Pep Up Your Writing: Replace Overused Verbs – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for May 12, 2026

Craft of Writing: Pep Up Your Writing: Replace Overused Verbs
Even when using active verbs, sentences still may sound flat. More than likely, that’s because those active verbs are also overused. READ MORE

How to Write Engaging, Natural Dialogue in Your Story
One of the most important tools in your writing kit is dialogue. It can help develop your characters, move the plot forward, increase tension, and establish a scene’s mood. Unfortunately, sometimes novice writers write dull dialogue. Like a flat tire that slows your vehicle to a near stop, so dull dialogue can quickly bring your story to a near halt. My guidebook Write Engaging, Natural Dialogue is all about helping beginning writers better understand how to pen conversations between characters. If you’ve already written a story and know the dialogue is weak, the tips in this book can help you diagnose and fix the problem. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: How to Create Suspense in Your Story
Conflict – the competition a character faces as attempting to achieve a goal – always is the core of a story. But a good story is more than just a fight between a hero and a villain or an inner monologue in which one struggles what to do. Good storytelling involves suspense, that tension in which the reader is uncertain how the conflict will be resolved. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: 22 Awesome Tips on Formatting Ebooks
When self-publishing, formatting your ebook often is a challenge, especially for first timers. Here are some tricks, hacks and tips for ensuring the process goes smoothly. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Why You Need to Market Your Book
It’s the rare book that somehow goes virulent and captures the public’s attention and admiration all on its own. Indeed, more than 900 books are published daily in just the United States alone, so no matter how good yours is, the odds of it even being noticed are nil at best. The reality is that indie authors and those who self-publish need to market their own books. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Use Hashtags to Sell your Book on Facebook
These days hashtags are ubiquitous on social media platforms. Most social media now use hashtags (sometimes simply referred to as tags), and Facebook is among them. READ MORE

“Hot Scenes” by Michael J. Sahno
A recent editing client, Michael J. Sahno, has published his fifth novel, Hot Scenes: A Satirical Novel About Sex, Cinema, and the American Double Standard. Aghast at American cinema’s descent into boundary-pushing violence, famed Hollywood director J. Edgar Schnatz decides to move in the opposite direction-a celebration of sexuality. But making the world’s first mainstream adult film comes with its own unique set of challenges, from finding a willing cast and sufficient financing to getting that all-important NC-17 rating. Hot Scenes is a darkly comic satire in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut and Hunter S. Thompson, a novel about art, censorship, and the particular kind of chaos that follows when someone in Hollywood actually means what they say. 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 19, 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.