risk

What’s the Hardest Scene You’ve Ever Written?

September 1, 2011 Writing Stuff
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(Note: I am not Tawna Fenske, so that title is not a euphemism for anything.  Sorry.  However, this post might include a reference to a shower scene of one woman with two guys.  Or not.) I mentioned last time that one day of the weekend was taken up by writing-related stuff.  What I didn’t mention [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, feedback, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, listening to characters, muse, paranormal author, plotter vs. pantser, risk, romance novels

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The Green Lantern Movie: How *Not* to Write Characters

July 7, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Last time, I used the Green Lantern movie to illustrate how not to plot a story.  This time, we’re going to look at the Green Lantern characters. As noted before, Green Lantern felt superficial and formulaic.  Sure, it’d be easy to say that it was a comic book movie and therefore lived up to expectations, but [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, character flaws, emotional heart, Jami Gold, listening to characters, paranormal author, risk, sacrifices, strong characters, tension

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The Green Lantern Movie: How *Not* to Plot a Story

July 5, 2011 Writing Stuff
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I recently saw the Green Lantern movie.  I know, I know.  The reviews were terrible, but I often enjoy turn-brain-off movies.  This fun-but-dumb superhero action flick definitely fit the bill. But the real entertainment came after the movie, as my family and I analyzed why this superhero movie failed compared to other recent titles.  Where did this [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, antagonist, information dump, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, page turning stories, paranormal author, risk, story openings, tension

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How Vulnerable is Your Writing?

June 30, 2011 Writing Stuff
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A few weeks ago, we talked about about branding and blogging and how to create connections with others.  People who feel connected to us are more likely to be willing to give our book a try or to help us promote.  Connected readers might become our front lines in our quest for global bestseller domination. [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, blogging, character flaws, conferences, Jami Gold, listening to characters, paranormal author, risk, RWA, Twitter

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Have You Posted Your Work Online?

June 14, 2011 News
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Some people post their work online all the time.  Photographers have Shutterstock.  Artists have deviantART.  Non-fiction authors often base their books on their blog posts. What about fiction authors?  That’s a little trickier.  We’re not talking about flash fiction, blog hop entries, and the like here.  If we limit the discussion to novels—our babies—it’s harder [...]

Tagged as: blogging, Jami Gold, Jami is insane, Kristen Lamb, listening to characters, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, story openings, The Resurrected, writing contests

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“What’s Your Book About?”

April 21, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Do you dread that question?  If you tell the cashier at the grocery store you’re a writer and they ask what your book is about, do you have an answer? All writers who want readers have to be able to answer that question.  Whether it’s our brother-in-law at a holiday dinner or an agent at [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, agents, beta reader, conferences, feedback, genre, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, paranormal author, queries, risk, tension, The Resurrected

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Would You Ever Turn Down a Contract?

March 31, 2011 Writing Stuff
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The comments for my last post were fantastic—thank you!  The range of opinions really got me to think deeper about the traditional vs. self publishing issue. Many people wrote in with circumstances for when self publishing works (and possibly works “better”).  Others noted situations where traditional publishing is the only way to go, one being [...]

Tagged as: agents, authors, contracts, deadlines, emotional heart, genre, happiness, Jami Gold, paranormal author, risk, sacrifices, self-publishing, traditional publishing

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Do You Know What Will Make You Happy?

March 17, 2011 Random Musings
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Yes, it’s cheesy, but that picture is me right now because today is my last day in the deadline cave.  Yay! As I’m finishing up my final push to the finish, I wanted to share this post from last summer.  I think it’s still relevant today, maybe even more so. I’ve had to make a [...]

Tagged as: deadlines, Edittorrent, happiness, Jami Gold, Jami's rants, life balance, Margeanne Mitchell, paranormal author, risk, sacrifices

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Why Is Head-Hopping Bad?

January 27, 2011 Writing Stuff
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Depending on who you talk to, head-hopping is somewhere between a shoulder shrug and the-world-is-ending bad.  Note that neither of those extremes thinks that head-hopping is good.  I suppose it could be positive if used in some sci-fi story, along the lines of “body snatchers,” but we’re talking about it in the written point-of-view (POV) [...]

Tagged as: advice for writers, editing, head-hopping, Jami Gold, Jami's rants, paranormal author, point-of-view, risk

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Rejection Dejection

November 30, 2010 Over-Achieving Perfectionist
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We all have to deal with rejection in our lives, and it hurts to not get the job we want, the relationship we want, or the agent we want.  In fact, it sucks.  But as trite as it sounds, it really is better to try and fail than to not try at all.  This point [...]

Tagged as: beta reader, critique partners/groups, editing, feedback, perfectionism, risk, writing contests

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