Jette Harris's Blog

I started writing stories when I was very young. The earliest story I actually recall was an X-Files fanfiction in the third grade as a school assignment. I don’t remember what grade it received, or even what the requirements of the assignment were, but I recall I tried to conceal the fact it was fanfiction by only addressing Mulder and Scully as “Fox and Dana.” The story involved an orphan girl, who turned out to be the daughter of X-Files villain Eugene Victor Tooms, who could speak to anim...

One of the most difficult things to pin down as a writer, especially a NEW writer, is the pacing of your story. Pacing is the speed and rhythm of a story, the speed with which events take place, and the balance between each part of the story. Does the story start with a hook? Is the beginning too long? Does the middle drag on? Does the ending feel sudden? Is the resolution too abrupt?

The writer is often detached from what a story feels like to a reader. We know this story intimately, so it’s...

One of the most difficult things to pin down as a writer, especially a NEW writer, is the pacing of your story. Pacing is the speed and rhythm of a story, the speed with which events take place, and the balance between each part of the story. Does the story start with a hook? Is the beginning too long? Does the middle drag on? Does the ending feel sudden? Is the resolution too abrupt?

The writer is often detached from what a story feels like to a reader. We know this story intimately, so it’s...

Whether you’re working on a series, or giving an abandoned project another chance, or returning after chasing around a shiny new idea (or two… or three…), it is often difficult to step back into the mental space you need to be in order to continue with the plot, setting, or characters that you started. This is especially true if a long time has passed, life circumstances have changed, or if the genre of your other projects is significantly different from the original project.

This is what I’m...

Writing and publishing are learning experiences, especially indie publishing. Everything I do is an experiment, trial and error. I’ve learned a lot by failing, and even more by standing on the shoulders of giants.

Recently, I’ve learned a lot about book covers. The two most important things being:

your book cover needs to match your genre your book cover needs to be discernible as a thumbnail

I love the cover art my brother did for the Run Rabbit Run books. They convey the tone of the stori...

[image error] What is Point of View?

Point of view, often shortened into POV, is the narrator’s position in reference to a story they are telling (often interchangeable with “perspective,” which is how the narrator processes events).

Although point of view is an essential feature of any story, it is often taken for granted by writers. While there are no set-in-stone rules regarding point of view, there are some guidelines that should only be broken with great consideration.

Types of Point of View

There ar...

This review is written from the perspective of a writer rather than a reader. For a reader’s review, check out my Goodreads.

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I selected The Alienist as my first read because I heard it was being developed as a TV series on TNT and the headliners are actors I love: Luke Evans, Daniel Bruehl, and Dakota Fanning). I was in the grocery store on Sunday morning to buy prosecco for New Year’s Eve, but had to kill thirty minutes before they could sell it to me. I had the good fortune of finding it i...

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Last night, I completed the first draft of the second Accomplice novelette, Assassin’s Accomplice!

At several points writing this story was like pulling teeth, because it is a counter-pov parallel story. This means the first book, Assassin’s Arrangement, was written from one point of view, and the second book covers the same overarching plot from a different character’s perspective. I told myself several times this was redundant and readers would get bored, but I powered through it. There’s...

The Reason

Like many, I struggle to balance my writing life, my personal life, my full-time job, and other obligations. Most writers believe reading is an integral part of writing; As Stephen King says, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.” If a writer doesn’t read in their genre, they are more likely to miss certain tropes or the pacing that readers of that genre are accustomed to, and therefore they will struggle to hook their target audience.

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Before the New Year, I made a list of works I need to write and publish in 2018–works I’ve promised to readers, mostly sequels–as well as other live projects.

Promised to publish:

RUIN, Run Rabbit Run #3 The third COLOSSUS novel, but most likely not the last you hear from Avery Rhodes. Release date: late October (instead of mid-November, because I realized planning a November release was planning frustration and stress that I just don’t need.) You can find a sample on my Facebook HERE and o...