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Don’t Overwhelm Reader With Too Many Subplots – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Sept. 23, 2025
Plotting Your Book: Don’t Overwhelm Reader With Too Many SubplotsSometimes writers get too creative for their own good. Such is the case when they think about all the stories their characters – major and minor – could experience. While the writer’s understanding of the world he’s creating is laudable, for the reader all of those storylines…
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Blaise Pascal
The last thing one discovers in composing a work is what to put first. I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter. Everything that is written merely to please the author is worthless. There are some who speak well and write badly. For the place…
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Use Subplot to Give Story More Depth – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Sept. 16, 2025
Plotting Your Book: Use Subplot to Give Story More DepthOne way to give your story depth is to include a subplot, which is a secondary plot line. This sometimes is referred to as the B story, a term from screenwriting. READ MORE Writing Advice: Mastering Point of ViewFor beginning writers, point of view often is the…
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Maxine Kumin
To write about the monstrous sense of alienation the poet feels in this culture of polarized hatreds is a way of staying sane. With the poem, I reach out to an audience equally at odds with official policy, and I celebrate our mutual humanness in an inhuman world. I would not recommend poetry as a…
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When and How Do I Get My Royalties?
After countless hours of writing and revising, wringing your hands over the cover design, and struggling with formatting glitches, you’ve finally done – you’ve self-published your book! You’re euphoric, but one nagging question remains: When and how do I get my royalties? Technically, most self-published authors don’t receive royalties. Royalties are a publisher’s payment made to…
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Don’t End Novel with Cliffhanger – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Sept. 9, 2025
Plotting Your Book: Don’t End Novel with CliffhangerOne of the new writing trends among self-published authors is to end their novel on a cliffhanger. The idea is that this will generate interest in purchasing the author’s next novel, which is a sequel. Unless readers know they’ve picked up a trilogy or a book in a story…
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Uri Shulevitz
An author must learn the principles of good storytelling only in order to write better from the heart. Don’t misuse the pencil and don’t torment the paper. As I kept on writing I realized that the “what” came before the “how”…what I had to say was the most important thing and how to say it…
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Editing Tip: Don’t Worry About Being Satisfied
Having trouble with a passage? Simply write something different in the spot that bothers you. Even if you’re not satisfied with what you’ve just written, don’t worry about it. In a week, re-read the passage. Does what you’ve written now sound fine or does it still need revising? ______________ My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an…
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Should You Write a Happy or an Unhappy Ending? – Inventing Reality’s Newsletter for Sept. 2, 2025
Plotting Your Book: Should You Write a Happy or an Unhappy Ending?When writing the climax your story, you’ll need to decide if the ending will be happy or unhappy. How should you choose which one to use? READ MORE Writing Tips: How to Create Your Story’s SettingAll too often, writers give their story’s setting short shrift.…
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Great Writing Quotes by Author Marla Frazee
The more personal and heartfelt the story is for the author and/or illustrator of the book, the more universal the emotion that can be gleaned from it. Picture books are an emotional medium. They need to make us feel something. Every word, every character in a picture book must count. What I had to do…
