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NaNo Check-In: Lessons from the Halfway Point

Image of Jami Gold's "My Month" NaNo calendar

Today, November 15th, marks the halfway point for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month—write a 50K word novel during November). That means all NaNo participants should reach 25,000 words on their NaNo project by midnight tonight. Yikes! That sounds like a big number—and it is—but I passed that milestone on November 11th. […]

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November 15, 2012

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Ask Jami: How Do We Find Beta Readers?

Woman reading in a park on a sunny day

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 […]

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April 5, 2012

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The Best Reason to Blog – Part 2

Tree with fall color

Today is Thanksgiving in the U.S.  The day we eat too much food, roll our eyes at the antics of our extended family, and think about all the things we’re grateful for.  Or in my case, wait for the tryptophan to kick in from the turkey so I can catch […]

November 24, 2011

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Learning and Blogging and Writing—Oh My!

Balancing rock piles

Fantasy: To become an author, we just need to have a great idea, write it down, and then agents, publishers, and readers will all magically appear. Reality: Nothing like that. Becoming an author isn’t simple.  Oh no.  We have what seems like a never-ending list of things to learn and […]

April 19, 2011

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Would You Ever Turn Down a Contract?

Thumbs down

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 […]

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March 31, 2011

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Is Perfectionism Good or Bad?

Perfect Daisy

My Twitter friend Austin Wulf wrote a blog post yesterday, What’s So Bad About Perfectionism?, and that question got me thinking.  My blog readers might know I call myself not just a perfectionist, but an over-achieving perfectionist.  Is that a bad thing? *smile*  I think it depends. Is Perfectionism Bad? […]

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March 24, 2011

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Do You Know What Will Make You Happy?

Smiling sunburst

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. […]

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March 17, 2011

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Have You Ever Been Tempted to Give Up?

White flag

First, let me state: No, I’m not giving up.  But this round in the deadline cave has been especially brutal, so I’d be lying if I said the thought hadn’t crossed my mind for a split second. This past weekend, my computer froze in the middle of saving my document […]

March 15, 2011

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A Perfectionist’s Guide to Editing: 4 Stages

Red funnel

Yes, I’m still under deadline, but an interesting issue came up in the comments on my last post about perfectionism.  Perfectionists tend to be nitpicky, no surprise there.  But there’s a time when that trait is very helpful, and a time when we need to ignore the compulsion to tweak. […]

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March 3, 2011

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When Should a Perfectionist Call Something Done?

Edited page

Yes, I’m still in the deadline cave this week, but I see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Yay!  While I’m hiding, I wanted to share this post I originally wrote last summer.  The lesson is even more relevant to me right now.  (That’s a look at one […]

March 1, 2011

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