all can relate to spoon theory. Lets take a look

You Know the World Is Stressed When

Yesterday, I came across a video...

Active vs. Passive Voice: Was and Not Was

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

I wasnt intending on doing a series on various grammar points, but People have been bringing up common misunderstandings in the comments, so Im still here, appreciating all the post ideas. *grin*

Last time, we talked about the past perfect verb tense and how it helps us indicate to readers that a story event happened before the past tense of our novel. In the comments of that post, Kassandra Lamb (a frequent guest poster here) brought up ...

Beyond the Past: Understanding the Past Perfect Tense

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Last week, we talked about our options for which verb tense to use with our story. In the comments, regular reader Clare OBeara brought up the past perfect tense as something that many writers struggle to use correctly.

Shes absolutely right. *smile* So lets review when the past perfect tense applies to our story and how to use it properly.

Recap: The Default Tenses of Storytelling

As we mentioned last week, the default tense that many...

Escape Generic Storytelling by Asking “Why?”

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Ive said before that the most important question we can ask when it comes to our writing is why. That question helps us get in touch with every aspect of our story.

Lets dig into all the ways that asking why can help our storytelling, even helping us escape generic or cliché writing

The Basis of Storytelling is the Question Why?

Weve probably heard that many authors come up with their story idea by thinking of a what if? What if a womans...

Storytelling Verb Tenses: Past, Present, and “Literary” Past Tense

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

Last time, I shared that one of the questions we can ask ourselves to determine when we should italicize our characters thoughts was:

What verb tense do we want to use? Although some authors like to write in present tense, most stories are still written in literary past tense. That means for a direct quote, the verb tense would change to present tense.

My mention of literary past tense prompted Anne Kaelber to ask for more information,...

Character Internalization: To Italicize or Not to Italicize?

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

A few years ago, Marcy Kennedy guest posted here to share three writing problems we can solve by understanding internal dialogue. At the time, I gushed about her book on the topic, Internal Dialogue (Busy Writers Guides Book 7), and that book is still the best resource I know of for really understanding how to make our characters thoughts work for our story.

As Marcy says in her book, internal monologue (also known as...