Make Story Interesting by Establishing Stakes – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for April 8, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Make Story Interesting by Establishing Stakes
The plot of a story is more interesting and exciting if the characters have something to gain or lose. Because of this, the characters in your story should have something at stake, or some personal interest in or motivation for solving the story’s conflict. READ MORE

Writing Advice: How to Overcome Writer’s Block
There are many reasons people get writer’s block – their mind is preoccupied, the environment they’re writing in isn’t conducive to creating, the idea they’ve come up with isn’t particularly good, a lack of imagination or skill to develop the story, coming to the laptop with no idea to write about, and many more. My new book, Overcoming Writer’s Block, helps you understand the cause of your writer’s block then goes into detail on strategies for overcoming each one. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Create Intimacy with Narrator via First-Person Limited
A story can be told from several viewpoints. When the main character narrates his experiences and observations, the author is using “first-person limited” point of view. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Ebook Covers Consist of Four Major Elements
An ebook cover – perhaps wrongly – tells the reader a lot about the pages that follow. A poor cover hints at unprofessional writing and vice versa. So invest a little time working on the cover, even though you’re a writer; after all, you’re not a fashion designer but you still wouldn’t dress your child in rags during her first public outing! READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Why you want reviews written about your book
By getting the word out about your book, hopefully people will then talk and write about it. This largely will occur when reviews of your title begin to appear. Such reviews might run on blogs about your genre or subject matter (hence the importance of sending such media a press release to make them aware of your book), on the Amazon.com or Goodreads pages for your book, or even in published periodicals. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Promote Your Book with Radio Interviews
As writers, we often limit our thinking of press coverage to what we read – newspapers, magazines, online reviews. But broadcast mediums such as radio interviews also are an excellent way to promote your book. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “The Bridge to Magic” by Alex Thornbury
The first novel in a planned fantasy series tells the story of young Elika, a mage who is hunted and hated in a world where humanity tries to destroy magic. Written by Australian Alex Thornbury, the novel in 2023 won the Reader Views Literary Award: Grand Prize Winner in Fiction; Gold Medal-YA Fiction; Silver Medal-Fantasy; and the Eric Hoffer Book Award Winner: Grand-Prize First Runner-Up Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I was proud to have worked as editor on the novel. Alex is a fantastic writer, and if you love fantasy, this is your book! 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 April 15, 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.