Master Fiction Writing

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 convenient little tubes for information? And how can writers turn them into scenes full of pressure, subtext, tension, comedy, longing, and consequence?
This episode explores why a phone call is never just two people talking. A good phone call scene can reveal a lie, expose a relationship dynamic, shift power between characters, create suspense, deepen romance, or make a reader laugh because the visible half of the scene is quietly falling apart.
You’ll learn how to diagnose a flat phone call, how to give your point-of-view character something active to want, how to use silence and pauses, and how to make the unseen caller a powerful dramatic force. Stuart also looks at how phone calls work across genres including romance, mystery, thriller, horror, comedy, family drama, literary fiction, historical fiction, and speculative fiction.
Includes practical revision questions and a simple exercise to help you rewrite one phone call scene in your own manuscript.
Links Mentioned
Stuart Wakefield / The Book Coach:www.thebookcoach.co

ProWritingAid Write With Pride week:https://prowritingaid.com/write-with-pride/sign-up
Stuart is presenting at ProWritingAid’s Write With Pride week on 24 June. Session title to be confirmed before publishing.

Action Items from This Episode
Find one phone call scene in your manuscript, ideally one that feels a little flat, functional, or overly focused on delivering information.
Read the scene once and highlight only the information being exchanged. What facts does the reader need to know?
Then ask:
Why is this moment a phone call rather than an in-person scene, text, letter, or summary?
What does the point-of-view character want before the call begins?
What do they fear will happen?
What are they trying not to say?
What does the other caller want, hide, avoid, or control?
What can the reader see that one or both characters cannot?
What changes by the end of the call?
What would be lost if the scene were cut?
Next, add the visible half of the scene. Where is your character? What are they doing while they speak? Who might overhear? What object, interruption, silence, or physical action could carry pressure?
Finally, rewrite the call so the spoken conversation and the visible scene tell slightly different truths.
Let the dialogue say one thing, then let the body, setting, silence, or timing reveal another.
That gap is where the reader leans in.

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 character is arriving at a party, entering a meeting room, returning to a family home, stepping into danger, or trying not to be noticed, the way they enter can quietly reshape the whole scene.
You’ll learn how to use entrances and arrivals to create story pressure, deepen character dynamics, reveal shifting relationships, and strengthen subtext without making every doorway feel grand or symbolic. This episode also includes practical revision questions and a simple writing exercise to help you spot underused threshold moments in your own manuscript.

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 their goal is going to cost them?
In this episode, Stuart explores why a compelling middle does more than make a character’s original desire harder to achieve: it changes what achieving that desire would mean. Whether you’re writing romance, mystery, thriller, speculative fiction, historical fiction or family drama, you’ll learn how the middle can reveal the emotional, moral or personal question hiding beneath the visible plot.
You’ll also get a practical exercise to help diagnose a middle that isn’t working and uncover the more difficult question your story may be waiting to ask.

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 crime fiction; how to create tension without constant action; why stakes need to be specific and personal; how twists differ from revelations; and how writers in any genre can use thriller principles to make their stories more compelling.

If you’ve enjoyed this episode and you’d like to support Master Fiction Writing, you can buy me a coffee over on Ko-fi. The link is https://ko-fi.com/masterfictionwriting

Does every protagonist really need to change by the end of a story? Not always.
In this episode, we look beyond the familiar “your character must change” advice and explore positive arcs, negative arcs, steadfast characters, ensemble stories, and intentional stasis.
You’ll learn how to ask the better craft question: not “does my protagonist change?” but “what moves?”