Master Fiction Writing

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.

Who really has the power in your scene?
Status is one of the hidden forces that can make a scene feel alive. It shapes who controls the conversation, who needs something more, who can walk away, and how the balance between characters changes from moment to moment.
In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, I explore how status works in dialogue, relationships, romance, comedy, conflict and quiet scenes. We’ll look at how power can shift even when a character’s official position stays exactly the same, why silence can be a status move, and how tiny behavioural choices can completely change the emotional temperature of a scene.
There’s also a simple exercise you can try with your own work: choose a two-character scene, decide who has the higher status at the beginning, track where the balance shifts, and see who holds the power by the end.
If a scene feels technically fine but somehow flat, status may be the missing ingredient.

What makes some characters instantly compelling to one another? Sometimes it isn’t vulnerability, physical attraction, or even conflict. Sometimes it’s the moment one character looks at another and thinks: Oh. You’re good.
In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, I explore the Hawksian woman, the confident, capable, quick-witted female character associated with the films of director Howard Hawks, and ask what this classic Hollywood archetype can teach contemporary fiction writers about creating characters with agency and relationships with genuine chemistry.
Using examples from To Have and Have Not, His Girl Friday, Much Ado About Nothing, Pride and Prejudice, Star Wars, The X-Files, Killing Eve, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Hunger Games, Firefly and more, we’ll look beyond the archetype itself to uncover the storytelling principles underneath it.
We’ll explore why competence can be attractive, why banter alone doesn’t create chemistry, how characters earn one another’s respect, and why some of the best relationships are built through mutual reassessment. We’ll also look at the limitations of the traditional Hawksian woman and how writers can take what works about the archetype without falling into the tired idea of the woman who earns respect simply because she’s “not like other girls.”
There’s also a practical exercise to help you examine an important relationship in your own story. You’ll identify what your characters initially believe about one another, find the actions that force them to reconsider those assumptions, and explore what becomes possible in the relationship as recognition turns into trust and intimacy.
Because sometimes the most powerful relationship progression isn’t:
They hated each other. Then they fell in love.
It’s:
They learned how to operate together.
And sometimes the most romantic words in fiction aren’t I love you.
They’re I trust you.
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