Find Your Stagecoach — How to Master the Art of Writing Fiction

I want to improve as a fiction writer, both in my writing craft and the writing process. What is the best way to master the art of writing fiction? Deliberate Practice is a proven 3-step methodology to master any topic, and we can apply it to writing fiction:

1. TARGET - pick one specific aspect of the writing craft and/or your writing process (it should be an “area of weakness”, outside your current comfort zone)

2. TACTICS - break it down to specific and “measurable” (If possible) actions

3. FEEDBACK - get a feedback loop, either through direct interactions with others such as experts (editors, writing coaches), other writers (writers' groups), or readers (share, post, publish, and ask for feedback), OR through the STAGECOACH method where you compare your writing to a writer you admire and self-score (evaluate yourself against that more advanced writer)

Let’s take a deeper dive into Deliberate Practice in Writing Fiction, then how to Find Your Stagecoach and how to use the Stagecoach method to Practice the Writing Craft and Practice Your Writing Process.

Before we start ...
do you want to write fiction faster,
while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better? 

Check out this link to the FREE "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" guide and workbook,
which comes with a FREE companion course
with 23 bite-sized video lessons and 4 worksheets.

Deliberate Practice in Writing Fiction

Deliberate Practice is a proven method for building expertise in any field.

I would encourage you to check out the book “Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise” by Anders Ericsson and his co writer Robert Pool for more detail.

Anders Ericsson is a professor at Florida State University who studies the field of building expertise, becoming an expert. Based on his research, he has defined the “Deliberate Practice” process, which is what he has found to be the common elements of the practice used by world class experts in fields ranging from sports to music, chess, computer programming, and any other field of expertise.

He contrasts Deliberate Practice with what he calls “Naive Practice”: mindless repetition of things that we’re already good at, staying in our comfort zone.

Naive Practice is what we tend to do, in most things, right? Whether it’s playing golf, chess, piano, computer games — or writing fiction.

We just keep writing, and if we do try to improve it’s mostly through a vague hope that through sheer volume of writing, we will get better. Yes, it’s enjoyable. But we’re never (or rarely) practicing writing systematically so as to deliberately improve our craft.

But hold on a minute. Isn’t there value to volume? Isn’t there a benefit of just writing a lot, consistently?

Yes!

Let me acknowledge that consistency and sheer volume of reading and writing fiction is important.

No, it’s vital!

I love Stephen King’s mantra from his book “On Writing” where he says:

“If you want to be a writer,
you must do two things above all others:

Read a lot and write a lot.”

I would add to the “read a lot” that you should also “watch a lot” of great films and scripted television, and for extra credit, hunt down the actual scripts of your favorite films and TV episodes so you can read them as a writer, seeing the words on the page.

That said, sheer volume of reading (and watching) and writing will still be “Naive Practice.”

To take it to the next level, let’s delve in the Deliberate Practice method, which can be summarized into 3 step:

1. Target
2. Tactics
3. Feedback

TARGET

Pick ONE specific aspect of the writing process and/or writing craft to work on. This should be an “area of weakness” so that you are challenging yourself and going outside your comfort zone.

So what do we mean by setting a “target” in writing?

First, let’s think about writing practice in two buckets: the writing craft and our writing process.

In the writing craft, there are specific aspects and building blocks of writing fiction, including plot, characters, scenes, dialogue, and narrative voice.

Let’s take the building block of “Dialogue” as an example. Let’s say that is an area of weakness for you in general, or perhaps there is a certain aspect of dialogue that you feel needs work.

You can set as a general target to improve your dialogue. Or you can set as a target something a little more specific, such as “I want to improve the sense of conflict and tension in dialogue.”

Setting a target to improve your writing process is also important. You want a process that keeps you writing consistently, effectively, and efficiently.

As an example, you could work on your writing workflow. If you say: “What’s a writing workflow?” then that’s a good place to start — your target is to develop a consistent, effective, and efficient writing workflow. Check out this article and this free course for more on writing workflow (specifically Lesson 15: The R/OUTINE(S) Writing Workflow).

If you already have a writing workflow, you may focus on one aspect of that workflow where you feel you’re getting stuck, or where you’re less effective in your writing sessions.

One last things on setting targets: what do we mean by getting “outside our comfort zone” in writing?

You should pick an area to work on where you know you have a weak spot. If you picked “dialogue” to practice because you actually enjoy writing dialogue and at the same time you know that your real weakness is in plotting the story, then the true Deliberate Practice would be to work on your “plot” writing craft instead.

TACTICS

The second step in the Deliberate Practice method, “tactics”, means that we break down that target into very specific steps (or even just one single aspect) that we can focus on to make progress towards the target.

The tactics should be measurable, if possible, so that we have a way of telling whether we are getting closer to the target. This will take some introspection.

Let’s take the two examples, one from the the writing craft and another from the writing process.

For the writing craft, we’ll continue with the example of “Dialogue”. So, how would you break down dialogue?

For example, you can break down dialogue into how you write your “tags”. By “tags” I mean the ways that you work in who’s speaking (ex. “he said”), and how you create a smooth flow in the transition between the dialogue where it’s clear who is speaking, while those “tags” don’t get in the way of — and ideally add to — the reader’s experience of the interaction between the characters. Your tactics can then be that in your next several pieces of writing, you’ll focus on this aspect of dialogue, improving your “tags”.

For your writing process, lets’s say you want to practice your writing workflow as a target.

Your writing workflow has multiple steps, so for your tactics, you’ll focus on one specific step in the process. For example, if you’re following the R/OUTINE(S) writing workflow, the first step is Research/Outline (R/O).

Your tactic may be to do the Research/Outline for multiple stories in a row in a batch of, let’s say, three stories at a time. As you do the R/O step three times in a row, you try to get faster and more succinct at the process of doing the research and completing the outline.

FEEDBACK

The third step is to get feedback.

Strictly for the mechanics of grammar and style, there are automated tools that can be helpful. My favorite is ProWritingAid.

To go beyond the mechanics, it is great to get feedback from other people, perhaps beginning with other writers in one or more writers groups (or writers communities) where you can ask for critiques (“crits”) of your stories.

You can also get feedback from readers by publishing your fiction on your blog, as I’m doing, by sharing on free self-publishing platforms such as Wattpad, and even by self-publishing an Amazon Kindle single and including a way for the readers to provide feedback.

You can also invest in formal feedback from an expert, such as a professional editor and/or a writing coach, which can really help you accelerate your writing.

But for many of us, we may prefer to develop our writing craft on our own (at least until we are ready to share). How do we get feedback on our own? Let me introduce you to the concept of the “Stagecoach.”

First, let me tell you a story about Benjamin Franklin. He taught himself to write (non-fiction) by reading essays by writers that he admired. He would take notes as he read the article. Then he would set aside the article and would attempt to write his own version of it solely from his memory and notes. Then he would place the original article side-by-side with his attempt, compare the two, and find all the places where he could learn from that original writer.

Another great example was Orson Welles, who watched the film “Stagecoach” (the 1939 Western with John Wayne) repeatedly, more than 40 times, to study and emulate the craft of filmmaking, before he directed “Citizen Kane”.

So we’re going to call this method the “Stagecoach” method. We could call it the Ben Franklin method, but “Stagecoach” has a nice associations with the word “coach”. In this method you will “coach” yourself, just like Orson Welles (and Ben Franklin) did.

Find Your Stagecoach

The Stagecoach method is all about getting feedback, but to find your Stagecoach, let’s first go back to the Targets and Tactics steps of Deliberate Practice.

In the Target step, you identified an area of the writing craft and your writing process, and then in the Tactics step you found specific, measurable ways to make progress towards the Target.

For the writing craft, we used the example of “Dialogue” in the “Target” and “Tactics” sections above, so, let’s continue with that example. How do you find your Stagecoach for writing dialogue? Here are 5 steps:

1. Start a list of your favorite writers that are great at dialogue. Just write down that list from memory for now. Can you think of at least ten? Twenty? More?

2. Go to your bookshelf (whether that’s a physical bookshelf or your Kindle) and browse your favorite authors. Compare to your initial list. Are there others you would add to the list of great writers of dialogue?

3. Google “great dialogue in books” (or similar search terms). Review these. Are there others you’d like to add to your list now?

4. Delve in, systematically going through the list, reading each writer’s dialogue and ranking them.

5. Which of these bubble to the top as your Top 10? Narrow this down to your Top 3. You may want to create separate lists for different types of dialogue, so it’s fair game to end up with multiple “Top 3” lists, for example, the short to-the-point dialogue of thrillers, lyrical dialogue of classics and literature, whichever are the genres, styles, and moods of writing you prefer.

That’s the writing craft. How about your Stagecoach for the writing process?

Read about writing habits of writers that you admire and find the writing process rituals, routines, and habits that resonate most for you.

You can do a Google search, or take a look at the links to articles and books in the Resources section of this article. 

This can give you inspiration. But the best “Stagecoach” (self-scoring) feedback methodology for your writing process is to measure and track.

For example, take out that stopwatch and track the time you spend on each step in your writing workflow, and challenge yourself to a game to be more efficient. Or track your streak of writing sessions (how many days in a row with at least one writing session) or the number of writing sessions in a week. Make it a game.

Practice The Writing Craft

Apply the Deliberate Practice model to your writing craft by targeting ONE specific aspect of the craft, breaking it down to measurable tactics to practice, and getting feedback on your progress.

Some good candidates of your writing craft to work on include:

• Plot
• Characters
• Scenes
• Dialogue
• Narrative Voice

First, is there one of these you want to target on first? Remember, pick the one where you can push yourself just a little bit outside your comfort zone.

We will spend the most time on “Plot” and “Characters” to get the pattern down, so even if you want to work on one of the others (Scenes, Dialogues, Narrative Voice), read Plot and Characters first, so you get the hang of the process.

PLOT

Let’s take a look at applying Deliberate Practice to the "Plot" aspect of the writing craft.

When it comes to practicing the Plot building block of fiction, I have two challenges for you: read and write short fiction, and outline your story.

Even if you don’t like to read and write short fiction (i.e. you love novels), read and write short fiction anyway. Even if you don’t like to outline (i.e you’re a confirmed “Pantser”), do the outline anyway. Just to practice Plot.

Read and Write Short Fiction

Let’s start with short fiction. I strongly recommend that you use shorter stories (flash fiction, short stories, novellas as the longest) rather than novels in order to practice Plot.

Why is this?

It’s all about getting in the “reps”.

Just like in any practice what you want is to get in a lot of repetitions (“reps”) in a reasonable amount of time. Unique to practicing Plot is that you want to find a Stagecoach where you can relatively quickly see the entire structure of the plot, then write your own version of a story with a similar plot structure, and then compare your story to that of your Stagecoach. And of course, doing that for a novel is not going to give you a lot of repetitions. So you need to find shorter stories for your Stagecoach, and you need to write shorter stories to practice the Plot building block.

If you strongly prefer novels, don’t worry, this constraint is only for the Plot building block. For the other building blocks, this is not the case. You can practice Characters, Scenes, Dialogue, and Narrative Voice as you read novel-length fiction and work on your novel-length writing.

But even if you exclusively read and write novel-length fiction, in order to work on Plot, you will need to get into shorter fiction — reading short (a lot) and writing short (a lot).

Outline Your Story

For your Deliberate Practice on the “Plot” building block, you need to analyze and practice the narrative structures that work in the fiction you love to read and write. If you are a confirmed Pantser, I’m afraid that means you need to get comfortable with outlining.

Never fear, when you’re no longer doing the Deliberate Practice for Plot, you can feel free to Pants your stories all you want. You’ll find that your Pantsing is improved by having studied and practiced Plot by outlining.

You can either follow a plot-driven narrative structure, such as the FictionMAP model or you can use the Character Method for a more character-driven outline. Experiment with both, and try out different narrative structures to see which resonates most.

Target and Tactics for Plot

Your Target and Tactics can either be for the overall plot structure of the full story, or it can be narrowed down to a specific aspect of the plot where you feel you have a weakness.

For example, you may want to narrow it down to the “soft middle” of your stories and work on getting better at the contrasts, crisis, conflicts, and emotional arcs that drive the middle (Act II) of your story.

Stagecoach Feedback for Plot

To find your Stagecoach for “Plot”, you can do the same exercise as we went through for “Dialogue” in the “Find Your Stagecoach” section of this article, making your list of writers, except that you need to narrow it down to individual short stories or story collections by those writers, as opposed to their novel-length work: Hemingway’s collections of short stories, not “For Whom The Bells Toll”; Elmore Leonard’s short stories about Raylan Givens (from “Justified”), not his novels about Chili Palmer.

Or, you can use the annual “best of” collections in your favorite genre (ex. the annual collections of the best mystery stories of the year. I’ve included links to some of the more popular series of “best of” anthologies in several genres in the Resources section of this article. The added benefit of using this approach is getting a broader view of many great writers with stories that are recognized by current critics and readers as being the best in your genre.

Here’s a 7-step challenge that can get you into the groove of using your Stagecoach to study, practice, and get feedback on Plot:

1. Select a short story collection, either by one of your favorite writers or an anthology of multiple writers. Let’s say there are 12 short stories in the collection.

2. Take the first 3 Stagecoach stories, read all three, and as you do, outline the plot in whatever format you prefer. For example, if you have signed up for the free course on writing fiction faster … and better, you will have the “FictionMAP” form and you can use that. As you read the Stagecoach stories, can you see for each of the 3 stories how their plots map to this narrative structure?

3. Now, outline 3 stories of your own. Don’t write the stories yet. Just outline, developing idea into a story, without writing your way into it. I know this is hard for a Pantser.

4. Compare your outlines to the outlines for the Stagecoach stories. Where can you improve either the overall plot for the story or for a narrower focus on an element of the plot (ex. Act II contrasts, crisis, conflicts, and emotional arcs)?

5. Repeat with the next batch of 3 stories from your Stagecoach collection. And the next 3. And the next 3, until you’ve completed the whole 12-story collection in this way, working through in batches of 3, and each time doing JUST THE OUTLINE for your own 3 stories.

6. Now go back over all 12 of your outlines one more time, comparing to the Stagecoach stories, and improving on your story outlines.

7. Pick the “Top 3” of your own story outlines that appeal to you the most, and go ahead: write the stories. When you’re done, go back and compare the finished stories to your original outlines (where did you change the plot as you wrote the story? why? how can you use what you learned in the future?) and to your Stagecoach stories (where would you want to work on your stories more to come closer to the level of the plot in your Stagecoach stories?)

This intensive exercise, pushing through 12 outlines this way, will accelerate your understanding of and capacity to develop Plot.

A less intensive version would be just a batch of 3 stories, or even just one, but I do recommend that if Plot is an area of weakness, get outside your comfort zone and dig into this with multiple rounds, not justs one story or a few. Three or four rounds, each with a batch of 3 stories, is the way to go, in order to make progress.

It’s through repetition that Plot will become second nature.

CHARACTERS

Here are some suggestions on Deliberate Practice to work on the “Characters” building block of fiction.

Target and Tactics for Characters

Do you already know what you need to work on in Characters?

Is it more generally that you want to write more well-rounded, believable, memorable characters?

Or do you have a specific aspect you want to work on, such as:

• A character role you tend to avoid (ex. the “Emotional” character)
• Character arcs (transformation) and emotional arcs
• Character descriptions
• Character connections and relationships

For some tactics and specific forms and worksheets you can use to develop characters, check out Step 2: StoryPEOPLE in the free course “Write Fiction Faster ... and better.”

Stagecoach Feedback for Characters

For Characters, feel free to choose either short fiction novels as your Stagecoach. Go through the same steps as outlined in the “Find Your Stagecoach” section of this article, making your list of writers that you admire for writing great characters.

If you are working on a broader goal of generally writing better characters, consider starting with your Stagecoach, even before you set a specific target and tactics.

Read two or three writers you admire for their characters and take notes about what it is that specifically appeals to you.

Is it the vivid descriptions of the characters? Their relationships to each others? The layers: skin, flesh & bones, soul? The character arc and emotional arc they go through? See if you can pinpoint a few things and pick one of these as your target to work towards.

Whether you discover your target and tactics this way or already had it in mind, go through a similar exercise to what was outlined under the “Plot” section of this article.

1. Pick 3 examples (from different writers ideally, so you get different takes on writing characters). For each story, pick just ONE main character, and study how your Stagecoach describes them, gives them a role in the story, takes them through an emotional arc and possibly a character transformation. How is this character related to other characters in the story? How is their dialogue and mannerisms different from other characters in the story? What else appeals to you about the way this character is developed within the story?

2. Write 3 characters, mimicking what you’ve learned from your 3 Stagecoaches. Do this in the form of a character sketch, the character in action in a story. You can either do this within a story you’re working on, or invent a stage for your character to show their stuff.

3. Compare your characters to your Stagecoach characters. Where can you improve? OK, go back and do that, work on your characters some more, then come back an compare them to your Stagecoaches again.

4. Repeat with another batch of 3 Stagecoach characters and 3 characters you write. And do this batch-of-3 once or twice more, so that you end up with between 9 and 12 character sketches.

5. Pick you favorite character and write a story that features this character. If you want to, you can cast a few of the other characters you developed as supporting cast in the story.

SCENES

By now, I’m sure you see the pattern (and if you skipped ahead to this section, you should go back and review “Plot” and “Characters” to get the pattern down), so rather than go through it again in detail for the target, tactics, and Stagecoach feedback, here’s what’s unique for the “Scenes” building block.

Target and Tactics for Scenes

Your target for scenes should be to have 3 great scenes and no bad scenes in your story (this is Howard Hawks definition of a great movie, or any story of movie-length). If you’re writing flash fiction, you may not have room for 3 scenes, you may even have just 1 scene, so whatever scenes you have better be great.

What makes a great scene?

• It has memorable characters, dialogue, and/or action
• If fits clearly within the overall story (i.e. the reader knows how we got here, and see clearly where it connects as we move to future scene)
• It moves the story forward and/or reveals character
• It’s' a mini-story with a beginning, middle, and end

Consider designing your scenes, using the SceneSPECS method and then write the scene like a mini-story: beginning, middle, and end. More about this in this article and in Step 1: StorySCENES in the free course “Write Fiction Faster ... and better.”

Stagecoach Feedback for Scenes

For Scenes, you are likely better off with a novel because you will want to find several key scenes to study and use for Stagecoach feedback.

Of course, a meaty novella with multiple scenes can also work — famous novellas that you may think of as full novels include “A Christmas Carol”, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, and Stephen King’s “The Body” and “Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption” that both became great films (“Stand By Me” and “The Shawshank Redemption”). And how about “A Clockwork Orange”, “Of Mice and Men”, “Animal Farm”, “War of the Worlds”, “The Time Machine”, and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”, yep, they are all novellas.

Pick the 3 key scenes in one of these longer works to serve as your Stagecoach. Understand where they fit in the overall plot structure and within the emotional arc of the overall story.

Now, deconstruct each Stagecoach scene. Use the SceneSPECS method to understand how the scene is designed:

1. SUMMARY - just the basics: who is in the scene, what is happening, where and when does it take place, and who tells the story in the scene (point of view)

2. PURPOSE - does the scene advance the plot, reveal character, describe the world of the story (worldbuilding), highlight the theme, or some combination?

3. EMOTIONAL ARC - where does the scene fit in the overall story’s emotional arc, and what is the emotional arc of the scene itself?

4. CONNECTIONS - how did we get here and where are we going next in the story, what are the callbacks to prior scenes and foreshadowing of future scenes, what loops are opened (raising questions, building suspense) and closed (answering questions, resolving suspense)

5. STORY ELEMENTS - how does your Stagecoach use Conflict, Choice, Disruption, and Subtext in the scene?

Next, study how your Stagecoach scenes are written as mini-stories, beginning, middle, and end:

1. BEGINNING - does the Stagecoach scene jump right in with action and/or dialogue, or is it a narrative, reflection. setting mood, description? Is there some form of “challenge” to start the scene?

2. MIDDLE - what are the “complications” in the Stagecoach scene, such as actions/reactions, danger, revelation, obstacles, twists and turns, raising the stakes, victory/defeat (real or false), contemplation, withholding?

3. END - how is the Stagecoach scene brought in for a landing, through revelatory dialogue, visual image, character summary, or concluding words? Is there a cliffhanger to keep the reader turning the page to the next scene?

Having studied your 3 Stagecoach scenes, you know the drill: write your own scenes by designing them using the SceneSPECS method and writing the scenes as mini-stories (beginning, middle, end). Then go back and compare to your Stagecoach scenes.

Rinse and repeat with 3 more Stagecoach scenes, and so on.

One great way of combining Deliberate Practice with making progress on your own novel or novella is to use the Stagecoach scenes as inspiration, and then work on the key scenes in your own story. By the time you’ve gone through three or four rounds of the “batch-of-3” Stagecoaches exercise, you’ll have 9 - 12 key scenes written for your novel or novella.

If you instead have written 9 - 12 standalone scenes as exercises, challenge yourself to use them as “seeds” for longer stories.

DIALOGUE

For the overall pattern (especially if you skipped ahead to this section) refer to the “Plot” and “Characters” sections. Also we already used “Dialogue” as the example in the “Target”, “Tactics”, and “Find Your Stagecoach” sections of the article. Here are a few other considerations for for the “Dialogue” building block.

It’s fine to use any length of writing either short story, novella or novel. What you’re looking for are sections of really good dialogue — highlight these and let’s study them.

Consider how the writers you admire use dialogue in the interplay between plot and character within the scene. 

• How do they use dialogue to advance the plot?
• How do they use dialogue to reveal character?
• How is dialogue used to make the scene come alive and to create the connections between scenes (i.e. callbacks, foreshadowing, opening and closing loops)?

It may be best to start with some dialogue you’ve already written. Go back to one of the scenes you have already written. How could you add or improve dialogue to achieve the same results? Go ahead, make those changes, then compare your before-after scenes and admire your own brilliance. (Hey, you can be your own “Stagecoach”!)

Now re-read your Stagecoach dialogue from your “Top 3” favorite writers of dialogue (in the genre and style that you want to work on).

Write a new story or scene within a longer story you’re working on, and focus specifically on dialogue. First design how you will use the dialogue to advance plot, reveal character, and create connections between scenes through dialogue. When you’re done writing, compare it to your Stagecoaches.

Are there aspects of dialogue that you tend to shy away from? For example, is your dialogue always between just two people? If so, introduce a third person (is that a “trialogue?”) and work on overlapping voices, the characters cutting each other off, weaving in the tags and character actions to make sure the reader isn’t confused about who’s talking, but also having each character sounding different so that you can tell them apart, even just from their speech patterns.

Do you tend to have characters just "stand around and talk" with simple tags (“he said”, “she said”). How about studying how your Stagecoaches use character action instead of tags to set the dialog “in motion,” while making it clear who's speaking.

What else do you see in your Stagecoaches that could take your dialogue to the next level?

NARRATIVE VOICE

For the overall pattern (especially if you skipped ahead to this section) refer to the “Plot” and “Characters” sections. Here are a few other considerations for for the “Narrative Voice” building block.

Target and Tactics for Narrative Voice

Narrative Voice is often equated with Point of View (POV) — that is, writing in first- (“I”), second- (“you”), or third person (“he, she, they”), and decisions about how "close" your write, either in a single point of view (from one character’s perspective throughout) or multiple points of view, even an omniscient God-like narrator who knows and shares all points of view with the reader.

You can work on Points of View that you typically avoid. For example, if you almost always write in first person, single point of view (“I”), experiment with third person, multiple points of view.

But there is more to your Narrative Voice than just “point of view”. Here are some additional thought on what you can target:

• Elements — sentence rhythms and patterns, word choices, enunciations, syntax, and pauses ( - Walter Cummins)

• Personality and affect — does your narrative voice have a cynical personality, adolescent (like Holden Caulfield), or hard boiled (like Sam Spade).

• Mood and tone — how can you use your narrative voice to set the mood and tone of the story, for example writing a gothic horror story?

• Plot, character, information, worldbuilding, theme — your narrative voice can be in service to each of these story elements. You can advance plot, describe characters, convey information, describe settings and other aspects of the world, and ruminate about the theme, all through your narration.

• “Scene and sequel” — this means that you write dialogue or action followed by narrative reflection (in your narrative voice). In one definition, the “sequel” is a link between two scenes, but it can also be done within a single scene, where the narrative “sequel” is interspersed within a block of dialogue for example.

• Write as an unreliable narrator — if you haven’t read or written any good unreliable narrators lately, try it on. It can be a lot of fun.

• Write in an unfamiliar narrative voice — are you stuck writing in a certain narrative voice (ex. female, quirky/funny)? How about trying on a completely different voice (ex. male, hard-boiled)?

Stagecoach Feedback for Narrative Voice

Look for narrative voice in your preferred genre and style of writing. Or challenge yourself to explore different types of narrative voices in the Stagecoaches you seek to emulate.

By this time, you likely have a number of lists of favorite Stagecoaches for plot, characters, scenes, and dialogue. Select some of these and look for how these writers use narrative voice in service of their stories.

Read a narrative section several times, jot down your impressions on how it makes you feel as a reader. What is good about the narrative voice? What do you want to emulate? How is the writer achieving the narrative voice (word choices, sentence rhythms and patterns, pacing, pauses, etc.)?

Either work on editing an existing piece of your writing or write a new scene or story, putting into practice what you have learned from studying your Stagecoach, then go back and compare your narrative voice to theirs.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

It’s good practice to isolate one aspect at a time. But in the end, we need all of the elements of the writing craft together.

So, go back to your various lists of Stagecoaches and find the ones that have it all: plot, characters, scenes, dialogue, and narrative voice.

Practice putting all the elements together in a story and compare it back to your favorite “all star” Stagecoach.

Practicing Your Writing Process

Let’s talk about your writing process.

So you’ve honed your writing craft but you write inconsistently, you’re not focused when you write, maybe you don’t have an effective and efficient writing workflow, and you tend to burn out because you don’t have a good motivational system to keep writing enjoyable and rewarding.

What will happen is that not only will you not write very much, but also your writing craft will suffer, because Stephen King is right: to become (and stay) a good writer, there’s no way around it — you’ve got to read a lot and write a lot.

So we’re going to work on and practice your writing process so that it becomes ingrained. Le’ts apply deliberate practice to three key aspects of your writing process:

Some good candidates of the writing process to work on would be:

• Time-Blocks & Focus
• Writing Workflow
• Motivation

TIME-BLOCKS & FOCUS

Creating a consistent routine for writing is essential. If you can set up a “container” of focused time, you can fill it with anything.

You should set aside a block of time between 30 to 90 minutes length — it’s difficult to get into the groove at less than 30 minutes, and if you go longer than 90 minutes you will wear out, so you’ll need to take a break.

Make sure you turn off all distractions and focus. You can work in silence, with noise blocking headphones on, listen to a favorite playlist of instrumental classical music, or use a focusing music service, such as Brain.fm.

String 2, 3, or even 4 of these 30–90 minute “focused deep work” sessions together with breaks in between, or sessions interspersed throughout the day, and you have a writing practice where you’ll make steady progress.

If you find that you’re not consistently doing this, break it down to understand why this is. Do you, for example, need to go to bed earlier, so that you can get up an hour earlier in order to have at least the one, first-thing-in-the-morning focused deep work session?

Or do you get up early, but you don’t get down to work? Maybe you need a “rise and shine” morning ritual where you spend five minutes brushing your teeth, splashing some cold water in your face, while brewing a cup of coffee, then turn on your focusing music and get to work?

Track your results daily and see if you can build up a streak (that you then don’t want to break, so it becomes a motivator to keep the streak going).

WRITING WORKFLOW

If you don’t have a writing workflow, consider this one, called “R/OUTINE(S)”

You can read more about this writing workflow in this article and also in this free course or more on writing workflow (specifically Lesson 15: The R/OUTINE(S) Writing Workflow).

Your target can be to install this writing workflow and get used to the batching of writing (we recommend working on batches of 3 pieces of writing “works” taking them through eahc step of the workflow together).

You can also narrow it down to focus on a specific step of the writing workfklow. For example, zooming in on potential targets, tactics, and feedback in just the first two steps of the R/OUTINE(S) writing workflow :

• R/O - In the “Research/Outline” step, do you take too long to complete your research, going down rabbit holes — or just generally being unfocused in your research? Then your target could be to reduce the amount of time on the R/O step. A tactic (with built in feedback) could be to set a timer for 40 minutes, then for the next work reduce that to 35 minutes, and so on. 
• U - Is your Ugly First Draft (UFD) so ugly that it takes a LOT of work in the Table Read (T) and Improve (I) steps to whip it into shape? A target could be to reduce the amount of time on the T and I steps (as a multiple of the U step) — that would be a downstream measure of the quality of your “Ugly First Draft”. A tactic could be to design each scene before you do the UFD, so that you can write with more direction. Record the feedback on how this tactic worked out for you.

MOTIVATION

Deliberate Practice means pushing yourself outside your comfort zone.

How can you stay motivated by making it a game, celebrating, giving yourself rewards, getting encouragement and positive feedback?

One recommendation is to join an online writer’s community. I am a member of several of them. Some provide critiques and feedback on your work, which can be rewarding (though a bit scary.) But one that is pure encouraging and celebratory, with no forced sharing, while instilling accountability to get consistent in your writing practice is Unchained Writer. I wholeheartedly recommend this writer's community.

Resources

Here are some resources that will help you apply Deliberate Practice to master the art of writing fiction.

MY FAVORITE ALL-PURPOSE RESOURCE

The Writer's Treasure Chest - everything in one place, curated, organized, this is a great reference for all things writing craft, with tons of prompts, plot/character generators and other tools to inspire your writing practice

ROUTINES

These blog posts include more detail on the routines other writers use to either overcome writer's block or never get it in the first place:

• The Daily Routines of 12 Famous Writers 
   
• The Daily Routines of Great Writers 
   
• 4 things to learn from the daily rituals of great writers 

And if you want to go even deeper, read Mason Currey's Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, which takes you on a guided tour of the way creative people work, based on research into 161 writers and artists (and other creative professionals).

BEST OF ... (ANTHOLOGIES AND COLLECTIONS OF SHORT STORIES)

Here are example of anthologies in different genres. 

• The Mysterious Bookshop Presents the Best Mystery Stories of the Year: 2022
  
  
• The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2022
   
• The Best of Penny Dread Tale (Steampunk Anthology)
  
  
• The Best Horror of the Year Volume 14
  
  
• 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories
  
  
• The Best Short Stories 2022: The O. Henry Prize Winners
  
  

RELATED ARTICLES

As you use Deliberate Practice to work on your writing craft and wring process, here are some articles that will be helpful: 

• Write Fiction Faster! — How to Speed Up Your Story Writing 
  
  
• Need a Great Idea for Your Next Story? Try the Story IDEA Formula
  
  
• From Idea to Story: 3 Methods to Develop Your Story Idea 
  
  
• How to Write Characters Who Stick in the Reader's Mind 
  
  
• What Makes a Good Story? — Great Scenes! Here's How to Write Them
  
  
• Make Your Story Sing — Write Great Dialogue!
  
  
• Flash Fiction: How To Use It To Supercharge Your Writing 
  
  
• Blast Through Writer's Block: How to Get Unstuck 

FREE COURSE, GUIDE AND WORKBOOK

Do you want to write fiction faster, while practicing your craft and your writing process to consistently get better? Check out this link to the "Write Fiction Faster ... and better" guide and workbook, which comes with a companion course with 23 bite-sized video lessons and 4 worksheets.