Fiction Writer’s Toolshed · Practical Tools for Authors
You’ve been learning more about plot, characters, and prose. That work matters. But if your projects still stall, where else could you look?
In this episode, I share a map I call The 6 Elemental Pieces of Being a Fiction Writer. It’s my current best approach to understanding the skills and conditions that help you make and finish fiction. Craft is one piece. The other five give you more places to look when something in your writing practice needs attention.
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Fiction Writer’s Toolshed
6 Elemental Pieces of Mastering Fiction Writing-- Part 1 | ep 003
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What this episode covers
- What I mean by writing mastery: making work intentionally and repeatedly, and learning to address problems.
- The six elemental pieces, from craft to curation of taste.
- A useful marker of development in each area.
- A simple self-rating to take into the diagnostic follow-up in Part 2.
Mastery is a set of skills you can keep developing
Think about someone playing an instrument. Technique, listening, timing, physical conditioning, and practice habits all work together. A musician can be strong in one area while another limits what they can do.
I think writing works the same way. Mastery means being able to produce meaningful creative work on purpose, repeatedly -- and diagnose and address problems as you encounter them.
There’s no point where you finish mastering all of this. The six pieces give you a map you can return to. The goal is to make a blind spot visible, recognize a weakness, and build competence. Over time, those competencies can become strengths.
The six elemental pieces
1. Craft
Craft is how you put what’s in your mind onto the page: language, style, voice, syntax, and structure. It includes the work you do on plot, character, worldbuilding, and prose.
A useful marker: you can choose your effects and make them happen deliberately. Even when you break a rule, you understand the choice you’re making.
2. Ideation
Ideation is your ability to generate, capture, and cultivate ideas. Curiosity, ways to keep ideas, research, and time to develop a promising seed all belong here.
A useful marker: you have a purposeful, reliable relationship with ideas. You have ways to find and develop them beyond waiting to feel inspired.
3. Project design / story design
Design is how you build a project around an idea. That includes its form, scope, tone, theme, and audience. Is this idea suited to a short story, comic, musical, or audio drama? What do you want the project to do?
A useful marker: you understand at least some of the project’s identity before you start writing. Choosing “a novel” is one decision; understanding what you’re making gives you more to work with.
4. Process
Process is how you turn ideas and designs into finished work. It includes drafting strategies, revision, scheduling, your tools, and practical things such as knowing where your files are and being able to use them.
A useful marker: your process is repeatable, and you can reasonably adapt it when your working conditions are less than ideal. You understand how to draft, revise, and use the tools available to you.
5. Self-sustainment
Self-sustainment is how you care for the person doing the work: your body, mind, and emotions. It also includes how your surroundings affect you. A chair that hurts your back or a hostile environment can become part of the writing problem.
A useful marker: you treat your mind and body as a creative tool worth maintaining. You understand your capacity and limits, and look for ways to sustain the work within them.
6. Curation of taste
What you read, watch, listen to, and study becomes material you can draw on. Curation of taste means deliberately choosing some of those inputs and noticing how they shape your work.
A useful marker: you know more about what excites you, what dulls you, and how different influences affect your writing. There’s still room to have fun, try things, and watch something while you do the laundry.
Rate where you are now
Give yourself a rating from one to five in each of the six areas. Use the descriptions and markers above to think about where you are right now.
I suggest that smaller range because it asks you to make a choice. Keep your ratings as a starting point for the next conversation.
Take your ratings into Part 2
This episode introduces the map. In Part 2, I look at signs that each area may need work and a practical thing you can try to strengthen it.
Continue with 6 Elemental Pieces of Mastering Fiction Writing -- Part 2. You can also listen to Part 2 on Spotify (opens in new tab).
If you’ve looked across these six areas and still aren’t sure what to try next, I’m offering free help with your fiction. That episode explains the newsletter invitation, what we can share by agreement, and the limits on my availability.
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.