Tami Best - Writes

  Not only do I torment myself with my Paranormal Romance Writing class (who really wants to go to school *me raising my hand and waving it wildly*), but now I'm reading a book by Lewis Jorstad to see what his point of view is on writing a book. I will tell you that I am intrigued by the notion that a book can be written in 10 days. (Please keep in mind that this is the first draft!) Luckily he was smart enough to put a caveat in there giving those of us who are a little sticker shocked that there are multiple ways to work his system. I'm going for a "The Ten WEEK Draft!" method instead.  If he is as good as his website makes him out to be (crossing toes, fingers, and hair on this one) then I'll have a rough first draft before my trip to Puerto Rico in February. I'll even have a full month to work on edits before I have to slow down. I worry though, being a first-time author and all, is this the right way or am I going down the right path? Is his the one or i...

I LOVE to learn. And in the process of writing my book Blue Rose Night  I started second-guessing myself and my ability to write something worth reading. So I did what I always do when I'm worried about something like that, I take a class. Luckily through my library, I have the ability to take free classes through Universal Class . I was beyond thrilled when I saw that they had a paranormal romance class (my genre). My friends have been telling me that I know how to write, I'm writing. But there is something in me that has really been wondering. One of my more recent lessons was on clichés and stereotypes. I read through the class and took the quiz with no problems. But... when it came down to the written part of the class I was like WTF am I doing? I try so hard to avoid them that the requirement of coming up with three whole paragraphs (as if I don't normally have an overabundance of words flowing all over the place) about undid me. How do I fill in enough cliché and ster...

Sometimes I get in my own way. Or should that have read 'more often than not I get in my own way'? Whichever it happens to be at the time I really need to work on that and so I turn to tools to help me through. Example 1 :         I start writing a book, a good solid one this time, and I put it aside because the little demons in my head come out and say, "You're not good enough. Your other book only sold 50 copies and the reviews were abysmal." Instead of squashing that little voice and telling him to shut the fuck up I give up. Fast forward six long years and I mention to my bestie (waves at Shelly Bean) that I write and I'm in the middle of something. She says, "Read some to me," and I do. She convinces me that it's good and I should keep going. I do some digging around later and I come to find a very useful tool/game/game changer called: 4thewords.com   With this site, you get to battle monsters (personal ones and the ones they provide you wit...