Inventing Reality Editing Service

Five Great Quotations about Reading

“It’s hard for me to believe that people who read very little - or not at all in some cases - should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written. Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time - or the tools - to write.” - Stephen King

“A half-read book is a half-finished love affair.” - David Mitchell

“We read to know we are not alone.” - C.S. Lewis

“Read great paragraphs until their rhythms get stuck in your head.” - Lily Rothman

“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.” - Franz Kafka

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 Problem SOLVED: People keep interrupting me while I’m trying to write

Every time you sit down to write, inevitably you end up saying, “If only no one were around!”

Distractions from emails to “Can I have a cookie?” and from phone calls to “Honey, could you help me with this?” always seems to keep you from spending your writing time actually writing.

Well, no more. If you ever plan to get better as a writer let alone finish that novel, you’ll need to make your writing time inviolable.

Fortunately, there are a lot of steps you can take to avoid writing time interruptions.

Set your boundaries
Politely make clear to those who interrupt you that you need to focus on your writing for x minutes each day and that you would appreciate their support. To emphasize your boundary, you may want to close the door if possible and even hang a “DO NOT DISTURB” sign if necessary.

Politely enforce your boundaries
Inevitably, some people will test your “no interruption” rule. Politely but assertively remind them that this is your writing time and that you will take care of what they need when the session is over. With young children, you may need to offer positive reinforcement, such as gold stars or stickers for each time you are not interrupted.

Get rid of the distractors
Sometimes the problem isn’t others but our own self-discipline. We allow ourselves to be distracted. To avoid that problem, turn off the Internet, turn off the cell phone, turn off the television, even turn off the radio. The only thing you should focus on is your notepad or computer screen as you write.

Soundproof yourself
Noise from outside – the kids playing in the backyard as they honor your boundary, the neighbor mowing lawn, the tomcat yowling from the alley, the traffic on the highway in the distance – all can drive you nuts when you’re trying to focus on being creative. The solution is simple: wear headphones...with no music coming through them, by the way.

Work away from home
Lastly, if you’re constantly interrupted at home by the teen kids and pesky (but well-intentioned) spouse, find a new place to write. A library is quiet, a coffee shop has great atmosphere, a bench at a city park offers great views. Just ensure your drive there doesn’t cut into your writing time.

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 keywords on your YouTube video page

Creating a great video takes a lot of time and effort. If no one sees it, though, all that work has gone to waste. To ensure that doesn’t happen, you need to include the right keywords on the YouTube page where the video is posted.

Keywords are specific words or phrases that describe the content of your page. People looking for information on a search engine type in keywords, hoping to find what they’re looking for. If their search query matches the keywords you’ve placed on your website, you’ll greatly improve the chances that people will find and watch your video.

On your YouTube pages, keywords can appear in multiple locations on the page hosting your video. Among them are the video’s title/name, its description, and tags.

You want to use keywords with high search volumes that are relevant to your video. To determine which keywords are best, begin by using a keyword tool. Several of them exist, including AdWords Keyword Planner, SEO-book.com, and Wordtracker. You only should use recommended keywords that receive more than 300 searches a month, unless you have a really obscure, niche topic. In addition to keyword tools, see what the competition uses. Do that by looking for words frequently used in their channel descriptions and for the commonly used tags. If the competition is receiving a lot of hits, then you also want to use their keywords and tags.

To maximize the number of keywords you can get on your landing page, write a 250-500 words description. Remember that you don’t want your keywords to be obvious but instead should weave them into an accurate and interesting blurb for your video.

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.

Learn More About Self-Publishing: Whether writing a novel or nonfiction, whether planning to print a paperback or an ebook, 7 Minutes a Day to a Self-Published Book guides you through the self-publishing process, from the title page to the index, from designing a cover to formatting your text.

A positive answer: Adverse vs. averse

Adverse and averse often are confused because both imply something negative while sounding very similar. But as with the way these words are spelled, so there also is a subtle difference in their meanings.

Adverse means unfavorable or harmful, as in Mary suffered an adverse reaction to the medication.

Averse means strongly dislikes or opposes, as in A lifelong Republican, Sam had an averse response to the Democratic speaker.

Now that you know the difference between these two words, editors no longer should have an adverse response to your writing simply because they are averse to poor grammar.

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 Prompts, Storystarters

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:

Artificial blood
What if there was no need for donors as blood could be created artificially for transfusions? How does this change medical care and the lives of those who regularly donate blood for profit?

Hypersonic missiles
What if modern missile systems deployed by the world’s powers largely were hypersonic, meaning they can travel faster than 6000 miles per hour? How does this threat change the balance of power?

Injectable brain implants
What if doctors could alter neurons, via injectable brain implants, to treat mental disorders and brain damage? How does this affect the discussion about what is “normal”?

Mini Ice Age
Solar activity could decrease by about 1 percent in the 2030s, ushering in a mini Ice Age, similar to what gripped Europe during 1645–1715. How does this affect people’s daily lives as geopolitical power shifts?

Robotic sex partners
What if robots were sold as sexual partners? How would this affect male-female relationships?

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 Tips on Using Third-Person Point of View

• Use third–person limited for greater clarity
• Rotate third-person limited to avoid issues
• Types of third-person point of views 
• Select your viewpoint character with care

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 Revising

“A simple act of putting on clothes is almost impossible for me to describe without many false starts.” - Eudora Welty

“First, cut out all the wisdom, then cut out all the adjectives.” - Somerset Maugham

“One tends to write beyond what’s needed.” - James Schuyler

“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.” - Stephen King

“The beautiful part of writing is that you don’t have to get it right the first time, unlike, say, a brain surgeon.” - Robert Cormier

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.

How to Market Your Book: 7 Minutes a Day to Promoting Your Book shows how to develop a strategy that will get articles about your self-published book in newspapers, magazines, on radio and television programs, posted on blogs, and linked to on websites, while landing you book signings and readings, all at virtually no cost.