Set yourself up for a 2026 writing year that actually survives real life. In this episode, you’ll build a simple, motivating plan without hustle-culture guilt or impossible schedules.

We’ll choose a one- to three-word theme to guide your decisions, pick three clear priorities (plus one powerful “not this year”), map your year by quarters, and set a weekly minimum that keeps you moving even when life gets loud.

You’ll also learn how to put writing into your calendar for the next two weeks, create a few tiny systems that make showing up easier, and use a straightforward reset plan when you miss a week (because you will - and that’s normal).

Grab a notebook and follow along: by the end, you’ll have a writing map you can trust, and a next step you can take today.

Is Legally Blonde secretly one of the best-plotted films of the 2000s? In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, host Stuart Wakefield performs a full story autopsy on Elle Woods’ journey from dumped sorority president to victorious Harvard lawyer.

We dig into how the film builds a rock-solid causal chain (where every major beat grows logically from the last) and how Elle’s external quest (Harvard, the internship, the murder trial) welds perfectly to her internal arc from “choose me” to “I choose myself.” Along the way, we unpack the emotional climax after Callahan’s harassment, the perm-fuelled courtroom payoff, and why the Bend and Snap is the least important thing in this script.

You’ll walk away with concrete questions and exercises you can apply to your own story, whether you’re writing novels, screenplays, or plays. Spoilers for Legally Blonde abound, but the craft lessons are evergreen.

If your opening goes boom but your hero can shrug and carry on, that’s fireworks, not story. In this episode I breaks down the real job of an inciting incident - to bind your protagonist to an obligation that costs something now and points the story arrow.

Here's what you'll learn:

• What “binding” means in plain English and how to spot it fast
• The five ways a moment can stick Bond, Irreversibility, New stakes, Direction, Pressure
• A spoken mini-exercise you can even do while walking the dog
• A quick diagnostic to fix fake incidents that are loud but optional
• A simple before and after that turns a limp delivery into a clock-ticking crisis

We'll also look at:

• Pride and Prejudice Darcy’s slight and Lizzy’s promise to herself
• Legally Blonde Elle’s public vow to Harvard Law
• A Streetcar Named Desire Blanche’s choice to stay and conceal

Want help binding your own opening? Start here and visit ⁠⁠https://www.thebookcoach.co⁠⁠

And then” isn’t a plot, it’s a queue. In this craft-forward episode, we swap “and then” for the more muscular because / but / therefore and show how tight causality turns scenes into story. You’ll get a clear, jargon-free framework for chaining choices to consequences, plus two case studies that prove the point: a mini-autopsy of Pride & Prejudice and a contemporary comparison with Knives Out.

In this episode you’ll learn:

• Why causality (not act labels) is the real backbone of structure

• How to convert event beats into decision beats with costs

• The Because/But/Therefore test to expose sagging “and then” sequences

• A quick Coincidence Audit (allowed to enter a story, never to exit it)

• A repeatable Scene Ledger: Goal → Opposition → Outcome → New Problem → Forced Next Action

POV isn’t just a grammar choice - it’s the engine that controls intimacy, suspense, and what your reader knows when.

In this craft-deep episode, we demystify point of view by breaking it into three practical dials (access, scope, and distance) then walk through the pros and cons of first person, third limited (close and deep), free indirect style, omniscient, objective, second person, epistolary, multiple-POV, and stream of consciousness.

To make it real, we take a baseline scene (Edward at Inkerman hearing Pendleton’s voice) and rewrite it in each POV, showing exactly what changes on the page and how those changes shape reader experience, for better and for worse.

You’ll learn how to pick the right lens for a scene, avoid head-hopping and tense drift, trim filter words for immediacy, and keep character voice aligned with era and education.

Ideal for both first-time novelists and seasoned writers tuning their instrument!

Stop polishing your first paragraph into oblivion. In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we split your process into two clean modes: Author Brain for discovery and Editor Brain for decision—used at different times for different jobs. You’ll hear a live “before/after” paragraph where we draft messy, then run a tight verbs-and-cuts pass that sharpens pace and tension without killing momentum. We’ll also set up a simple 30-minute loop you can run twice to produce real pages today.

You’ll learn:

• The core jobs of Author Brain (invent) vs. Editor Brain (select)

• Why separating them in time stops stalls and unlocks flow

• The TK tactic and “Again:” restart to keep drafting forward

• How a verbs-and-cuts pass lifts energy, clarity, and pace fast

• The one-line scene change test to confirm forward motion

Stop waiting for motivation. Start acting from identity. In this mindset kickoff for Master Fiction Writing, we shift the sentence that runs your day from “I want to write a book” to “I’m a person who writes.” You’ll hear a simple, athlete-style routine (warm-up, reps, cooldown), examples, and a 10-minute drill that makes writing easier to start than to avoid.

You’ll learn:

• Why identity beats motivation for consistent pages

• The 3 design levers: place, time, trigger

• A tiny training loop: warm-up → reps → cooldown

• How to separate Author Brain (draft) from Editor Brain (revise)

• The Minimum Viable Session: 10 minutes or 100 words—streaks over heroics

• The Creative ID Card: I write [genre] on [days] at [time/place] for [minutes] because [why]

By the end, you’ll have a posted Creative ID Card, two sessions on your calendar, and tomorrow’s first 'ugly' line already typed!

Your novel’s bookends do the heavy lifting. In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we pair Step 16 (Writing the Opening Scene) and Step 17 (Writing the Closing Scene) to help you start with momentum and finish with meaning. You’ll learn what a scene is (and why something must change every time), how to centre your protagonist’s thoughts and feelings, and a simple timer method to draft three different openings and three different endings - fast. Then we “mirror test” your bookends so the final scene proves the belief shift you promise on page one.

You’ll learn:

• The four-beat scene engine: Want → Friction → Choice → Change

• How to draft rough, 5–10 page scene sketches using TK placeholders

• Three alternative ways to start (and end) the same story—by design

• The “rhyme, don’t repeat” rule for opening/closing scenes that land

Leave with a clear opening, a true ending, and a direction for everything in between.

Outlining doesn’t have to strangle your creativity—or leave you drowning in spreadsheets. In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we introduce The Inside Outline: a fast, 2–3 page method that pairs each major Scene (what happens) with its Point (why it matters to your protagonist). The result? A plot that moves and a character arc that means something.

You’ll hear how to build 10–15 Scene/Point pairs, link them with clean cause-and-effect (“because of that…”), and pressure-test the outline so stakes rise, tension builds, and the story delivers on genre promises. We’ll walk through examples—romance, and thriller—so you can hear exactly how to do it.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The Scene/Point pairing that keeps plot and emotion glued together

• How to use “because of that…” to create momentum (not coincidence)

• A quick 8-question stress test for your outline’s stakes, pacing, and arc

• Ways to turn your Inside Outline into scenes, revisions, and a query-ready synopsis

Leave with a living map you can actually write from: short, sharp, and tied to why your story matters.

Plotting doesn’t have to feel like wrangling an octopus into a cardigan. In this episode of Master Fiction Writing, we turn to Pixar’s Story Spine - seven simple prompts that reveal your story’s engine: who we meet, what upends the status quo, how cause-and-effect escalates, where the climax hits, and what the change means. We unpack each beat (from “Once upon a time…” to “And ever since that day…”) and keep things focused with just two “Because of that…” moves to force clean causality. You’ll hear quick, recognisable examples and leave with a concise spine you can expand into scenes—without drowning in index cards.

You’ll learn:

• How to define your story’s “normal,” inciting incident, and rising consequences

• Why limiting yourself to two causal beats sharpens momentum

• How to aim your climax at your character’s internal shift

• How to land an emotionally clear resolution