critique partners/groups

Three Tips for Being a Better Beta Reader

April 4, 2013 Writing Stuff
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The Golden Rule of “treat others how you’d like to be treated” applies to most aspects of our lives—including our author life. One of the best things we can do to find beta readers for our work (at least among our network of author friends) is to offer to beta read for others. Inside the beta [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, beta reader, critique partners/groups, feedback, Jami Gold, paranormal author, voice

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How Should We Deal with Conflicting Advice?

February 26, 2013 Writing Stuff
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Did you hear? History was made this past weekend. And no, I’m not speaking in hyperbole. *smile* Imagine a writers’ conference with high-quality speakers, matching those found at national conferences. Imagine being able to attend for a fraction of the cost of other national writers’ conferences and with no travel costs. Imagine being able to [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, beta reader, conferences, critique partners/groups, feedback, happiness, Jami Gold, Kristen Lamb, paranormal author, self-doubt, self-publishing, Tech Guy, traditional publishing

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Blogiversary Contest — Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

June 28, 2012 News
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My two-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th.  Wow, I’ve been writing this blog for two years already? How can something feel like yesterday and forever at the same time? Mostly, I’m amazed that I found that much to blog about, not just in the number of posts but the length of my posts. [...]

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Tagged as: beta reader, critique partners/groups, feedback, giveaway, guest blogs, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, paranormal author

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What Should We Look for in a Beta Reader?

June 14, 2012 Writing Stuff
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I thought I already had a blog post about this topic, but I didn’t. Is déjà vu blogging a sign of something worrisome? *smile* Anyway, I want to thank agent Laura Bradford, who gave me the idea for this post when she shared several great tips on Twitter yesterday about beta readers and critique partners.  For those [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, beta reader, critique partners/groups, feedback, Jami Gold, paranormal author, professionalism, Twitter

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Why Does Feedback Hurt So Much?

April 24, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Several people I know are going through revisions right now based on feedback they received from beta readers, agents, or editors.  Every one of them is dealing with the “I suck” issue along with that. Yes, sometimes feedback can be a bit too mean or blunt, but that’s not the problem here.  No matter how [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, beta reader, critique partners/groups, feedback, Jami Gold, paranormal author, perfectionism, risk, self-doubt

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Ask Jami: How Do We Find Beta Readers?

April 5, 2012 Writing Stuff
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My post about combining comments from multiple beta readers in MS Word brought up a great question.  How do we get beta readers? In the comments, Amanda Byrne asked, “[A]ny hints on how you can scare up more beta readers? … [O]nly one of them gets back to me in a timely manner.” Then Aldrea [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, Ask Jami, beta reader, critique partners/groups, deadlines, feedback, Jami Gold, organized, paranormal author, professionalism, social media

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MS Word Trick: Combining Changes and Comments

April 3, 2012 Writing Stuff
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We all have weaknesses.  Some people want to deny their imperfections, but most of us do what we can to overcome them. Like many writers, one of my weaknesses is my inability to interpret my words the way a reader does.  That’s not unusual.  We know what we meant to say, so it’s easy to [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, beta reader, critique partners/groups, editing, feedback, Jami Gold, organized, paranormal author, perfectionism

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Do You Write for Yourself or Your Readers?

August 25, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Many writers, especially new ones, talk about how they write for themselves.  When we first start out, we might not know if we’ll even be able to finish the project, so it makes sense that we’re writing for ourselves. We want to get this story out of our head.  We want to see if we can write [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, authors, beta reader, critique partners/groups, dreams, editing, feedback, Jami Gold, page turning stories, paranormal author, perfectionism

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How Do You Deal with Difficult Characters?

August 11, 2011 Writing Stuff
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(Side note:  Do you know how troublesome it is to find a picture of someone bound and/or gagged that doesn’t look…well, inappropriate for this blog?  *snicker*) Writers all know the type—the character who refuses to play by the rules, who doesn’t communicate with us, or who wants to be a scene-stealer.  These characters can drive [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, antagonist, beta reader, critique partners/groups, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, listening to characters, muse, paranormal author, plotter vs. pantser

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Milestone Contest – Prize: Me! Wait…er, What?

June 28, 2011 News
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My one-year blogiversary is coming up on July 12th.  The occasion has me doing something I don’t normally do: math.  Eek! This is my 101st blog post, and during that time, this blog has passed 100 Google Friend Connect followers, 250 RSS subscribers, and 1500 comments (not including mine).  I know those numbers look small [...]

Tagged as: beta reader, blogging, branding, critique partners/groups, feedback, giveaway, grammar, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, paranormal author, story openings, website

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