Fiction Writer’s Toolshed | Practical Tools for Authors
On a long road trip, there’s a moment when it feels like you should already be there. I get that feeling driving through Georgia on my way from Florida to visit family in Indiana.
But I know the route. I know that stretch takes time, and I know what comes next. Feeling impatient doesn’t mean I’m going the wrong way.
A creative project can feel much the same. You know you want to write a story, a comic or a screenplay. But knowing the destination doesn’t tell you where you are now or what this part of the work needs.
The Creation Funnel is my current best approach to mapping that journey. It describes eight stages, from the first spark to looking back at something you’ve finished. This episode gives the overview: what each stage is for and what it can feel like.
If you already know you’re stuck and want a tool for where you are right now, go to Part 2: What to Do When You’re Stuck.
Listen to the episode
Fiction Writer’s Toolshed
The Creation Funnel – Part 1 – 8 Stages of Making Anything | ep 010
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1. Inspiration: something catches your attention
A line in a book, a scene in a film, a feeling or a question gives you something to think about. It isn’t fully formed. It’s just interesting enough that you want to spend more time with it.
This is the spark that starts the project. You don’t need to know what the whole thing is yet.
That’s different from needing to feel inspired every time you sit down to work. A project can begin with something that catches your attention and still require plenty of sessions when you don’t feel like writing.
2. Exploration: find out what’s there
You begin messing around with the idea. You daydream, make notes, gather references or do a little research. You’re seeing what interests you and what connects.
For me, this stage works best when it stays loose and playful. I used to try to force clarity too early. I wanted to know exactly what the project was before I’d given myself room to explore it.
You can be messy here. You’re trying things and finding possibilities.
3. Concept development: shape what it could become
Some possibilities keep bringing you back. You begin choosing characters, premises, scenes or pieces of dialogue. You think about form, structure, tone and what the project could become.
Is this a short story? A novella? Could it support a series? Those questions help you shape the idea into something you might make.
You don’t need certainty about everything. A choice can be your best option for now and change later. But there’s also a trap here: developing the concept forever can become a way to avoid committing to it.
4. Commitment: decide to make it
This is the turn from considering the project to giving it a go. You decide to invest time, energy and attention in making it.
You may have a few things worked out and a sense of what you want, without a complete blueprint. The question becomes: if I’m going to make this, how will I do it?
That can bring excitement and fear together. You want to see the story exist, but you don’t know whether you can make it as well as you imagine. Returning to the fun of a new idea can feel easier than facing those unknowns.
5. Creation: work through the long middle
Now you build it. You write, make drafts and choose details. Each decision shapes what the next ones need to do.
This stretch can be tiring. You may doubt the idea that excited you, avoid the work, or want to start over. It’s the Georgia part of the road trip: longer than you expected, with plenty still ahead.
My encouragement is to reach a full draft before restarting. Give yourself more of the story to work with when you revise.
There are discoveries here too. I compare it to panning for gold. A lot of the work can be mud and rocks before you find something that makes you think, “I want to do this again tomorrow.”
6. Completion: decide when this version is finished
You move into refining, editing, polishing and making final adjustments. The main pieces exist, so you can work on how well they fit and how clearly they come across.
This stage is strange for me because I can almost always imagine another change. I could keep tweaking, add something, or try it again.
In my experience, finishing often means making a decision. You address the work the piece needs, then decide when this version is done. A full rough draft gives you something to revise; completion includes doing that finishing work.
And some projects are just for you. You can choose to keep a finished piece private.
7. Sharing: let other people experience the work
If you choose to share, you send the piece, post it or publish it. Something that lived with you now meets other people’s attention and interpretation.
That can feel vulnerable. After all the time you’ve spent making it, the response may be quieter than you hoped. People are busy, and their response may not match the moment you’ve built up in your head.
Support and feedback matter to me. So does knowing that I can feel flat after a big release. I often schedule a week of low-energy work or time off if I can manage it, and save films or games for that break.
That’s something I’ve learned about my own process. You can give yourself room after sharing instead of making the response your only measure of whether the work mattered.
8. Reflection and regeneration: learn and recover
After some distance, you start seeing the project differently. You look at what you made and how you made it. You may notice things that were hard to see while you were doing the work.
There can be pride and regret together: what you did well, what you wish had gone differently, and how you’ve grown.
You can learn from that experience even if you never revise the piece again. Give yourself time to let the work settle and your creative energy recover.
Eventually, something else catches your attention, and you have another place to begin.
A map can help you return to an earlier stage
I present these stages in order, but I also move a project backward when I need to. Making the work can show me that a choice needs another look.
The map helps me name what I’m doing. It doesn’t replace the work of getting through that part of the journey.
That distinction matters when you’re considering a change. Returning to exploration because you’ve found a question to work through is different from abandoning every draft as soon as the middle gets difficult.
Different projects can be at different stages
I think of ideas as things growing in different gardens. While I’m looking back at one finished project, I may be exploring another or developing its concept.
Keeping several things going helps me. Knowing the stages makes it easier to see that I’m doing a different job in each garden.
You don’t have to manage several projects at once. The useful part is recognizing what each project needs, whether you’re working with one or more.
Locate one project
This exercise arranges the episode’s closing invitation into three steps:
- Choose a project. Name what you’re actually doing with it now.
- Find the stage that fits. Are you exploring possibilities, making pages, refining a complete version, or looking back after finishing?
- Name the work that belongs here. What are you trying to accomplish in this stage for this project?
For signs that you may be struggling and a tool to try at each stage, continue with The Creation Funnel, Part 2: What to Do When You’re Stuck.
Fiction Writer’s Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors is a Make Exist podcast hosted by Tim Kearney. It offers hands-on training for fiction writers to diagnose writing problems, build their skills, and finish more work.