Build Rising Action Scenes Around Conflict – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for May 20, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Build Rising Action Scenes Around Conflict
Anytime you’re writing a scene in the story’s rising action, you’ll want to treat it as a short story in and of itself. That means focusing on conflict. READ MORE

How to Format Your Paperback: Easy to Understand, Practical Tips
Your paperback needs to look good. Readers depend upon a clean, organized structure in your book to more easily navigate it. If your book looks unprofessional, readers are apt to think that your writing also is disorganized and incomplete. My book Format Your Paperback covers how to use Microsoft Word to format your self-published paperback and is good for both fiction and nonfiction titles. Using easy to understand and short explanations, it describes how to create a copyright page, a table of contents, the main text, page numbers, and much more. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Remain Wary of Using Fast-forward in Story
A literary device that’s often overused by novice writers is that of the fast-forward. This involves taking the story out of its timeline by going to a point in the future. In doing so, the scene reveals important events that are yet to occur in the story. It’s sometimes referred to as prolepsis. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Try ‘Taster Book’ if New to Self-Publishing
If new to self-publishing, consider doing a “taster book” first. A taster book has a low word count (and subsequently few pages) that you can use to learn the self-publishing process. If a fiction writer, it might be a collection of two or three short stories; if a nonfiction writer, it might be a three or four brief articles. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: How to Stay Focused on Writing One Book
Sometimes inspiration strikes for an entirely different book than the one you’re working on. Unfortunately, this can create the problem of stopping one book and starting a new one so that your original work never gets finished. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to stay focused on writing one book. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Tips to Ensure a Successful Book Reading/Signing
The day has finally arrived: Your first book reading and signing! No doubt your stomach is aflutter, not just with excitement but with a little apprehension. What if you mess up in the reading? What if you can’t think of what to say when someone answers a question? What if the crowd finds you boring and starts to leave? READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Shmehara” by Andi Kopek
An idea can be expressed in many mediums, and Andi Kopek decided to tackle four of them for his first book. “Shmehara” consists of 21 poems that Andi wrote, each accompanied by an illustration from an array of international artists and a video created by a filmmaker, as well as a soundtrack to go with the video. Proceeds from the books will be given to relief efforts for Ukrainian children displaced by the Russian invasion of that country. 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 May 27, 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.