Ways Your Main Character Can Ultimately Succeed – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Aug. 19, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Ways Your Main Character Can Ultimately Succeed
When reaching the climax of the story, the main character usually overcomes the central problem that he set out to solve. Still, this penultimate scene tends to play out differently from story to story so that no two tales that are truly original seem alike. 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 story. 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 penning 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 book is available in paperback, audiobook and Kindle ebook. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Avoid Starting Sentences with ‘It’
Avoid starting sentences – and especially paragraphs – with “it.” By starting a sentence with “it,” you can confuse the reader. After all, what exactly does “it” refer to? READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Use Consistent Style on Chapter, Header Titles
xxx https://inventingrealityediting.com/2023/04/30/use-consistent-style-on-chapter-header-titles READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Base Story on Overcoming Emotional Disturbance
Often a story is not about defending the world from some outside menace (out-of-whack event) or about obtaining some item (Macguffin) but is about overcoming some internal, man vs. himself struggle. In science fiction writing workshops, this type of storyline is called an emotional disturbance. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Offer Valuable Content to Increase Sales
When promoting your self-published book, consider offering additional valuable content. This tried-and-true technique can drive readers to a service you provide or to other books you are selling. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Lady in Room Number Nine: My Grandmother’s Murder at the Empire Hotel” by Larry Ohman
In Lady in Room Number Nine, Larry Ohman recounts the story of Theresa Evans – his grandmother – in one of Montana’s greatest cold cases. On April 18, 1940, Theresa Evans was brutally beaten at the Empire Hotel in Butte, Montana. She never regained sufficient consciousness to tell what happened. Today, her murderer’s identity remains unknown. Could it have been her husband, who she hadn’t seen in four months? A woman who had spent months in town pretending to be a man until Theresa discovered the truth? The goon for the local crime boss to whom Theresa and her husband owed money? Someone else? I edited this book in 2022. 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 Aug. 26, 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.