romance novels

Dread Writing Sexy Scenes? 5 Tips for Success

March 12, 2013 Writing Stuff
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Whatever genre we write, we often have to write scenes that make us uncomfortable. High on that discomfort scale for many authors are romantic scenes between characters. Whether we write romance or another genre with love interests, or whether the characters merely kiss or have sex with the door open to the reader, many of [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, Jami Gold, listening to characters, love, muse, paranormal author, point of view, risk, romance novels, romance novels are not porn, self-doubt

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Do You Judge Books by Their Covers?

February 5, 2013 Writing Stuff
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I’ll admit it. I do judge books by their covers, especially in this age of self-publishing. If authors don’t care about the quality of their book cover, it’s easy to assume they also didn’t care about the quality of their writing. Besides, we all have too many reading choices now, and just like agents and editors, we’re [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, branding, genre, Jami Gold, paranormal author, professionalism, romance novels, self-publishing, small publishers, traditional publishing

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Author vs. Characters: Can Our Morals Be Different?

January 31, 2013 Writing Stuff
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The recent talk of watching what we say on the internet and being aware of our brand has brought up several ways people come to odd conclusions about us as writers. Despite all our work to ensure that our behavior supports who we are and what our brand is, people will always form their own impressions. [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, branding, censorship, character flaws, conferences, genre, Jami Gold, listening to characters, muse, paranormal author, romance novels

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Branding 101: Who Do You Want to Be?

January 29, 2013 Writing Stuff
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In the comments of my last post about watching our online behavior, some people worried about the bigger picture. Can we still be true to ourselves? Should we not express opinions at all? Would it be safer to stay offline? Let’s work through those questions in reverse order. Locking ourselves in a closet and just [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, branding, Jami Gold, Kristen Lamb, paranormal author, professionalism, risk, romance novels, self-doubt, social media

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The “New Adult” Genre: Why Does It Exist?

January 8, 2013 Writing Stuff
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Publishing industry news has exploded with stories about a new genre, called New Adult. The New Adult genre is meant to bridge the supposed gap between Young Adult (teen) books and general Adult fiction books. Every news site from the New York Times to Publishers Weekly has been giving their spin on the genre ever [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, branding, fan fiction, genre, Jami Gold, Jami's rants, paranormal author, romance fans, romance novels, YA

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Write Romance? Get Your Beat Sheet Here!

November 1, 2012 Writing Stuff
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NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November) starts today, and while I plan to continue blogging throughout NaNo, I wanted to make sure I gave you something good to keep you happy during my crazy month. *smile* Of course, whether or not you’d define today’s post as anything good might depend [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, Jami Gold, love, Michael Hauge, paranormal author, plot-driven vs. character-driven, plotter vs. pantser, romance novels, romance novels are not porn, story structure, workshops

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NaNo Prep: What’s Your “Next Big Thing”?

October 25, 2012 Random Musings
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I don’t usually participate in blog tagging posts, but every once in a while, one comes along that fits in well with my blog. On Tuesday, Janice Hardy tagged me for The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. As NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November) is all about writing “the next big [...]

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Tagged as: blogging, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, NaNoWriMo, paranormal author, premise, romance novels, story seed

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Michael Hauge’s Workshop: Combining Emotional Journeys and External Plots

August 21, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been sharing tips from Michael Hauge’s presentation at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Conference. First we looked at how to make sure our love (or romantic interest) stories didn’t fall prey to a lame “love at first sight” relationship. Then we talked about how to show that our characters really are the [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, conferences, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, Michael Hauge, paranormal author, plot-driven vs. character-driven, romance novels, RWA, story structure, tension, workshops

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Michael Hauge’s Workshop: Are These Characters the Perfect Match?

August 14, 2012 Writing Stuff
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Last time I shared tips from Michael Hauge’s presentation at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Conference about how to make romance (or love interest) relationships feel deep and not superficial. Most of us have probably read books where, at the end of the story, we didn’t trust the couple to make it past their next [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, character flaws, conferences, Jami Gold, Janice Hardy, love, Michael Hauge, paranormal author, romance novels, RWA, workshops

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Michael Hauge’s Workshop: An Antidote to “Love at First Sight”

August 9, 2012 Writing Stuff
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By far, the best workshop I attended at the Romance Writers of America (RWA) Annual Conference was Michael Hauge‘s presentation, “Using Inner Conflict to Create Powerful Love Stories.” Unlike every other workshop, Michael gave his presentation twice. I attended on the second day and the room was standing-room-only packed. The first day was likely the same. Yeah… It was [...]

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Tagged as: advice for writers, Jami Gold, Michael Hauge, paranormal author, plot-driven vs. character-driven, romance novels, RWA, strong characters, workshops

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