Writing Motivation: Time Spent Writing is Productive Time
You never can be a successful writer if you don’t write – and why would you want to defer your dream? The truth is that any time spent writing, even writing that doesn’t lead to a published book, is productive time. READ MORE

NOW ON AUDIOBOOK! Storytelling 101 Quick Read Series
Need tips on plotting your novel? Starting your story? Selecting the best point of view? Writing more engaging dialogue? Showing not telling? Formatting your ebook or paperback? Creating a book cover? Setting up an author’s platform? Your author’s website? Arranging and delivering a book reading? Running an Amazon ad campaign for your books? My Storytelling 101 Quick Read series covers these topics and more – and now they’re all available on audiobook, perfect for your commute or when doing chores around the house. SEE AUDIOBOOKS

Writing Tip: Craft Powerful Story by Paying Attention to Milieu
All stories naturally have a milieu, or the social or cultural environment in which the action occurs. When an author pays attention to crafting the story’s milieu, a powerful storytelling tool is wielded. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Avoid Mime Conversation in Dialogue
Dialogue in fiction ought to be tight and punchy, but sometimes when penning or editing it, writers go overboard. The result is a choppy flow to the narration as well as text robbed of its emotive powers. This problem is known as mime conversation. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Marketing Tip: Sign Up for BlueSky Social Media
With all of the changes and antics at X (formerly known as Twitter), many writers have sought a new social media platform to which they could switch. Mastodon was too confusing though. Threads proved pointless if you already were on Instagram. All of the others – even the good ones like Spoutible – were just too small to be of any value. BlueSky, however, appears positioned to become the Twitter replacement. The site works just like Twitter, except people are a lot friendlier at the Sky than the Bird. BlueSky now has opened its registration to everyone. Come on over and join me at BlueSky! FOLLOW ME

Client Spotlight: “The Bridge to Magic” by Alex Thornbury
The first novel in a planned fantasy series tells the story of young Elika, a mage who is hunted and hated in a world where humanity tries to destroy magic. Written by Australian Alex Thornbury, the novel last year won the Reader Views Literary Award: Grand Prize Winner in Fiction; Gold Medal-YA Fiction; Silver Medal-Fantasy; and the Eric Hoffer Book Award Winner: Grand-Prize First Runner-Up Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I was proud to have worked as editor on the novel. Alex is a fantastic writer, and if you love fantasy, this is your book! 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 Feb. 20, 2024. 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 writers both new and published and offers a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 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.

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. For example, they might realize that their kernel of an idea really is a great concept for a scene but not for an entire story. Knowing how that scene might fit into a full story would allow them to start writing.

Many fiction writers eschew the idea of following any general structure, believing that the story should grow organically, that following some kind of blueprint would result in tales that are all the same, like so many ticky-tacky houses in a cheap suburban development. But understanding story structure isn’t about following a blueprint. Instead, it’s like knowing the basic rules of structural engineering in construction. If you don’t understand tensile reinforcement, loading conditions, and distribution reinforcement, your building probably will be substandard and collapse. Likewise, if you don’t understand plot’s relationship to the other elements of a story, the parts of a plot, and conflict’s role in storytelling, your story probably will be substandard and quickly fall apart. And just as those engineering rules can lead to an infinite variety of structures, from pole sheds and 2-bedroom homes to airport terminals and skyscrapers, so the general rules of plotting can lead to an infinite variety of stories, from epic poetry and novels to short stories and screenplays.

Many writers instinctively understand story structure, as they’ve read hundreds of novels; they’ve also been exposed to the basics of storytelling during their schooling. Still, they at times find themselves unable to diagnose the problem with a story, because just like a novice writer who can’t get started, they’re not thinking systematically about the tale.

To understand the basic rules for constructing your story, you’ll want to examine:
• Plot’s role in storytelling
• Importance of conflict in plotting
• Five traditional elements of a plot (at least in Western storytelling
• Common plot pitfalls

The structural guidelines in the 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.

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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: