Inventing Reality Editing Service

5 Free Creative Writing Prompts: Science Fiction

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 life” or “The government outlaws books.” The author then asks “What if?” exploring how the world with this novum is different than ours.

Among the problems of many novice science fiction writers is instead of introducing a new novum they rely on used furniture – that is, they borrow novums from popular SF series. 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:

Binary power
What if two harmless beams of energy intersecting one another could become a source of power, a light source, or a point of sound? How will this change the way we live in our houses, run our businesses, and receive government services?

Pollination robots
What if we invented robotic insects to cross pollinate our crops and wild plants? With the population of bees and other pollinators crashing, we may have no choice.

Solar highways
What if solar panels were installed in highways (with glass surfaces hard enough to handle traffic) and then hooked to power lines alongside the road? In areas receiving a lot of sunlight with few shadows and no snow, this could provide enough energy to power whole states or even countries.

Spray-on skin
What if you could seal a cut simply by spraying on, from a can, an adhesive that looks like skin? What are the many applications of this – first-aid kits, first responders, military medics, etc.?

Tube transport
What if you could travel from New York to China in two hours or around the world in six hours? A tube transport system that travels at 6500 miles per hour could replace airplanes.

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.

6 Tips for Creating Interesting Characters

• Don’t underserve a character in story 
• Don’t let characters chew the furniture 
• Avoid using Mary Sue character type in stories
• Keep freeze-frame in story brief, relevant
• Develop complex antagonist to maximize conflict
• How to create an interesting villain for your story 
• BONUS: “You can’t blame a writer for what the characters say.” – Truman Capote
• DOUBLE BONUS: “I try to create sympathy for my characters, then turn the monsters loose.” - Stephen King  

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 Great Humorous Thoughts on Writing

“It’s a thousand pages, give or take a few/I’ll be writing more in a week or two.” - The Beatles

“Writing and travel broaden your ass if not your mind and I like to write standing up.” - Ernest Hemingway

“Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.” - Robert Benchley

“I never think at all when I write. Nobody can do two things at the same time and do them both well.” - Horace

“I’m writing an unauthorized autobiography.” - Steven Wright

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.

Every success story begins with a dream. If you dream of being a professional, published author, that success story requires believing in yourself and in knowing that your efforts will lead to triumph. Read the motivational blog entry this quotation came from by clicking on the quote card.

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.

Nurture Your Books runs interview of me

Nurture Your Books featured me in an interview that ran Thursday. In the interview, you can learn my top editing tips for writers, if I ever silently edit books in my head when reading outside of work, and whether or not editing ever gets boring for me. Special thanks to Bobbie Crawford and Nurture Your Books for the article. You can read the full interview online.

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.

How to place photos in your paperback

When formatting the paper version of book, photos are a must if you’ve written nonfiction. Pictures, maps and illustrations can add value to your book in a number of ways.

There are several elements to consider when placing a photo in your book, though. Among them are photo selection, using copies, format, dimensions, resolution, color, and placement in the text. Let’s look at each one.

Photo selection
A photo for the sake of having a photo doesn’t benefit the reader, so only select those that enhance the book’s quality. For example, the photo should illustrate a concept that otherwise is difficult to visualize. In my hiking guidebooks, that might be a trail map or a picture of a rare flower that can be seen along the path. A photo also could provide additional but relevant information that wouldn’t appear in the text. For my books, this might be the view from a vista or a trailhead sign that misspells the trail’s name (which can be pointed in the caption).

Never use the original
Always work with copies of your original photo. Should you crop or accidentally delete the original, you then limit your options for using that picture in your book. Place the copies in a new folder so you do not confuse them with the originals.

Photo format
Photos can appear in a number of formats. The most widely accepted format when uploading paperbacks is a jpeg (.jpg), so convert all of your photos to that type. Portable network graphics (.png) also are widely used but still not universal among print on demand companies. Never use photos that are bitmap (.bmp), vector (.eps or .ai), Photoshop (.psd), or raw camera (RAW or Exif) files.

Photo dimensions
Always be aware of the photo’s dimensions. As there is a limit to how large a book’s file size can be, the more large photos you add, the more likely you are to go over that limit. The best solution for maximizing the number of photos in your book while maintaining photo quality is to ensure the photos are the exact dimensions – that is height and width – as they will be in the book. All you really have to do to achieve that is set the photo’s width to the amount of space that a full line of text (the distance between the left and right or the inside and outside margins) will take up in your book; just check to assure that the height isn’t longer than the amount of space between your top and bottom margins.

Resolution
Use photos that are 300 dpi (dots per inch). This ensures they will appear in your paperback at the highest quality possible. Photos smaller than 300 dpi will increasingly appear pixelated the closer you get to 1 dpi. And there’s no real benefit in going more than 300 dpi.

Use color
Color photos in a paper book greatly raise the production costs and so ups the price you must charge readers. Because of this, most of the time you’ll want to grayscale your photos (that is, make them black and white). Always keep a color version of your photo sized for the paperback, however, as it can be used in your paperback.

How to place them
Once you have a jpeg photo that is the correct size and dpi (and in color if possible), you’re ready to place it on your MS Word document. Begin by setting the manuscript in single space mode. After the last line of text that you want the photo to appear after, hit ENTER key twice. Insert the photo there. On the line below the photo, type the caption/cutline. Use a different font and point/font size than the manuscript’s main text to help distinguish it; italics often is all you need. At the end of the caption’s text, hit ENTER twice and continue with the manuscript’s main text.

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 Properly Using Numbers When Writing

• When to spell out numbers in a book 
• No more errors in your writing: Less vs. fewer 
• Play it smart: Don’t use 12 a.m./12 p.m. 

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.

SF Story Starters: Novum Writing Prompts

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 life” or “The government outlaws books.” The author then asks “What if?” exploring how the world with this novum is different than ours.

Among the problems of many novice science fiction writers is instead of introducing a new novum they rely on used furniture – that is, they borrow novums from popular SF series. 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:

Telepathic computers
What if almost everything made by man included chips that could read your brainwaves and do as you think – for example, the coffeemaker starts brewing coffee, the shower turns on, and the floor rug automatically warms for your bare feet when you wake up in the morning?

Hurricane reducers
What if tens of thousands of windmills were placed in the Atlantic to suck the energy out of tropical storms? Such a system could radically reduce wind speeds and storm surges at a time when global warming is heating up our oceans.

Respirocytes
What if nanobots called respirocytes – which can hold up to 200 times more oxygen than our red blood cells – could be injected into the human circulatory system? How would this affect the military, sports, and other professions?

Pulse detonation engines
What if supersonic jets – which can make the hop from New York City to London in just two hours – were commonplace? A pulse detonation engine, which uses a fuel-air mixture to make faster than sound jet engines efficient, could do the trick.

Utility fog
What if nanobots, aka as “foglets,” could morph their shape at anytime? The interconnected foglets, managed by a tiny computer could instantly adjust seat belts to better protect passengers in a car crash or strengthen sections of a building to ward off wind in a tornado.

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.

6 Tips for Creating Unforgettable Protagonists

• How to create a memorable protagonist 
• Create main character that readers bond with 
• Avoid temptation to create author surrogate 
• Don’t fully commit protagonist in opening scene
• Allow main character to experience crisis of faith
• Give your character a distinctive voice 
• BONUS: “Don’t let yourself slip and get any perfect characters... keep them people, people, people...”

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 Great Quotations about Finishing Your Book

“The reason 99% of all stories written are not bought by editors is very simple. Editors never buy manuscripts that are left on the closet shelf at home.” - John Campbell

“Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.” - Truman Capote

“Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish.” - Neil Gaiman

“The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” - Philip Roth

“Writing is hard. That’s why so few people stick to it and actually finish things.” - Andy Ihnatko

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.