Questions to Ask Yourself when Plotting a Story – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Feb. 4, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Questions to Ask Yourself when Plotting a Story
When developing a plot for your story, there are several key questions you ought to ask yourself. Here are four of them. READ MORE

How to Devise Your Story’s Plot
When writers come up with a great story idea but don’t know how to develop it, usually the problem is one of plotting. Understanding story structure – i.e. plot – would be extremely helpful in developing their tale. My book Devise Your Story’s Plot is all about understanding the basic rules for constructing your story. It examines plot’s role in storytelling, the importance of conflict in plotting, and the five traditional elements of a plot. It also looks at some common plot pitfalls. The structural guidelines outlined in the book work for any genre, whether you’re writing a serious literary piece or in any of the escapist genres from romance or science fiction to mystery or fantasy. By the end of this book, with a little imagination tossed in, you should be able to construct an impressive plot. The title is available in paperback, audiobook and Kindle ebook. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Advantages of Using Third-Person Multiple POV
Sometimes writers structure their book so that the third-person limited point of view alternates from scene to scene between major characters in a book. However, within each scene, only one of those characters’ point of view is used. This literary device is known as third-person multiple or third-person rotating limited. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Add Glowing Reviews to Your Book’s Front Matter
Sometimes after the title page and before the copyright page, authors will place excerpts from a number of positive reviews about their book. The idea is to give readers thinking about your book another sales pitch to help them make a decision. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Avoid using weak pushbutton words in story
Sometimes rather than finding a truly evocative term, writers get lazy and use pushbutton words. Pushbutton words attempt to evoke an emotional response from readers without appealing to their critical faculties or intellect. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Harness Your “Local” Status
One of your biggest selling points, especially if a novelist, is that you’re “local.” While that can only take you so far, you’d be foolish not to fully harness it. A lot of businesses and institutions carry “local” products or those about their region. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Looking Back: A Psychologist’s Memoir of Life and Work” by Janice Westlund Bryan
A recent editing client of mine, psychologist Janice Westlund Bryan, has published her memoir, Looking Back: A Psychologist’s Memoir of Life and Work. She recounts 30+ years of counseling patients. You will meet a woman who has lost a baby and one who lost a young adult, parents with a disturbed child, a teen and woman sexually abused in childhood, a young boy whose mother died in a car accident, a young mother with bipolar disorder, a male cross-dresser, a woman accepting her lesbianism, the wife of a veteran with P.T.S.D., and a man struggling with depression. In many ways, the book is less memoir than an examination of the human condition and the strength of those struggling to heal. CHECK IT OUT

$25 Off Your Next Edit!
For being a newsletter subscriber, please take $25 off your next edit with Inventing Reality Editing Service. When scheduling your edit, be sure to mention you’re a subscriber and give the email where you received this newsletter. Minimum order of $200. Offer expires Feb. 11, 2025. SCHEDULE EDIT

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of both aspiring and published writers and offers a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of a novel, the Storytelling 101 Quick Read series, four children’s books, more than 25 bestselling hiking guidebooks, and even a book of poetry. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.