My Courses

“I am aware of being in a beautiful prison, from which I can only escape by writing.” – Anaïs Nin “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” – Joan Didion “I have no taste for either poverty or honest labor, so writing is the only recourse left for me.” – Hunter S. Thompson “A storyteller makes up things…

Writers often don’t like to revise. Some view it as drudgery and would rather work on that new story idea they came up with today. A small arrogant few don’t think there’s anyway to improve their work. For most of us, though, there’s a real discomfort in looking back at what we’ve written. It’s not so…

Do you sometimes find yourself saying, “This has all been done before” as writing a draft? You’re probably right. How can your plot, setting and characters differ from those in the books you’ve enjoyed the most? ______________ My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs…

Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of…

“Writer’s block is only a failure of the ego.” – Norman Mailer “You can fix anything but a blank page.” – Nora Roberts “Read a thousand books, and your words will flow like a river.” – Lisa See “You will write if you will write without thinking of the result in terms of a result, but think of the…

The number of writers who confuse these two adjectives is frightening. Abhorrent is something that is horrifying, that would cause you to at least jump back because you’re startled. To wit, She found the dead cockroach floating in her soup absolutely abhorrent. Aberrant, however, is something that is a little weird. For example, The culmination of her aberrant behavior…

What genre do you most like to write in? What are some of the stereotypes of writers in those genres (For example, science fiction writers are nerdy, wear thick glasses, and take great umbrage at anyone who misstates a scientific fact.)? How do you stack up against those stereotypes? Are there deeper traits or qualities of…

Once you know the difference between climactic and climatic, fireworks will go off. Climactic refers to the high point of something, such as the climax of a novel or something that’s orgasmic. It comes from the noun climax, except the x has been turned to a ct to get an adjective: Suddenly, a climactic crash of thunder reverberated across Chicago. Climatic refers to the weather.…

Science fiction stories typically arise from a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that is a “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or faster-than-light spacecraft; it also can be a hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of…