advice for writers

Exploiting Our Brand: Is There a “Right” Way?

March 29, 2012 Random Musings
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Our brand is the impression others have of us.  So we all have a brand, whether we know it or not.  Hopefully, we’re building a brand that reflects who we really are, in a way that shows us at our best (however we each define “best”). Once we have a brand, we might wonder what [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, branding, fan fiction, genre, Jami Gold, paranormal author, premise, risk, social media

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How Do You Handle Disappointments?

March 27, 2012 Random Musings
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Over a thousand writers stared at their phones yesterday, willing them to ring.  Only around 150 of them received the call they were waiting for.  Yesterday the Romance Writers of America (RWA) announced the Golden Heart and RITA finalists. One of the largest writing organizations in the world released the names of the finalists for their [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, dreams, Jami Gold, life balance, paranormal author, professionalism, queries, romance novels, RWA, self-doubt, writing contests

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What If Our Story Idea Has Already Been Done?

March 22, 2012 Writing Stuff
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In my last post about Google search terms, I mentioned that we sometimes have lots of content around a search’s keywords and yet have never answered the question directly.  In that case, Google just gave us an idea for a blog post.  *smile* One search term that led people to my blog this past month was “What do [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, character archetypes, emotional heart, high-concept hooks, Jami Gold, paranormal author, premise, story seed, theme

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Is Taking the Hard Road a “Waste”?

March 15, 2012 Writing Stuff
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My post about the ethics of fan fiction went viral this week, spreading beyond even the Twilight fandom.  From a post on mediabistro/GalleyCat to mentions at Dear Author, Jezebel, The Paris Review, and AbsoluteWrite, people have been discussing ethics in regards to writing and the publishing industry. I don’t bring that up to brag but to [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, dreams, ethics, fan fiction, Jami Gold, Jami's rants, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, self-doubt

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What Makes a Character Unique?

March 8, 2012 Writing Stuff
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“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare Wow, Bill, you have no idea how ahead of your time you were.  I know it must be hard to believe, but hundreds of years after you made this insightful observation through [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, character archetypes, ethics, fan fiction, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, listening to characters, paranormal author, professionalism, RWA, strong characters

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Ask Jami: Editing Tips–Tightening Scenes

March 1, 2012 Writing Stuff
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In my post last week asking if we can have too much voice, some great questions came up in the comments.  I decided to turn them into “Ask Jami” blog posts rather than bury the answers in the comment string. Earlier, I shared ideas on how to use color-coding to check if we’re “overusing” a writing element. [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, Ask Jami, editing, information dump, Jami Gold, page turning stories, paranormal author, tension

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Goodbye, Google Friend Connect–Now What?

February 28, 2012 Random Musings
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We’ve all seen the Google Friend Connect (GFC) widgets on websites and blogs we visit.  Some sites have asked us to join GFC to qualify for a contest or giveaway.  On our own blogs, we enjoy seeing the avatars of our readers (and the numbers of our “members” go up). However, Google is retiring GFC [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, blogging, branding, Jami Gold, mobile website, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, social media, Tech Guy, website

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Ask Jami: Editing Tips–How to Use Color-Coding

February 23, 2012 Writing Stuff
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In my last blog post, where I shared the “two-paragraph guideline,” some great questions came up in the comments.  Rather than bury the answers in the comment string, I decided to turn them into “Ask Jami” posts. Today, we’re talking about how to make sure we’re using all the various writing elements.  Next week, I’ll give [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, Ask Jami, editing, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, organized, paranormal author, tension

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Can We Have Too Much Voice?

February 21, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?  Sure.  We’ve all overindulged in our favorite foods before.  No matter how much we might like sweets or any other type of food, something can be too sweet, too rich, too whatever. In my last post about how to add voice to our writing, Eve [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, character flaws, editing, feedback, Jami Gold, page turning stories, paranormal author, tension

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Need Voice? Think Out Loud

February 16, 2012 Writing Stuff
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“The voice didn’t grab me.” Uh-oh.  Isn’t that feedback one of a writer’s worst nightmares?  Voice is one of those things that feels like we either have it or we don’t.  And we think we can’t easily change it because our voice is so internal to us. But all is not lost.  We can develop and strengthen [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, branding, feedback, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, listening to characters, paranormal author, point-of-view, voice

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