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Showing vs. Telling: When Is Telling Okay?

Woman whispering into another woman's ear with text: When Is Telling Okay?

We’ve probably all heard the advice to “show don’t tell” more times than we can count. Like most advice, it’s worded as an absolute, making it seem as though telling is never okay.

Once we’re experienced, we know that’s not true. Some telling is absolutely okay, and in certain cases, is preferable to showing.

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October 8, 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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Three Tips for Better Storytelling

Little girl reading to little boy with text: 3 Tips for Better Storytelling

Last time, we talked about how good storytelling can salvage even a poorly written book. As I mentioned in that post, storytelling skill is different from writing skill. Many people have a hard time defining what makes good storytelling—and that makes it difficult for us to improve. Yet I’d argue […]

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May 2, 2013

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Why Is Storytelling Ability So Important?

Footbridge heading into woods with text: Tell Me a Story...

What makes some poorly written books fall flat on their face while others succeed despite their flaws? One common answer is “storytelling ability.” But what is storytelling? The concept can seem vague and immeasurable—rather like “voice.” A recent experience with two poorly written books gave me insight into how a […]

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April 30, 2013

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What Soap Operas Can Teach Us about Writing

Floating soap bubbles with text: Writing Tips from Soap Operas

I don’t watch soap operas, but a bizarre conversation tangent (in other words, a perfectly normal conversation for me) triggered my thoughts comparing soap operas to novels. On the surface, they seem very similar. They both have characters, tension, and conflict. However, the more I thought about it, the more […]

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April 23, 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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Blogiversary Winners & a Gift for All

Gift bag with text - A Gift for... You!

Yay! I officially made it to the two-year mark on my blog. Two years of comments, questions, and debates. On my post announcing my Blogiversary Contest, we had enough comments to earn three winners! The worst part of the contest was picking the names. The worst, you say? No, that doesn’t mean […]

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July 12, 2012

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Why I Love Beta Reading

Pills scattered over a surface with text "Beta Reading Addict"

I mentioned on Twitter yesterday that I didn’t have much time to write my blog post for today.  Why?  Because I was beta reading a story, and I could not put it down. I’ve had several posts about finding beta readers or what to look for in beta readers, but I […]

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June 19, 2012

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