Inventing Reality Editing Service

Don’t fully commit protagonist in opening scene

Typically when a story starts, there is an out-of-whack event, an upsetting of the status quo that the main character must deal with. How the main character addresses this event forms the bulk of the story’s plot.

Sometimes, though, the main character is reluctant to act. That is, he is not fully committed to resolving the issue.

For example, what if our protagonist comes to believe that something bad has happened to a neighbor, as she mysteriously hasn’t been seen for days. He files a report with the police and decides he’s washed his hands of it, has fulfilled his civic responsibility.

To ensure we have a story, though, something must occur that convinces the main character to become fully committed. This is variously known as the lock-in, the point of no return, and in a three-act structure as the Act One climax.

For example, after a cursory search the police turn up nothing and seem disinterested in investigating. For the lock-in, our protagonist might feel dissatisfaction with the lack of action and so decides to investigate on his own. Or perhaps the threat ramps up as he hears or sees suspicious activity at his neighbor’s house and so decides to investigate. Or possibly our protagonist has a need for self-redemption; maybe he once was a police detective who got bounced off the force when he screwed up an investigation and so wants to prove his mettle to his peers and to himself.

There are a variety of reasons why you might make your main character initially reluctant to act. First, it’s a great way to learn more about him, the villain, and their background without giving a lot of exposition. Further, plot-wise, getting your main character involved too early may not be believable when police or others are better equipped to address the problem. Lastly, it’s a good way to explore the story’s theme through development of the character. If fear, for example, holds back the main character from acting, this can be part of an examination of the theme of courage.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Five Great Quotations about the Muse

“(The) muse appears at the point in my writing when I sense a subtle shift, a nudge to move over, and everything cracks open, the writing is freed, the language is full, resources are plentiful, ideas pour forth, and to be frank, some of these ideas surprise me. It seems as though the universe is my friend and is helping me write, its hand over mine.” - Amy Tan

“Written words are divine footprints on earth.” - Lailah Gifty Akita

“Muses are fickle, and many a writer, peering into the voice, has escaped paralysis by ascribing the creative responsibility to a talisman: a lucky charm, a brand of paper, but most often a writing instrument. Am I writing well? Thank my pen. Am I writing badly? Don’t blame me blame my pen. By such displacements does the fearful imagination defend itself.” - Anne Fadiman

“There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say ‘It is yet more difficult than you thought.’” - Wendell Berry

“To be a writer is to be the very best of assassins. You do not sit down and write every day to force the Muse to show up. You get into the habit of writing every day so that when she shows up, you have the maximum chance of catching her, bashing her on the head, and squeezing every last drop out of that bitch.” - Lili St. Crow

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Writing Affirmation: To write is to progress

All too often, writers will read over their manuscript and then toss it down in disgust. Sure, they wrote a thousand words. Sure, there was a line or two here and there that sounded really good. But because the manuscript never matched the quality of her favorite authors or what she was aiming for writing no longer is pleasurable but becomes something to be avoided.

Procrastination comes in many forms – thinking up something else to occupy one’s time, promising to do it later then not keeping that promise, and a myriad of phony excuses for not starting. One thing is certain, though: The writer is not getting any closer to completing that book, and she’s not getting any better.

Simply put, you can only master your craft if you practice it. By writing every day, you slowly but surely improve the quality of your writing, just as if a runner practicing every day to become smoother, more efficient, and faster. Often without even realizing it, you incorporate effective styles and techniques used by writers you’ve read. You utilize strategies and advice read in writing guidebooks and blogs. You subconsciously mull over scenes and characters so that the next day your writing is ever more taut and evocative.

When you don’t write, your skills atrophy, just as certainly as the runner’s muscles soften and weaken when he doesn’t hit the track each day.

By not writing, you’ve allowed the wrong emotion to direct you down the wrong path. You’ve let fear dominate your writing. Unfortunately, often the fear of doing a task takes up more energy than simply doing it. Yet you can only strengthen your writing skills by practicing them, by working out at the notepad or the keyboard.

Don’t fret over the quality of writing on a day-to-day basis; just know that certainly, over time, it’s improving. And the next time procrastination-causing fear strikes, remember the words of author Sam Horn: “I have never met an author who was sorry he or she wrote a book. They are only sorry they did not write it sooner.”

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

What to do in hour before your presentation

Rarely do most authors just show up for a book reading or presentation and start delivering it. Like a professional athlete, you want to “warm up” before the actual show. Doing so can help ensure the presentation itself goes flawlessly.

• Get plenty of rest. Don’t stay up late partying the evening before the presentation or drive all night to get there. If you’re awake, you’ll be more alert and in a better, upbeat mood during the presentation.
• Avoid caffeine, sugar and alcohol before the presentation. These chemicals can exacerbate your nervousness. Instead, stick to water.
• Dress appropriately. You don’t have to be dressed to the nines but look professional or at least match the part. For example, if you’ve written an outdoors book, show up in a nice pair of jeans and a button-down shirt; fishermen don’t wear a suit and tie when on the lake, after all.
• Bring books and pens. Take with you more books than you expect you’ll need (you don’t want to leave any fans disappointed). Sign a few copies in advance. Carry a couple of additional pens in case the ink runs out. If you have electronic equipment, brings power cords, extension cords, and extra battries if needed.
• Arrive with plenty of time to spare. Get to the location where you’ll be reading and signing books a bit early. You’ll need the extra time to set up and get comfortable.
• Find the event’s organizer/host as soon as you arrive. Introduce yourself and have the host show you where you’ll deliver the presentation.
• Set up as soon as you can. Getting your books, pens, laptop, banners/posters, and anything else you might need in just the right spot will ensure you can easily find them once the presentation begins. Check to ensure any electronics you have are working properly to avoid any technical snafus. Use the bathroom before the presentation.
• Stroll around until you feel at home. Once the set up and potty break are done, walk around the room or store to get a feel for what the place is like. Familiarity breeds comfort.
• Interact with the audience before the presentation. This helps you become more comfortable by creating a relationship, even if a minor one, with the audience and by building your confidence when others respond with interest to you.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Use consistent style on chapter, header titles

When writing chapter titles and section headers in nonfiction books, you’ll want to use a consistent style. For example, if one section title is written as What Hiking Apparel to Buy for Children, but the next one is written as Where to buy hiking apparel, the styles are inconsistent as the former is capitalized but the latter is lowercased.

Few readers may notice that you're using inconsistent styles, but typographically the manuscript will feel messy to the reader...and the jump from messy appearance to messy content is not a difficult leap for most readers.

Generally, with chapter titles and section headers, you can use one of two styles: up style or down style.

Up style consists of capitalizing the first and last words in the title or headline and all “major words” in the title. An example is Five Ways to Boost Book Sales. Its benefit is that it tends to stand out more than down style, so if using a font size that's the same as or close to the text, the header won’t get lost. The disadvantage is that there’s disagreement in style guides over what is a major word. Usually articles (a, an, the), prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or, for, nor) are lowercase. While the Chicago Manual of Style says prepositions should be lowercase unless the first word, the Associated Press stylebook says to capitalize them. To wit, the above example in this paragraph is written using CMOS while AP would capitalize to.

Down style requires that only the first word of the title and any proper nouns be capitalized. An example is Five ways to boost Kindle ebook sales. It’s benefit is that it offers easier rules to follow than with up style, and there’s no argument over which is the first word or a proper noun. The major disadvantage is that it tends to get lost if the font size is the same as or similar to the text's font size. Of course, this disadvantage can be overcome by centering the header, increasing its font size to at least 6-12 points greater than the text, or by giving the header a different color than the text.

A final note: Either style is fine to use. Just choose one and stick with it.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Quit thinking of yourself: I vs. me

Maybe some writers are just too self-absorbed to get this one right. All too often when editing, I see sentences like The boss handed the project off to Laura and I.

What if Laura wasn’t part of the equation, though? You wouldn’t write The boss handed the project off to I. Instead, you’d write The boss handed the project off to me.

If using the word to, use me rather than I. If “you” are the subject of the sentence, then use I as in I handed the project off to Laura and that flunky writer.

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Four writing prompts: Avoidance

Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise through their efforts to avoid something. Here are four writing prompts for stories that involve the motivation of avoidance.

Man vs. nature
On an important journey – perhaps to deliver a message, person or item – the main character hopes to avoid a naturally perilous area, such as a treacherous mountain range or an expansive badlands, due to its inhospitable conditions and dangerous animals and plants. Unfortunately for the main character, to complete his journey, he is forced to cross this area he hopes to avoid. How does he survive it? What virtues does he possess that allows him to survive? What lessons does he learn during his efforts?

Man vs. man
What if two people who don’t like one another are forced to live together? Perhaps it’s a married couple that has split, with one living upstairs and the other in the basement, or maybe it’s a stepparent and a teenage stepchild. How do the two avoid one another? What event must and internal changes in their thinking must occur to bring them together?

Man vs. society
Your main character witnesses something illegal. The power behind the illegal activity wants to shut up your main character before he reveals what he knows – except nobody believes him (unbeknown to the group behind the illegal activity) and he must search for more evidence to prove his claim so he may get the protection and help he needs.

Man vs. himself
To stay alive, the main character must defeat an evil character. The main character soon realizes, however, that to do this, he symbolically must make a bargain with the devil, something he hoped to avoid. What moral debates does he hold in his head as deciding whether or not to accept the bargain?

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Three-act structure offers alternate story plot

One common way to think about how a story is organized is the three-act structure. This approach dates to Aristotle, who stated that a story has a beginning, a middle and an end.

The beginning, or Act 1, introduces the story’s main character, time, place and central problem. Usually, the character’s life is knocked out of whack. This section of the story is equivalent to the inciting incident or the opening. For example, the death of a parent causes our main character to return to his small hometown for the funeral, though he’s estranged from the family. In returning home, the main character decides he must patch up relations with his family, for he’s always felt an emptiness in not having them in their lives despite his academic and career success.

The middle, or Act 2, centers on increasing tension as the main character tries to solve the problem. The bulk of the story – typically longer than the beginning and end combined – this section also can be considered the rising action. In this section for the example mentioned in the previous paragraph, the main character attempts to converse with his family members, only to be met coolly by some and outright resistance by others. Perhaps he meets an unlikely ally (a sister-in-law?) who encourages him and helps him reconnect with some. As this act continues, the main character will succeed in getting along with some family members, but the one he ultimately must reconnect with – his father, the family patriarch – remains elusive.

The end, or Act 3, is when the main character resolves the problem. This typically is the same as the climax, falling action, and ending. In the above story example, he actually would reconnect with his father during a confrontation with him. Afterward, loose ends would be tied up, such as the main character agreeing to come back to visit for a holiday just before he returns to the big city where he lives.

Though a simplified way of looking at stories, it’s still used today. As the ancients didn’t write novels but primarily plays and long poems, a modified version of the three-act structure is still used in screenwriting; for example, in television, each section between the commercials is an “Act.”

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Five Great Quotations about Fantasy Fiction

“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” - Neil Gaiman

“Part of the appeal of the fantastic is taking ridiculous ideas very seriously and pretending they’re not absurd.” - China Miéville

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, it’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope.” - Dr. Seuss

“Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one.” - Terry Pratchett

“Fantasy is escapist, and that is its glory. If a soldier is imprisoned by the enemy, don’t we consider it his duty to escape?” - J.R.R. Tolkien

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.

Affirmation: I can write anything I set my mind to

There are many reasons your writing might fall flat – it’s written in passive voice, you tell rather than show, the point of view shifts constantly – but the biggest one is because you don’t believe you’re capable of penning the short story or book in the first place.

In fact, your mind can sabotage you even before your finger hits the first letter on the keypad or your pen leaves its first drop of ink on the paper.

Writers who believe their skills are set – that their abilities, intelligence and skills are fixed – usually talk themselves out of writing in the first place. Or if they do write a passage, they don’t bother to revise it or to complete the work that it is part of. They often view their writing as a failure.

In contrast, writers who believe their skills grow – especially the more they practice, read about, and persist with their craft – typically not only write the passage but revise it several times and then continue with the next passage to complete their book. They accept that their writing is imperfect but know it can be honed into something powerful.

You won’t be able to publish a short story or book unless you work at it. And if you first believe you can do it, you’re more likely to work hard to achieve your goal. Rather than tell yourself that your writing can’t get any better, change your mindset. Tell yourself, “I can write anything I set my mind to.”

Now go write that book you’ve always dreamed of!

Professional Book Editor: Having your novel, short story or nonfiction manuscript proofread or edited before submitting it can prove invaluable. In an economic climate where you face heavy competition, your writing needs a second eye to give you the edge. I can provide that second eye.