Eschew Clichés Like a Toxic Waste Dump – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Apr 14, 2026

Craft of Writing: Eschew Clichés Like a Toxic Waste Dump
A quick way to strengthen your writing is to replace (or just avoid altogether) overused expressions and phrases. Such expressions and phrases are known as clichés. They include terms such as “avoid like the plague”, “beat around the bush” or “kiss of death.” READ MORE

Writing Tips: How to Create Your Story’s Setting
All too often, writers give their story’s setting short shrift. Setting – the place and time of your story – can establish mood, tone and milieu. It can drive conflict in a story and develop your character. It can highlight themes and even be a “character” in your story. My new book, Build Your Story’s Setting, aims to help writers think of their story’s place and time in ways that elevate the tale to a new level. It begins by defining setting and its role in a story. From there, it moves on to the craftsmanship of describing a setting. Lastly, it looks at incorporating setting into your story’s plot and using it to reveal character while establishing theme. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Writing Heals My Heart Like No Pill Ever Could
All too often in our modern day and age, we attempt to cure every ailment with a pill or capsule. That might be fine for our physical aches and for the most serious of mental illnesses, but it’s not so wonderful for the moments when we just feel down or stressed out. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: If Using MS Word, Don’t Place Tabs in Your Ebooks
When formatting your manuscript for conversion to ebook, don’t use the tab key to indent paragraphs. Doing so usually results in your manuscript being declined for publication…or worse, being accepted for publication while looking like a mess. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: How Self-Awareness of Your Writing Process Boosts Your Creativity
Looking at how published authors of novels and nonfiction books and other writers, such as journalists, write their books, there does seem to be a general writing process that every one of them uses. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: 45+ Fantastic Marketing Ideas for Authors
Looking for some great ways to market your self-published book? From article directories to web widgets, here are 45 of them! READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Ossuary of Dreams” by Robert Grains
German horror writer Robert Grains delivers 25 fantastic tales set in H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu universe. Originally written in German, I edited his English language translation. It has been a big seller in my wife’s bookstore. 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 21, 2026. 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 425 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.