003: The 6 Elemental Pieces of Mastering Fiction Writing - Part 1
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
Release Date: 02/09/2026
014: You're Strangling Link, Wolverine, and Mario... Stop.
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
Your favorite characters weren’t born perfect. Wolverine, Mario, and Link all started as strange, rough, and surprisingly humble ideas before evolving into cultural icons over years-- sometimes decades. In this episode, we explore why modern creators often get trapped trying to perfect their work before anyone ever sees it, and how that fear can suffocate great ideas before they have the chance to grow. By looking at the fearless creative process behind classic comics and video games, we uncover an important truth: iconic things become iconic through evolution, experimentation, and time--...
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013: Interview - Ramona Ausubel - Author of Unstuck: A Writer's Guide
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
Every writer knows the feeling: the cursor blinking, the page going nowhere, the project that started with such promise now collecting dust. In this episode of Fiction Writer's Toolshed, I sit down with Ramona Ausubel-- award-winning author and longtime teacher-- to talk about her new book Unstuck: 101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page (a LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2026). Whether you're staring down a first draft, stalled in the middle, or trying to finish something you've been carrying for years, this conversation is a doorway of its own. We had a great...
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012: Interview - JA Merkel - Writing a Series and More
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
In this episode, we go to a quiet corner of the toolshed, where I sit down with author J.A. Merkel to talk worldbuilding, long-term creative projects, and the ideas behind The Fourth Portal (1 book released) and The Fall Gauntlet (3 books released, with 4 coming this summer). From early inspiration to publishing ambitious, interconnected stories-- this episode is all about what it really takes to bring big ideas to life. Get your ebook copy of The Fall Gauntlet, Book One here: About The Fall Gauntlet: Seventeen-year-old Benji Calyx finally has a chance to save his mother from her...
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011: The Creation Funnel - Part 2 - 8 Stages of Making Anything - Diagnostics
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
You should try the Unstoppable Maker newsletter. You'll get simple, practical writing tools to stop overthinking and start finishing stories. Click here to try it: -=-=-=-=-=- You’re probably not stuck-- you’re just not aware of what part of the journey you're on. In Part 2 of The Creation Funnel, I'll give you a full diagnostic of the 8 stages of making anything, so you can figure out where you are and what to do next. Each stage comes with: Signs you’re there Signs you’re struggling What’s really going on And one practical tool to move forward Because when you...
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010: The Creation Funnel: 8 Stages of Making Anything
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
You should try my Unstoppable Maker newsletter. You'll get simple, practical writing tools to stop overthinking and start finishing stories. Click here to try it (it's free): -=-=-=-=-=- There’s a moment on a long road trip where it feels like you should already be there… but you’re not even halfway. Most writers quit in that moment. Not because they’re incapable-- but because they don’t realize it’s part of the journey. In this episode, I lay out The Creation Funnel: a practical framework for understanding exactly where you are in a creative project-- and why it feels...
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009: Blood Punch Your Mood, Writers
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
You should try the Unstoppable Maker newsletter. You'll get simple, practical writing tools to stop overthinking and start finishing stories. Click here to try it: -=-=-=-=-=- In this episode of Fiction Writer’s Toolshed, we’re talking about the moment before the work-- the hesitation, the resistance, and the quiet lie that you need to feel like it before you begin. And how a Blood Punch might set you free. This episode breaks down two core ideas that can radically change how you approach your writing practice. We also explore the trap of endless ideation: how keeping...
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008: Why You Should Stop Writing Your Novel
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
You should try the Unstoppable Maker newsletter. You'll get simple, practical writing tools to stop overthinking and start finishing stories. Click here to try it: -=-=-=-=-=- For a lot of writers, the novel has quietly become the default starting point. If you’re serious about writing, the assumption often becomes: start planning your novel… or your trilogy… or your series. And if you’re not doing that, it can start to feel like you’re not quite doing the “real thing” yet. But in this episode, I want to suggest something that might sound uncomfortable at first: For...
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007: The Three Nutrients of Finished Work
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
You should try the Unstoppable Maker newsletter. You'll get simple, practical writing tools to stop overthinking and start finishing stories. Click here to try it: -=-=-=-=-=- A lot of writers are starving themselves creatively-- and they don’t realize it. Not because they lack ideas. Not because they lack discipline. But because they aren’t finishing things. In this final episode of a three-part series on the things that quietly destroy writers, I talk about something incredibly simple that turns out to be surprisingly powerful: Finished work. Not outlines. Not...
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006: What Writers Lose on Accident
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
You should try the Unstoppable Maker newsletter. You'll get simple, practical writing tools to stop overthinking and start finishing stories. Click here to try it: -=-=-=-=-=- When most writers start, writing feels light. It’s curiosity. It’s wonder. It’s something you can’t stop doing. But somewhere along the way, something shifts. Writing becomes measurable. It becomes evaluative. It becomes work. And slowly, quietly, almost without noticing… Something important disappears. In this episode-- the second in a short mini-trilogy about things that quietly erode writers from...
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005: Fiction Farming vs. Fiction Cooking
Fiction Writer's Toolshed: Practical Tools for Authors
You should try the Unstoppable Maker newsletter. You'll get simple, practical writing tools to stop overthinking and start finishing stories. Click here to try it: -=-=-=-=-=- I struggled with separating the concepts of Fiction Farming vs. Fiction Cooking for a long time. And while it might sound strange, confusing those two modes may be quietly destroying more writing momentum-- and more long-term creative joy writing fiction-- than almost anything else. In this episode, I introduce a distinction that completely changed how I understand procrastination, “writer’s block,” and...
info_outlineCraft matters– but it’s not the whole picture.
This episode introduces The 6 Elemental Pieces of Being a Fiction Writer, a framework for understanding why writers stall, burn out, or struggle to finish work– even when their craft is solid. If you want a clearer map of what actually governs writing progress, start here.
Most writing advice focuses on craft.
And craft matters. A lot.
But it’s only one part of why writers finish work– or don’t.
In this episode, I lay out a framework I call The 6 Elemental Pieces of Being a Fiction Writer. It’s a way of looking at writing mastery not as a single skill, but as a set of distinct, improvable competencies that work together over time.
The problem isn’t that craft advice is wrong.
It’s that it’s incomplete.
When we try to solve every writing problem with craft alone, we miss other invisible factors that quietly stall projects, drain momentum, or cause burnout. This episode is about making those factors visible– so they can actually be worked on.
In this episode, I cover:
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Why writing mastery isn’t one skill, but a system of skills
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The six pillars that govern how writers actually finish work
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How blind spots– not lack of talent– cause most stalls
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Why many “craft problems” are actually design, process, or sustainment problems
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How to think about mastery as a reusable map, not a checklist
This episode sets up a practical diagnostic framework we’ll use going forward. If you’ve ever felt like you’re working hard but not progressing in a way that sticks, this gives you a clearer map of why.
The Make Existian Toast
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May you slay false perfection, the old foe of done.
May you make all you dream of, and let making be fun.
And may you count who can make what you make– only one.
Sláinte.