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A Prologue Will Help Our Story When…

Knife with text: Prologues: When to Kill

Last time we touched on beat sheets because of a guest post I wrote for one of my Blogiversary winners. Today we’re going to talk about a subject that came up with one of my other Blogiversary winners: prologues. Prologues are hated by many editors and agents. Surprisingly, I’ve heard […]

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July 25, 2013

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Blogiversary Winners & an Announcement

Magic wand with text: Writing Worksheets: What's Your Wish?

Ta da! I made it to the three year mark for blogging. Appropriately, we had enough comments on the Blogiversary Contest post to earn three winners! Yay! Or boo… Depending on if you’re one of the winners or not. *sad face* I wish everyone could be a winner. Seriously. But random.org […]

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July 11, 2013

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A Pantser’s Guide to Beat Sheets

Map with text: A Pantser's Guide to Beat Sheets

Can those who write by the seat of their pants use beat sheets…without driving their muse crazy? If so, how? Here are few tips for how pantsers can draft and revise with beat sheets.

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July 9, 2013

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Ask Jami: Can This Story Be Saved?

Puzzle missing a piece with text: Can a Broken Story Be Saved?

I do a lot of beta reading for friends, and sometimes they come to me with a question along the lines of: “I’ve really struggled with x aspect of this story, and I’m wondering if I should just abandon it. Can you take a look and see if this story can […]

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June 4, 2013

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Four Tips for Beta Reading in Other Genres

Close up of knothole in a fence with text: Beta Reading Outside Your Genre? 4 Tips to Breach the Genre Borders

Recently, a good friend of mine asked for my help in identifying the issues with her story. She’d struggled with it on and off for years and was wondering if she should just chuck the whole thing. I offered to take a look at it, even though her story’s genre […]

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May 21, 2013

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How to Revise for a Stronger Theme

Rope with text: Revising for a Stronger Theme

Last time, we talked about using our story’s and characters’ themes to keep us on track as we draft. But no matter how well we know our themes during drafting, we can probably make them stronger in revision. Maybe we thought a character’s arc would focus on one theme, but […]

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February 21, 2013

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Introducing the Query/Blurb Exchange Club!

Arrows connecting to each other with text: Queries and Blurbs: A Place to Get Help. The Query/Blurb Exchange Club

The response to my request for help on my query in my last post was amazing. I really shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, we all know you are amazing, right? *smile* But the tremendous outpouring of offers to help also made me feel guilty. I’ve heard stories from others about […]

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January 15, 2013

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Four Tips for Fixing the Infamous “Info Dump”

Old VW Bug in a dump with text: 4 Tips to Avoid Dumping Information

While I’m on holiday vacation this week, I’ll share a post from my early days of blogging. We’ve all heard of those eye-rolling, telling “information dumps,” yet at some point, we all have to get chunks of information across to the reader. My usual technique with world-building is to show, […]

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December 27, 2012

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