Inventing Reality Editing Service

Editing client publishes James Girls sequel

A long-time editing client of mine has published her second novel. F.J. Stevens’ “What's Done In The Dark” is the second installment in her James Girls series. Picking up two years after the first book ends, Brenda has wed her attorney and settled into a lavish new life in suburbia that raises many brows and ultimately brings her past full circle. Missy is confronted with yet another astonishing secret from Ray’s last days that will not only leave her in financial ruin but sets off a chain of events that rocks the entire James family to its core. As secrets are revealed and hidden agendas unveiled, Aunt Pat is once again forced to put on her suit of armor and set out on a mission to save the James Girls from themselves. The book is available online in paperback or ebook.

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.

Which one? Wellbeing, well-being, well being

How you spell this word depends on where you live in the English-speaking world.

Well-being as a hyphenated word is the preferred form in the United States and Canada.

Wellbeing as one word with no hyphens is the standard spelling in the United Kingdom, Australia and other English-speaking countries outside of North America.

The word never should be spelled as two words without a hyphen; well being doesn’t make sense as it isn’t two nouns stuck together to form a new object (and hence a new word), as is the case with ice cream.

Be forewarned that as the less preferred form of each word often appears no matter where you live, sometimes spell checks won’t catch the error.

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.

5 Science Fiction Writing Prompts

Science fiction stories typically revolve around a novum, a scientifically plausible concept that becomes “reality” in the tale. The novum might be an mechanical device like robot servants, artificial intelligence, or a space station with artificial gravity; it also can be hypothetical idea such as “The Earth is a scientific experiment run by aliens to determine the meaning of life” or “The government outlaws books.” The author then asks “What if?” exploring how our world would change if this novum actually existed or were true.

Among the problems of many novice science fiction writers is instead of a new novum, they rely on used furniture – that is, they borrow novums from popular SF stories. After all, how many novels have you read that use starships exploring the galaxy for the Earth-based Federation? Barely changing names to appear as if you are not appropriating – a starcraft seeking M-class worlds for the Earth-centered Alliance – still doesn’t cut it as original or fully using the potential that science fiction offers to examine our culture or humanity.

To help SF writers, here are some novums of potential near-future inventions from which stories could be built:

Dream sharing
What if devices in our pillows could monitor our brain’s electrical activity while we sleep? This would allow us to view our own dreams when awake; linking monitors even would let two (or more) people experience one another’s dreams at the same time.

Electronic makeup
What if you could place a thin plastic membrane on your forearm (or anywhere else on your body) that can link to the Internet? In addition to providing information, you could use the membrane to change your appearance at any time; football fans can wear tiger stripes on their faces, the elderly can “eliminate” wrinkles, and those dissatisfied with their skin complexion can change its tone.

Polymer gel muscles
What if emergency personnel, the military, and athletes could wear lightweight exoskeletons that can make them five times stronger than their regular muscles? In addition to running faster and jumping higher, the gel could be bulletproof.

Smart contact lenses
What if you could wear wifi contact lenses that project high resolution images directly onto your retina? They would allow you to know the time, read a map, or access online information at any time, even when your eyes were closed.

Smart skin
What if you could place tiny cell-sized electronic beads into your skin that allowed your body to experience tactile sensations during a computer game or during emergency services/military training? In addition, these sensations can be recorded and then replayed so that you could re-experience your time on the beach or mind-blowing sex.

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.

Always start your story in the middle

An old but essential writing adage is “Start your story in the middle.” That is, rather than give background information about how the story’s main conflict came to be, instead start it by dropping the reader right into the hornet’s nest.

This technique is called in medias res, a Latin term for “in the middle.” It dispenses with the story’s background and start with the action already underway (or “in the middle” of the story). An excellent example of this is Homer’s “The Iliad,” which starts in the waning days of the Greek war with the Trojans rather than covering the 10-year siege before the final battle. This helps focus the story’s plot on a character resolving one significant central problem.

Some writers consider this approach disorienting and so avoid it. While that response may be true for some young readers, almost anyone who’s at least a teenager has read or seen acted out so many stories that they won’t be confused. If anything, the uncertainty will make them read on to find out what’s happening.

For example, starting a story in which a naval ship comes upon a sister craft that has mysteriously been attacked is more interesting than starting with exposition about the search for it. Yes, the “story” technically began with receiving orders from the admiralty to look for the ship, but rarely does anything that’s particularly interesting occur during the search. Given this, starting the story at the moment that the crew sees the listing ship can be emotionally evocative and set in motion a lot of action, conflict and suspense as the harrowing rescue gets underway. This likely is more important in a short story than a novel.

Readers will learn what is going on, who the main characters are, and the setting as this action unfolds. Not only is that a more economical way to deliver what otherwise would be considered exposition, it’s also more interesting.

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 Story Ideas

“‘I make them up,’ I tell them. ‘Out of my head.’” - Neil Gaiman

“Ideas aren’t magical; the only tricky part is holding on to one long enough to get it written down.” - Lynn Abbey

“Write hard and clear about what hurts.” - Ernest Hemingway

“Some moments are nice, some are nicer, some are even worth writing about.” - Charles Bukowski

“There are only two things to write about: life and death.” - Edward Albee

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.

Words of Encouragement for Writers

• Ask key questions 
• Set steps for your goal 
• Approach story sideways
• Be okay with imperfection 
• What will be your legacy? 
• BONUS: “We tell ourselves stories in order to live.” - Joan Didion

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.

3 Tips on Getting Your Book Published

• Follow Heinlein’s Rules to land big book deal 
• How to find a literary agent for your book  
• Write winning query letter to editors, agents 
• BONUS: Submitting do’s and don’ts for magazines
• DOUBLE BONUS: “You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.” – Ray Bradbury 

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.

8 Simple Tips for Self-Editing Your Writing

• Watch for consistency errors in your story  
• Six useful tips for self-editing your book  
• Avoid using ALL CAPS in your writing  
• Don’t smother writing with your red pen  
• What to look for when revising your manuscript 
• Fix scene by employing black box analysis
• Learn some literary devices 
• Read for a solution 
• BONUS: "It is perfectly okay to write garbage – as long as you edit brilliantly." – C. J. Cherryh

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.

9 Commonly Confused Words About Time

• 12 a.m./12 p.m. 
• Pastime v. past time  
• Imminent vs. eminent  
• Lifelong, life-long, life long  

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.

4 Great Writing Prompts: Grief

Good stories center on the clashing of characters’ goals and motivations. Sometimes a character’s goals and motivations arise upon achieving his dreams. Here are four writing prompts for stories that center on the motivation of dreams.

Man vs. man
Twin sisters take entirely different courses in life – one of them, the victim of an assault as a teenager, falls into depression and drugs while the other moves on to a college and a successful career. The successful twin, grieving over the suffering of her sister, tries to help. Will she be successful or meet true failure for the first time in her life?

Man vs. society
To deal with the death of a loved one (parent, offspring, spouse, etc.), the protagonist finds himself immersing in a hobby that his family and colleagues find odd. They even attempt to dissuade him to give it up and get back to being who he was. Why can’t he be the person he once was, though, and how does this new hobby metaphorically allow him to make peace with the one he lost and with the universe?

Man vs. God(s)
What if a widower feels deep anger at God following the loss of his spouse, who was his best friend, lover and partner for decades? How does he reconcile his faith?

Man vs. himself
How does a young person internally deal with the passing of a loved one – say a parent to cancer or a car accident? Feeling a great loss in his life, as if a line cut in a safe harbor, how does he keep himself moored rather than drift alone into a vast, empty ocean of grief? Will he find that he must drift a little before coming back to shore?

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.