Don’t let these two commonly confused words negatively affect your writing.

Affect is a verb meaning to “to influence” “to impact”: The layoffs affect about a third of the company’s employees.

Effect is a noun meaning “the consequences of”: The effect of the layoffs was lower company morale.

Hopefully the effect of this little tip will be correct usage!

______________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer 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 the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Verbs give sentences and books vibrancy. When too many of them in a story are passive or weak, the writing sounds drab. For example, consider this paragraph:

I dreamed that my children would all get superb grades (because I did), be good little athletes (because my husband was), sing in choir, love going to church, graduate with honors, go on missions, get married, and have beautiful families of their own.

Now compare that to a revised version of the paragraph:

I dreamed that my children earned superb grades (because I did), excelled as athletes (because my husband was), sang choir, loved going to church, graduated with honors, volunteered for missions, married, and founded beautiful families of their own.

Notice how the second one pops with more energy, if only because it uses a couple of more active voice verbs. Those new verbs carry connotations and create images in readers’ minds, engaging them far more than passive voice verbs that simply say that something exists (“I am a carpenter” is the same as saying “I exist as a carpenter”).

______________________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer 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 the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

• Constructing your story’s main character

• How to create a character’s background

• Build character by looking at his values

• Show rather than tell a character’s personality

• Ways to show a character’s personality 

• Use catch-phrase when creating a character 
When writing your story, you’ll want each of the major characters to be distinct. One way of achieving that, especially in genre fiction, is to give a couple of the characters catch-phrases.

• How to come up with characters’ names

______________________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

• How long is needed to write a professional book? 
• Short stories vs. novellas vs. novels 
• Mistakes to avoid in a novel series 
• Maintain ‘fictional dream’ when penning novel 

______________________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer 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 the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my guidebooks for plotting your story:

• How to choose a setting for your story 
As a plot develops, you’ll often need to change locations and times in a story. Your characters may be on a journey to some destination or they may need to investigate a matter. You might shift between the characters so that a scene involves the villain who is at a different location than the protagonist.

• Use caution when shifting story’s location, time 
When making such changes, always ask yourself if it is necessary to further your plot. If the change is merely done because you want to share interesting notes that you’ve researched about a new locale, then it’s probably being done for its “ooh-and-ahh” factor rather than for dramatic tension. 

• Avoid placing ‘used furniture’ in your story 

• Use care when naming places in your story 

• Avoid anachronisms in stories set in past 

• Use caution when employing empathic universe 

______________________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

• How to form your story’s basic structure
In every story, something happens. These events form the structure of your tale. Plot, then, is the drama and action through which characters come to life.

• Conflict: The heart of every story
A good plot is about at least one character under adversity. Conflict typically arises from the characters’ perceptions, needs and wants. As each character has an urgent personal agenda, your plot really is a synthesis of its individual characters’ efforts to achieve their agendas.

• What is an ‘inciting incident’ in a story?
A vital part of any story is the opening lines, also known as the inciting incident. In this section of the story, we learn who the main character is, the central problem facing him, and a little about the setting.

• Basic guidelines for your story’s rising action
When developing the rising action section of your story, there a few simple guidelines to follow. Ensuring these guidelines aren’t violated will help keep the story moving forward and increase the dramatic tension.

• Write your story’s penultimate scene
In every story, there comes a turning point or an ultimate moment in which the situation has become so intolerable that the main character must take a decisive step and emerge victorious. This scene is known as the climax.

• Descend the mountain with falling action
Though your story may have reached its climax, the tale isn’t over yet. The author also should briefly describe the effects that the climax has on the characters. This section of the story is known as the “falling action.” It’s what happens to the main character as he descends the mountain that he has spent the entire story climbing.

To understand the basic rules for constructing your story, you’ll want to examine:
• Plot’s role in storytelling
What is a story? An idea or a setting or a character alone do not make a story. A fictional story is all of those and more.

• Common plot pitfalls
Sometimes when writing a story, what seems to be a great plotting strategy actually leads you to a dead ed or creates new problems for you to solve. Here are 14 common plot pitfalls that you’ll want to avoid.

The structural guidelines int he above articles 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.
______________________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer 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 the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my guidebooks for plotting your story:

“Imagination is as good as many voyages – and how much cheaper!” – George William Curtis

“Imagination is what you do with your inspiration.” – Violet Haberdasher

“The imagination needs moodling – long, inefficient happy idling, dawdling and puttering.” – Brenda Ueland

“The artist must bow to the monster of his own imagination.” – Richard Wright

“The strongest nation on earth is your imagi-nation.” – Matt Furey

______________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer 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 the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Once you’ve decided to use your home for your business, setting up an office space comes next. That shouldn’t be too difficult for most authors, as they already work from home.

If you write at your kitchen table or just head to the coffeeshop to pen your novel, though, you’ll have to make some adjustments. First, you need to select a room in your house that’s dedicated to business use. That may be a requirement of local zoning laws, and if you wish to take a home office deduction on your federal taxes, it’s a must. Secondly, whichever room you select, ensure that you it will be a fairly quiet and private place to work. A spare room often works best for that purpose. If clients are coming to your office, you’ll want a room near the front entrance to ensure people aren’t traipsing through your house where your family may be.

There are several pieces of equipment or services you’ll need to acquire for a functional home office:
• Office furniture – This could include a desk, chairs (for your desk and for clients to sit), wastebasket, bookshelf, and file cabinet. Your desk chair should be comfortable with plenty of back support.
• Computer – You’ll need a device to work on. A printer for it is a must.
• Internet connection – Your computer needs to have email and the ability to operate various programs. Always opt for a fast, reliable connection.
• Software – You’ll at a minimum need a word processing and an accounting program or app. If putting together public presentations, you’ll want PowerPoint or an equivalent.
• Telephone – A cell or Internet-based phone rather than a landline is fine.
• Assorted office supplies – Among the many items you’ll likely need are a notepad, pens, Post-it notes, printer paper, printer cartridges, envelopes and stamps.

As arranging your office, make sure you don’t place your computer so that window light shines on the screen. Likewise, you don’t want the glare of a setting or rising sun striking your eyes through the window. Make sure cords are covered with plenty of slack so you and others don’t trip over them.

______________________

My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer 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 the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out some of my self-publishing guidebooks: