Master Fiction Writing

Ever found yourself shouting at a fictional character because they're about to do something spectacularly stupid? We've all been there. But why do some terrible decisions make characters more compelling, while others leave us wondering what on earth the writer was thinking?
Struggling with a story problem of your own? My Story SOS service offers a focused, one-to-one coaching session where we spend an hour untangling one specific problem with your novel, whether that's character motivation, a plot that's gone off the rails, or something that simply isn't working.
Find out more or book a session: https://www.thebookcoach.co/story-sos
In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, I'm exploring why bad decisions can be brilliant for character development, provided they make sense for the person making them.
We'll look at characters including Jane Austen's Emma Woodhouse, Boromir from The Lord of the Rings, and Walter White from Breaking Bad, and examine how their fears, beliefs, desires and personal blind spots influence their choices.
I'll also introduce Helen, a fictional theatre director whose determination to protect her company leads her into an increasingly disastrous series of decisions.
The important distinction? Readers don't have to agree with a character's decisions. They just have to understand why that character would make them at that particular point in the story.
If you're wondering whether a character's questionable choices are helping or hurting your novel, try these five questions:
Does the decision make sense for this character at this point in the story? Consider what they know, believe, want and fear.

Why does the character believe this is the right choice? Even if the reader can see they're mistaken.

What would making the sensible decision cost them? What makes the alternative emotionally difficult?

Have I established enough for the reader to understand their reasoning? The explanation needs to exist on the page, not just in your head.

What happens because of the decision? Does it create meaningful consequences that influence what happens next?

Remember, a character making a bad decision isn't necessarily a problem. A character making a decision purely because the writer needs something to happen probably is.
Find out more about my book-coaching services: https://www.thebookcoach.co
If you enjoy Master Fiction Writing, please follow the podcast and share it with another writer who might find it useful.
The Bad Decision Test

Unreliable Narrators: How to Mislead Readers Without Cheating Them
Can your readers trust the person telling them the story? And if they can't, how do you make that part of the storytelling rather than a cheap trick?
In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, I'm exploring the wonderful, complicated world of unreliable narrators. Inspired by a listener's question about a locked-cabin murder mystery, we'll look at how to mislead readers without making them feel cheated, and why unreliable narration is about much more than characters who tell lies.
We'll explore the differences between deliberate deception, selective storytelling, mistaken assumptions and self-deception, and how each creates a different reading experience. I'll also explain how point of view affects what you can reasonably conceal, how to plant clues that take on new meaning after a revelation, and why sometimes revealing a secret earlier can make your story even more compelling.
And unreliable narrators aren't just for mysteries and thrillers. From romance to historical fiction and family sagas, we'll look at how the gap between what characters believe and what's actually true can create emotional depth, dramatic tension and powerful character arcs.
There's also a practical writing exercise to help you explore the difference between what happened, what your character believes happened, and what they're willing to admit.
Because the best unreliable narrators don't just make us question what happened. They make us reconsider the person who's been telling us what happened.
In this episode:
What makes a narrator unreliable (and why they don't have to be lying)

How to conceal information without breaking your point-of-view contract

Planting clues that reward readers rather than tricking them

Deciding when to reveal the truth

Using unreliable narration for emotional depth and character development

A practical exercise you can apply to your own manuscript

Mentioned in this episode:
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Previous Master Fiction Writing episodes: The POV Contract: What You Owe the Reader in Scene 1 and The Reveal Is Not the Secret: How to Control What Your Reader Knows
Need help with a tricky story problem?
If you're struggling with point of view, an unreliable narrator, a revelation that isn't landing, or another aspect of your novel, my Story SOS sessions offer focused, one-to-one coaching to help you work out what's going wrong and what to do next.
Find out more at https://www.thebookcoach.co/story-sos

How do you keep a story moving when there’s no ticking clock, no looming deadline, and the plot unfolds across decades?
This week’s episode comes from a question sent in by Joan over on Ko-fi, who’s writing an epic family saga and wanted to know how to create pressure and momentum across a long timeframe.
I look at why momentum isn’t the same as speed, and how expansive stories can build narrative pressure through accumulation, consequence, emotional deadlines, generational cause and effect, time jumps, and recurring patterns.
Because the opposite of a thriller isn’t a story without pressure. It’s a story where pressure behaves differently.
Also in this episode:
Romance Writers of America Indie Author Weekend 2026
Workshops and info:
https://rwa.memberclicks.net/indie-author-weekend
Register:
https://rwa.memberclicks.net/iaw2026-registration#/
Story SOS, my new focused one-to-one session for writers who know something in their story isn’t working but can’t quite see how to fix it:
https://www.thebookcoach.co/story-sos
More from me:
https://www.thebookcoach.co

A great secret can give you material. The reveal is what turns that material into story.
In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, I’m looking at how to control what your reader knows, when they know it, and how the timing of information can completely change the tension in a scene or an entire novel.
We’ll explore the difference between mystery, suspense and surprise, why some reveals land while others feel flat, and how revealing information earlier can sometimes create far more story than saving everything for the final act.
There’s also a free workbook to go with the episode: The Reveal Map.
The exercises will help you:
track who knows what, and when;

test what happens if you move a reveal earlier or later;

work out what changes after the truth comes out;

seed information so the reveal feels surprising but earned.

Download the workbook here.
You can find out more about my book coaching at:
https://www.thebookcoach.co

What makes dialogue feel alive? Very often, it’s what the characters aren’t saying.
In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, I’m looking at subtext: the gap between what a character wants from a conversation and what they’re actually prepared to say out loud.
We’ll explore how subtext can create tension, intimacy, humour, conflict and emotional depth, and why it works best when characters have a genuine reason to avoid directness. We’ll also look at how silence, deflection, physical behaviour and seemingly ordinary conversations can reveal far more than a page of explanation.
There’s a simple exercise, too: choose a scene, work out what each character really wants from the conversation, then ask why they can’t simply say it.
Because sometimes the most important thing in a scene is the thing nobody is quite ready to say yet.