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Hint at Protagonist’s Intentions on Opening Page – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for April 1, 2025
Plotting Your Book: Hint at Protagonist’s Intentions on Opening PageThe opening page of your story always should include your protagonist’s intentions, meaning the step he plans to take to deal with the story’s main problem. READ MORE Writing Advice: Using a Writing Process When Writing NonfictionOne of the biggest mistakes aspiring authors make is denying that…
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How to Set Up Your Bluesky Account and Profile
Looking for a new way to promote your book or interact with other writers? Check out Bluesky. Here’s how to create your account and set up your profile there.
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Antonya Nelson
Writing is a completely private act. It’s in a way like play but very serious play, and sometimes I can escape into the fictional world that I’m creating so fully as to see hours go by without my noticing it. I think that kind of suspension of time and that mindfulness is a real gift.…
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Hint at Protagonist’s Internal Motivations – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Mar. 25, 2025
Plotting Your Book: Hint at Protagonist’s Internal MotivationsMerely presenting a protagonist who will solve the story’s main problem the isn’t enough. Instead, you need to give reasons why the protagonist would even want to do so. READ MORE Writing Tip: How to Follow a Writing Process for FictionOne of the biggest mistakes aspiring authors make is…
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Richard Price
You don’t write about the horrors of war. No. You write about a kid’s burnt socks lying in the road. If I can tell you the story from beginning to end in five minutes, I’m ready to start writing. I think the definition of an artist is not necessarily tied into excellence or talent; an…
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Use Broad Conflict to Set Your Story in Motion – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Mar. 18, 2025
Plotting Your Book: Use Broad Conflict to Set Your Story in MotionAlmost all stories force the main character to solve several problems. The issues of where to hide, of finding a way to send a message for help, of obtaining a weapon to defend oneself, all might appear within a single chapter of a novel or…
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Roald Dahl
A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it. For me, the pleasure of writing comes with inventing stories. When you’re writing a book, it’s rather like going on a very…
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Ann Beattie
You have to figure out who the right person is to tell the story. And often, people who are very self-aware will only sound as if they are pontificating if they tell the story. You put a character out there and you’re in their power. You’re in trouble if they’re in yours. Italics provide a…
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How to Establish Setting in Your Story’s Opening – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Mar. 11, 2025
Plotting Your Book: How to Establish Setting in Your Story’s OpeningSetting is the place and time in which the plot unfolds. The setting always must be established in a story’s opening lines. A setting helps anchor the story. READ MORE How to “Show Don’t Tell” Read any writing tip article or book, and one piece of advice…
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Ruth Rendell
I get a lot of letters from people. They say “I want to be a writer. What should I do?” I tell them to stop writing to me and to get on with it. Some say life is the thing, but I prefer reading. To say that Agatha Christie’s characters are cardboard cut-outs is an…
