Inventing Reality Editing Service

Create Character Arc for Better Story – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Nov. 11, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Create Character Arc for Better Story
For a story to move forward, it needs a character arc. An arc is how a three-dimensional character changes and grows through the tale. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: How to Design Your Ebook Cover
Most potential readers of your ebook will first encounter it online as an image – the book’s cover. If that thumbnail doesn’t cause viewers to take a closer look at the accompanying text descriptions of your book, you are farther away from making a sale. How do you create an ebook cover? My new book Design Your Ebook Cover answers that question. Using easy to understand and short explanations, it describes what software/apps you need, moves on to the cover’s various elements, and finally looks at uploading it to a print on demand company like Kindle Direct Publishing. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Streamline Writing by Cutting Perception Fallacy
When writing from a character’s point of view, authors should avoid the perception fallacy. This clunky kind of storytelling assumes that if a tale is being told from a specific character’s point of view, then all description must be filtered directly through that character’s senses and perceptions. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: How to Determine Your Book’s Trim Size
As going through the self-publishing process, you’ll certainly be asked to set the book’s trim size. This is the final size of a printed page (or the actual size of a book’s page). If you took a ruler and measured the page’s bottom (or top) edge and either its left or right side, you’d have its trim size or the book’s dimensions. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: What to Look for When Revising Your Manuscript
You can’t judge a book by a cover goes the old cliché, but the reality is that people literally do so all of the time. That’s why you’ll want to spend some time coming up with an attractive cover for your paperback book. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Ask for a Review at End of Your Book
One of the best ways to encourage people to buy your book is by having others speak highly of it, especially on a web page where a person can make a purchase. Amazon.com and other bookselling websites know this and so allow reviews to be posted on pages that hawk books. The challenge then facing authors is to get people to post reviews on that web page. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Fair to Midland” by Tommy Adamo
With all of the talk of civil war depending on the presidential election results, what if one came to be? My recent editing client, Tommy Adamo, tackled that topic in his novel Fair to Midland, which I edited a couple of years ago. From the back cover: “Within the confines of a confessional, an old man recounts the sins he committed during The War of Texas Secession in the late 21st century. … Warren, a recently discharged veteran of The War, shares many of the sentiments his fellow Texans possess and, much to the objection of his wife, joins a local militia. He begins his tale speaking of God, family and country, but as Warren describes the suspicious and unfortunate ends of those around him, the priest recognizes a more insidious nature to the old man and realizes they never stood a chance against Warren’s lethal vainglory.” 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 Nov. 18, 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.

Zip Two Disparate Stories Into One Tale – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Nov. 4, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Zip Two Disparate Stories Into One Tale
Rather than follow a lone main character through every chapter of a short story or novel, your tale might follow the experiences of two main characters or of two groups of principal characters that alternate. This is called a zipper story. READ MORE

How to Format Your Ebook
The best way to construct an ebook is as a unique document rather than running your paperback through meat grinder software. Fortunately, you can construct it right on your laptop without buying expensive software or hiring someone to code your ebook into a mobi or epub format. My Storytelling 101 book Format Your Ebook takes you through those steps. Among the many topics covered are your table of contents, headers, footers, page numbers, text, designing the cover, and uploading the ebook. Information is presented in brief, easy to understand explanations from someone who has formatted hundreds of ebooks. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Use Third-Person Limited for Greater Clarity
One type of third-person point of view is third-person limited. This is when the narrator tells the story only from the perspective of what the main character can observe and think, but unlike first-person limited, we also observe the main character through the author’s eyes. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Consider Exercising ‘Nuclear Option’ on Ebook
You’ve formatted your ebook in MS Word and uploaded it to Kindle DP or Smashwords. When you open the online previewer to see how it looks, you’re surprised to see tons of odd line breaks, strange characters that weren’t in your original Word document, uneven indentations, and a plethora of other problems. So you go through your manuscript, fix them, and upload again. To your frustration, you find that many of the errors remain – and maybe even some new ones crop up. Rather than continue battling each of these issues, you may want to consider what those in self-publishing call “the nuclear option.” READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: Design Your Book Cover to Attract Attention
You can’t judge a book by a cover goes the old cliché, but the reality is that people literally do so all of the time. That’s why you’ll want to spend some time coming up with an attractive cover for your paperback book. LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Increase Sales by Publishing Title as an Audio Book
Often new authors just think about getting their books into paperback and ebook. But potential purchasers of your book don’t just read words on a page or screen; they also enjoy books by listening to them. With the explosion of listening devices that connect to the Internet – from iPads and Kindle tablets to iPods and Mp3 players, not to mention cellphones – potential readers today can listen to your book while on their way to work, while running errands, or while waiting for others. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Irish Jesus of Fairview” by Sammy Juliano
A couple of year ago, I had the pleasure of editing Sammy Juliano’s debut novel, Irish Jesus of Fairview. Set in 1950s-1960s New Jersey suburbs, a nocturnal assault tests the familial bonds of three brothers. Sammy has a sequel coming out in a just a few weeks, so check out the first in the series to get the whole story! CHECK IT OUT

How to Select a Font for Your Children’s Book

A common mistake among aspiring children’s book authors is to go with a font that remind them of childhood. That’s usually not the best approach.

Think of it from the perspective of your reader – the child. When children read, they generally do so letter by letter, as they learn to blend sounds and form words. Given this, you want to select a font that is easiest for children to recognize letters.

The best fonts for doing that are those that are simple. Rounded and open counters – the enclosed shape within a character, such as the “D” on a “b” or the backward “D” on “a”. Other children reading experts recommend “warm” and “inviting” fonts, though exactly what is warm and inviting is subjective.

An excellent example of a simple font with rounded and open counters is Sassoon Primary. It was designed with children in mind and is often used in books.

Other great fonts for children’s books include:
• Garamond
• Bembo Infant (my favorite)
• Jenson
• Minion
• Caslon
• Plantin Infant
• Baskerville

Once a font is selected, pay close attention to the font/point size and the spacing between lines. These two factors also affect readability.

A good font/point size for children is 14-24. Younger kids and less capable readers generally do better with text at the high end of that range, while older and more accomplished readers can handle the lower end.

For leading – the space between the baselines of two adjacent lines of type – go for 4-6 points larger than the text’s size. If the text is 20 points, the leading would be 24-26 points in a children’s book. Usually adults can adequately handle 1 or 2 points leading, but to children letters that close together can look like alphabet soup.

Remember, if your readers find the book difficult to get through, not because of what you’ve written but because of the way you present it, they’ll quit reading it. There are plenty of other books to read after all – or even that video game to play.

Vary Story Structure with ‘Fate Plot’ – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Oct. 28, 2025

Plotting Your Book: Vary Story Structure with ‘Fate Plot’
Another variation on the traditional five-part story structure is the fate plot. In a fate plot, the climax occurs at the beginning of story. The rest of story is a traditional tale that essentially is a flashback, showing and explaining how the climax was reached. The end of the story is the resolution, which finally brings us back to “real time” or the moments after the climax/opening scene. READ MORE

The Ultimate Guide to Self-Publishing Your Book
You’ve written a book that’s languishing on your computer hard drive. You don’t have time to pitch it to a literary agent or a major publisher … work or school is hectic, the house needs to be cleaned, the kids demand your attention … But we bet you can find just seven minutes a day to achieve your dream of getting it published. If you can, my book 7 Minutes a Day to a Self-Published Book is for you. This practical, how-to guide takes you step-by-step through the self-publishing process – with just seven minutes of work required a day. You’ll complete short, skillful exercises that allow you to self-publish your novel or nonfiction title as you read the book, all the while getting the encouragement and motivation needed to keep you going. SEE BOOK

Writing Tip: Challenge Yourself to Write ‘Dramables’
In the hands of a gifted writer, stories become extended parables, layered with symbolism and meaning that examine the many questions of human existence. While maintaining the best qualities of escapist literature, such stories transcend escapism in quality. READ MORE

Self-Publishing Tip: Thinking Up a Title that Sells Your Nonfiction Book
With nonfiction books, you’ll want to select a title that helps rather than hinders sales. A good title ensures that your book will be easy to find as it pops up in search engine queries; a bad title ensures other books will appear in such searches even though yours is better written. READ MORE

This Week’s Podcast: How to Make Your Writing Show Rather Than Tell
You don’t have to write for very long before hearing the cry of “Show don’t tell!” or “Too much exposition!” The advice is given for good reason. Exposition (or telling) typically fails to be either evocative or engaging. So how do you fix exposition? How do you make your writing show rather than tell? LISTEN TO PODCAST

Book Marketing Tip: Boost Book Sales with Public Presentations
Many book authors are happy to simply do what they enjoy most, which is write. You also have to promote your published books, though, and a time-honored way of doing so is by making presentations, such as signings and readings, at bookstores or other businesses that might carry your titles. READ MORE

Client Spotlight: “Bad Juju in Cleveland” by Karl Bort and Thekla Madsen
A crime novel I edited several years ago is now out in audiobook, narrated by Mike Cantrell. Karl Bort and Thekla Madsen’s Bad Juju in Cleveland begins when four men are found brutally slain in an abandoned house on Cleveland’s east side, one with ties to City Hall and all marked with a mysterious symbol. When Detective Nicholas Silvano is called to the case, he finds this drug-deal-gone-wrong is anything but ordinary, and the search for an elusive killer is on. With FBI Agent James Reis creating roadblocks at every turn, Silvano teams up with a DEA agent on a manhunt that takes them to the shady side of Florida, where anything can be had for a price. The stakes become higher when the killer makes it personal, forcing Nick to face feelings he’s been denying for so long. CHECK IT OUT

Give Depth to Story by Using an Allusion

One way to add depth to your story is to use an allusion.

An allusion is the reference to a character, setting or object from another writing in your own. The reference usually is not overtly stated but layered into the story.

One good example of an allusion is the opening line of J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye:

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

This allusion references the opening lines of Charles Dicken’s novel “David Copperfield,” which focuses on the backstory of its main character. Salinger’s narrator, Holden Caulfield, however, wants you to accept him for who he is at that moment, not judge him by his heritage or upbringing.

The advantage of an allusion is it’s shorthand so that a point can be made quickly and economically. Thanks to the allusion, the reader knows in a single sentence that Holden Caulfield is straightforward and demands that he be acknowledged for who he is and his actions. Getting those character traits across in a scene that shows rather than tells probably would take several paragraphs.

Of course, all of this assumes the reader recognizes the allusion in the first place. Because of this, authors are best to stick with references to works from their own genre. A reader of romance is unlikely to get an allusion to a science fiction work, and a fantasy reader an allusion to a western, after all.

Another danger of the allusion is when it doesn’t serve a literary purpose but is primarily used to make the author look smart. The allusion may be apt but probably could be handled better through another form of imagery or an actual dramatic scene.

There are plenty of good reasons to use an allusion, however. Ideally, the allusion helps make the character or scene appealing and believable as it draws parallels with a work that is widely respected. Another reason might be to demonstrate the character’s (as opposed to the author’s) erudition. One more reason is to pay homage to a work that was influential in the author’s writing style or even to criticize a writer or book; the latter often is an example of tuckerizing. Sometimes, the author just wants to reward the careful reader; this typically is an example of an Easter egg.

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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 writing guidebooks:

Great Writing Quotes by Author Chris Cleave

We cannot choose where to start and stop. Our stories are the tellers of us.

I could not stop talking because now I had started my story, it wanted to be finished.

I write in the novel’s afterword that our recent wars “finish not with victory or defeat but with a calendar draw-down date and a presumption that we shall never be reconciled with the enemy.”

The only bad days as a writer are the ones when you are too cowardly or too lazy to sit down at the keyboard and give it everything you have.

I like to push characters to extremes so they have to make really tough decisions…

The reason why I love people and writing about them, is because they don’t always respond with hate and anger. If they did I wouldn’t have a story to tell. Who wants to know about someone who was brutalized and became brutal? I’m interested in the exceptions.

I’m a much better writer for being a father.

I’m always determined that as a novelist I’m going to go out there and research my characters very thoroughly before I start writing.

Studying psychology is fun because you’re always looking for the same things I think a writer should be looking for, which is the story behind the story.

Sad words are just another beauty. A sad story means, this storyteller is alive.

If I can’t write it would be as if I died.

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Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Get It Right Every Time: All Ways vs. Always

Believe it or not, some writers don’t always use all ways correctly. Fortunately, there these two different words are easy to keep separate.

All ways refers to all possible routes or methods: Police had all ways out of the building covered.

Always means every time: She always got A’s on her tests.

Now that we’ve explained the difference, you’ll always get these two words right!

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Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Writing Inspiration: Read Trashy Writing

Do you dream of becoming a writer but find yourself questioning your own ability to write? You night just need a little inner encouragement.

Begin by not comparing your writing to great authors. They spent years developing their skills and talents. Instead, read extremely trashy works by hack authors or in a genre that you dislike. You’ll begin to think of your writing as comparatively good and will recognize overused literary devices that you should avoid in your pieces.

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Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Writing Inspiration: Be in Right Mindset

Part of motivating yourself to do anything is to be in the right mindset. Before sitting down to write today, tell yourself the following: “I am writing for my own pleasure. The more I write, the better I will get at it. If my writing today is horrible, that doesn’t matter; it soon will get better – but only if I start writing.”

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Check out some of my writing guidebooks:

Don’t Let Fear Hamper You: Dare to Write

For many, writing remains merely a hobby. If you find satisfaction in that, that’s all right. Many people enjoy sewing but don’t make clothes for a living; many people enjoy hiking but don’t become wilderness guides. A beloved pastime need not be turned into a career, and a written story or poem never need be published.

Regardless of one’s goals, though, virtually all writers want to pen something that they feel proud of. Unfortunately, writers tend to be excruciatingly self-critical of themselves – sometimes to the point that though they yearn to write they can’t bring themselves to commit words to paper or computer screen.

You probably are not afraid of writing but afraid of disappointing someone – your readers, your instructors, your family…and most likely yourself. You’ve become too judgmental of your writing and in doing so feed your fear so it has the power to control you.

Now be honest with yourself: You have no idea how others will receive your writing until you write and share it. Further, writers who are extremely judgmental of their abilities actually tend to produce quality books because they hold themselves to such a high standard! Your writing may be quite well-received.

Fortunately, there are many ways you can gather personal courage and dare to write:
• Ignore the bullies – Don’t listen to your inner voice (or others) who are critical of your writing. Allow yourself to write “poorly” realizing that you’ll only get better with each page you pen.
• Rethink why you write – Rather than write to master the craft of writing, write for the journey of self-discovery. Writing then becomes rewarding for reasons other than craftsmanship or being published.
• Start small – Rather than attempt too large of a project, such as a novel or even a short story, aim to write a lone paragraph or a single page. Don’t set yourself up for failure but work slowly and steadily toward completion of a project.
• Change the genre and style in which you write – Perhaps you’re more suited to writing in a different genre or to writing nonfiction instead of a novel. In addition, don’t force yourself to write in ways or to use techniques that you don’t agree with, even if that’s what the writing gurus say should be done.
• Write what you’re compassionate about – Don’t write about topics for which you feel no heat. Just because an issue, topic or theme is popular is no reason to waste words on it; in fact, doing so can make you a hack writer. Write for different reasons than simply being commercially successful.
• Find supporters – Network with like-minded, positive writers who offer constructive criticism and point out what is good about your writing. Encourage each other to write and keep at it.
• Never give up – Any goal worth achieving takes hard work. If you want to improve as a writer, if you want to become a respected writer, then you must write.

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Check out some of my writing guidebooks: