Establish Characters’ Intentions in Every Scene – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for June 10, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Establish Characters’ Intentions in Every Scene
Every time you start a story, you want to quickly establish a problem for the main character to solve and their intention of solving it. Maybe a hacked up dead body is found, and a detective intends to bring the murderer to justice. Possibly a divorced woman who’s been by her herself for the past five years sees a man she’s interested in and decides to meet him. Perhaps a starship captain finds a far-flung colony where his brother lived has been destroyed by some unknown force. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Everything You Need to Know to Self-Publish Your Paperback
You’ve written a book and want to publish it as a paperback. But how do you do that? Maybe you’ve watched a video about it, but your self-publishing house keeps rejecting what you’ve created. Or maybe they’ve accepted it, but its appearance is a bit ugly when compared to all of the other books out there. My book Self-Publish Your Paperback Bundle addresses all of those problems and more. A collection of guidebooks in the popular Storytelling 101 Quick Read series, this bundle includes Format Your Paperback, Design Your Paperback Cover, and Upload Your Paperback to KindleDP. The three titles take you through the entire self-publishing process. They answer all of your questions in a brief, easy to understand format and cut to the chase by providing practical, useful information that can be followed step-by-step. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Give Readers Sleepless Nights with Narrative Drive
Ever read story before bed and find it so gripping that you stay up far later than you should just to find out what is going to happen? If so, you’ve been a “victim” of narrative drive. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Don’t Trust Spellcheck, a Junior High-Aged Editor
So you’ve got your story typed in manuscript form and are about to send it out. You decide to do one more spell check before printing the final copy. Good idea, right? Wrong. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Maintain ‘fictional dream’ when penning novel
When writing any story, your goal ought to be to create and maintain a fictional dream, or an “illusion that there is no filter between reader and events that the reader is actually experiencing what he is reading,” as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. defines it. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Stuff Your Book in a Little Free Library
If you’ve written multiple novels, and especially if they’re a series, you may want to consider sticking your book in a Little Free Library. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Mirrored Sublimation: Essays on the Early Work of Knut Hamsun” by Lisa Yamasaki
A recent editing client of mine has published her first book! In Mirrored Sublimation: Essays on the Early Work of Knut Hamsun, Lisa Yamasaki examines a small selection of the Norwegian dramatist Knut Hamsun’s early work that reveals the theme of sublimation from a psychoanalytic perspective. Through the combination of the literary analytical essays, academic braided essays, and the illustrations, she portrays how the three approaches to this topic contribute to a more enriched understanding of the topic and could further enhance the relationship between literature, art, and analysis.  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 June 17, 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.