Master Fiction Writing

Why do so many argument scenes feel strangely lifeless, even when characters are shouting, interrupting each other, and making excellent points?

Because conflict isn’t about disagreement.

It’s about change.

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, I'll explore why professional argument scenes feel so compelling, why amateur ones often become disguised exposition, and what readers are really looking for when two character...

Quiet scenes are often where manuscripts go flat, not because nothing explodes, but because nothing changes.

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, Stuart Wakefield explores why low-action scenes still need movement, pressure, and consequence. Whether your characters are drinking tea, walking home, recovering from bad news, lying awake, remembering the past, or having a careful conversation, the scene still has to shift the stor...

A phone call scene can look deceptively small on the page. Two people talk, some information changes hands, then someone hangs up, but if that’s all the scene is doing, it may be falling flat.

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, Stuart Wakefield takes a deep dive into one of fiction’s most overlooked craft moments: the phone call scene. Why do so many phone calls in novels, short stories, and novellas feel like co...

A character walking into a room might seem like simple scene logistics, but an entrance can reveal far more than movement. It can show power, fear, desire, belonging, exclusion, secrecy, status, and change before anyone says a word.

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, Stuart Wakefield explores the doorway scene: those small but potent moments when a character crosses from one emotional territory into another. Whether your cha...

The middle of a novel is often where writers begin to worry. The opening had energy, and the ending may be in sight, but somewhere in between, the story starts to feel slow, repetitive or strangely... directionless.

The usual advice is to raise the stakes, add conflict or introduce a twist. Those tools can help, but what if the real problem isn't that your protagonist needs more obstacles? What if they need a deeper understanding of...

What actually makes a thriller a thriller? It isn’t just murder, spies, guns, plot twists, or car chases.

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we take a deep dive into the thriller genre as a pressure system: sustained threat, escalating stakes, urgent choices, controlled information, and the nervous anticipation that keeps readers turning pages.

We’ll explore how thrillers differ from mystery, suspense, horror, and...

Do your characters keep feeling sad, furious, lonely, ashamed, or devastated on the page... but the reader still isn’t feeling much?

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we’re looking at the difference between explained emotion and experienced emotion. You’ll learn why naming a feeling isn’t always the same as creating it, and how to give the reader stronger emotional evidence through behaviour, body la...

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we untangle one of the most confusing pieces of fiction craft: third-person point of view.

Because “write it in third person” sounds simple enough until you realise third person can mean several very different things.

We’ll look at five major forms of third-person narration:

1. Third-person objective, where the reader only sees what can be observed from the outside.
2. Third-pe...

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we explore one of the most quietly intimidating parts of writing fiction: creating characters when you’re afraid of getting them wrong.

Inspired by a listener question, this episode looks at the difference between research as preparation and research as protection. Research, plotting, and worldbuilding are essential tools, especially when your story is inspired by real histories, cult...

Should you cut words like saw, felt, heard, realised, and remembered from your fiction? Often, yes. Always? Not even slightly. In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, Stuart breaks down why so-called filter words and mental-processing verbs get flagged so often, how they can weaken immediacy and increase psychic distance, and why the advice to remove them can become unhelpfully rigid when treated as a rule rather than a craft de...

Need a gentler kind of story without sacrificing plot? In this episode, I’m diving into the craft of cozy and feel-good fiction and unpacking how to write low-stakes stories that still have tension, momentum, and emotional payoff. We’ll look at why readers are drawn to comfort fiction, especially when real life feels relentless, and why “low stakes” never means “nothing matters.”

I cover the key i...

What makes a female character feel dangerously compelling rather than flat, clichéd, or simply “unlikeable”? In this episode, Stuart explores how to write wicked women with complexity, power, and emotional truth. From villains and antiheroes to politically sharp schemers and socially inconvenient women, this is a deep dive into the craft of creating female characters who refuse to behave nicely on the page or stage. Wit...

Writers are surrounded by bad advice masquerading as wisdom. In this episode, we take six of the most persistent fiction-writing myths and throw them politely but firmly in the bin. From talent and inspiration to first drafts, genre snobbery, publishing myths, and the idea that only bleak literary fiction counts as serious, this is a sharp, funny, practical reset for writers who are tired of feeling like they’re doing it wron...

Why does tightening a draft so often feel slow, frustrating, and weirdly inconclusive? Usually because writers start at the sentence level instead of the structural one.

In this episode, Stuart shares a faster, smarter way to revise by function rather than fussing. You’ll learn the three tightening passes he uses to diagnose saggy scenes (purpose, pressure, and payoff) along with a one-hour tightening sprint you can use on you...

If your scenes keep slipping into “and then… and then… and then…”, this episode is for you. In this episode, Stuart breaks down one of the simplest ways to create stronger cause-and-effect on the page: scene turns.

You’ll learn what a turn actually is, why it matters, and four reliable types you can use to make any scene work harder. Stuart also walks you through a quick Scene Turn Audit you ca...

In this episode, we tackle one of the biggest hidden causes of reader disengagement: unstable point of view. The problem usually is not whether you chose first person, third person, or multiple POVs. It is whether the story keeps changing the rules. When that happens, readers don't experience it as a technical slip. They experience it as a breach of trust.

You’ll learn what the POV contract really is, why Scene 1 is where that...

If your character’s “need” sounds like a motivational poster, readers won’t feel it in scene.

In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, Stuart Wakefield breaks want vs need out of the self-help zone and turns it into a practical decision tool you can use immediately: the Want / Need / Cost triad.

You’ll learn why vague “needs” kill scene friction, how to define want and need in operational t...

Big events don’t create story. Binding does.

In this practical follow-up to “The Art of a Story Premise That Actually Drives Scenes,” Stuart Wakefield reframes the inciting incident as the moment your protagonist becomes unable to WALK AWAY and shows you how to build that pressure on purpose.

You’ll learn what “binding” really means, why it’s the secret to Act 1 momentum (and the cure for sag...