Monthly Archives: July 2018

• Open story with foreshadowing• Sensuous dissection • Objects you pass daily • Observe your thoughts • Draw upon personal turmoil• Tell what you feel/desire/need  ______________ My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years,Continue reading “Six Awesome Prompts to Break Writer’s Block”

Too many writers suffer at the hands of these two words. Rack, as a verb, generally means to torture (rack my brains). As a noun, it can mean a variety of things, but the forms most often misspelled are those referring to an instrument of torture (The inquisitor planned to stretch his limbs on the rack.)Continue reading “Don’t be led to ruin: Wrack vs. rack”

“If it’s fiction, then it better be true.” – Sherman Alexie “Good fiction creates its own reality.” – Nora Roberts “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” – Tom Clancy “…required for good fiction: character, conflict, change through time. And if you’re really blessed, you get resolution. But life doesn’t usually work out that way.”Continue reading “Five Great Quotations about Fiction”

What are your individual intentions? That is, what do you most deeply hope to accomplish in life? To live true to your values? To be at peace with the person you are? To inspire others to find serenity and happiness in their lives? List at least three of your individual intentions. How can you incorporate theseContinue reading “Writing Inspiration: What are your intentions?”

Many book authors are happy to simply do what they enjoy most, which is write. You also have to promote your published books, though, and a time-honored way of doing so is by making public presentations, such as signings and readings at bookstores or other businesses that might carry your titles. Usually these presentations allow youContinue reading “Tips for setting up your book presentation”

Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning ofContinue reading “5 Science Fiction Novum Writing Prompts”

Here’s one confusing pair of words that often has writers doing double takes. Most language arts textbooks will tell you there are two situations when a hyphen should appear between the suffix re and the second part of the word:•Re is added so that the word is the equivalent of doing something again: In the old days, writersContinue reading “Let’s look again: Recheck vs. re-check”

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.” – Stephen King “I meet far too many people who are going to be writers ‘someday.’” – Robin Hobb “A professional writer isContinue reading “Five Great Quotations for Aspiring Writers”

Sometimes when writers get stuck or can’t seem to figure out how to improve their writing, the issue is the lack of details about a character or setting. Good fiction and essay writing in part is giving just the right concrete details, the minutiae that perfectly captures the moment or idea. It is the beading ofContinue reading “Writing Affirmation: Pay Attention to Details”

If self-publishing your book, you may need to come up with a photo for your front cover. You can go about this in one of three ways: hire someone to design the cover for you and let that person look for the photo; purchase a photo, usually from an online stock photo provider; or take theContinue reading “Five tips for taking a book cover photo”