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Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author : I need to make a confession: I never watched Game of Thrones . *grin* As the series wrapped up over the last few weeks, I often felt like I was in a very small minority of those who didn’t watch the show. Pop-culture osmosis means I know a strangely large amount about the show—far more than for any other show I don’t watch—as I’m familiar with most of the characters, their family bonds, the highlights of their plot and arc, etc. All that exposure means that even though I didn’t watch the show, I’ve heard many of the complaints about the last few episodes: how the story felt rushed, how many of the character arcs felt off, how the pieces didn’t come together, and so on. Many of those complaining have brought up how the show could have made several of the last twists work…if only the writers had taken the time to properly show the last part of the characters’ emotional journeys. The writers had built up many hints of the fut...

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author : When we look at the writing-related skills and insights we need to learn, we often find it easier to understand lessons about the tangible aspects of our career. For example, craft skills about grammar or plot events can seem more straightforward to learn than skills about theme or voice. Developing our skills for elements like theme, voice, motifs, style, mood, character likeability, etc. often feels more intangible. The “rules” or guidelines that might help us know what to do are less clear—or missing entirely—and practice alone is less likely to be enough for us to get things right. Understanding what branding means for writers is similarly intangible. We don’t necessarily fully grasp what branding is at all, much less what our brand is or how to develop our brand. I’ve written several posts about branding already, including: Branding 101: Who Do You Want to Be? Branding 101: What Is Your Brand? Branding 101: What’s...

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author : An article has been making the rounds recently with an interview of author Danielle Steel , and my friend Sieran Lane asked me what I thought of it . As the headline points out, she’s written 179 books, about 7 novels (not short stories, but novels ) a year…which is obviously a lot . Stories (and especially numbers) like that can make us doubt ourselves. We might feel like we’re not doing enough or are failing to act like a “real” author. But we have enough other issues causing our self-doubt or impostor syndrome feelings that we shouldn’t have to worry about measuring up to impossible standards too. So let’s make it clear: When it comes to our writing schedule? You do you. *smile* What’s a “Real” Writer? All we have to do to be a writer is write. It doesn’t matter if we write one story or a hundred. If we’re putting words to a (virtual) page, we qualify for the term writer . Ever feel the pressure to write *more* and ...

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author : Far too often in life, we look for ways to make the complex more understandable by simplifying the idea…maybe too much. Much of real life requires nuance and shades of gray to capture the true picture that our simplification can erase. (That’s not a complaint or statement about shortcuts or laziness. That’s simply human nature. *grin*) That truth can be found in the writing world as well. I’ve mentioned many times that I don’t believe there’s “one right way” or any “always applicable” rule for anything in writing. My belief that there isn’t “one right way” is especially strong in regards to our drafting process . Each of us has unique strengths and weaknesses (experiences, background knowledge, brain processes, etc.)—not to mention our unique goals and life situations—that affects what drafting process will work best for us. Yet to hear some authors talk, we might assume that there are strict plotters and strict pantser...

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author : Years ago, before I decided to self-publish, I admitted several times here that I struggled with querying. Even after I made the self-publishing decision, I was still faced with the need to describe my story in an interesting way that would get readers’ attention. Story pitches are used for self-published books as well as traditionally published books . No matter how we publish, we need to introduce our story to potential readers and interest them enough to want to look closer. Over the years, I got better at this skill (just like we do with most skills we study and practice), but I know I wasn’t alone in my struggle. The skill of pitching our book is completely different from the skill of writing our book—they have different learning curves and require different strengths. One aspect that always stumped me when writing queries was figuring out which elements to focus on. When condensing our thousands-of-words-long story...

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author : In many ways, a writing career has a lot in common with being an entrepreneur. Even if we’re with a traditional publisher, we still have to manage our own branding, contracts, and acceptance of risk in ways that corporate employees usually don’t. In the realm of self-publishing, the comparison to entrepreneurship is spot on. Our writing and publishing endeavors create our own little company. We’re responsible for assembling our team of editors, cover artists, and everything else—and we won’t succeed if we drop the ball. This truth can be a big reason why some writers (understandably) don’t want to self-publish. Some of us feel we don’t have the business sense or entrepreneurial spirit to run a company . That’s okay—no one can be good at everything . I could write a whole series of posts about how writing—and especially self-publishing—relate to entrepreneurship . (And as those links demonstrate, I already have a few here.) ...

Here's the latest from Jami Gold, Paranormal Author : No advice is “one size fits all.” Even the best, most helpful advice isn’t going to work well for every situation, so it’s far better to understand the reasons behind writing advice or grammar rules than to just assume that something must or can’t work. For example, a common piece of advice—especially for new fiction writers—is that they shouldn’t get stuck on trying to succeed with a single story. Instead, the advice says that if we get stuck (whether in drafting, editing, or querying), we should shove that story in a drawer and try again with a different story. Sometimes we might even hear specifics, such as “any story that needs more than 5 editing passes should be abandoned.” As I’ve pointed out many times before, just because advice is common —such as “ write every day “—doesn’t mean it’s good advice. However, just because advice doesn’t work for us doesn’t mean it’s “bad” advice either. Rather, most advice has a k...