Your favorite characters weren't born perfect-- and yours won't be either.

In this diagnostic follow-up to "You're Strangling Link, Wolverine, and Mario," we look at the warning signs that you're trying to perfect your story before it has had a chance to exist. From getting stuck wit Name Lock to hiding in the Lore Panic Room, polishing endlessly on the Page-One Treadmill, this episode gives you practical tools to stop suffocating your ideas and start letting them grow.

Make the 8-bit version first.

The icon can come later.

Your favorite characters weren't born perfect. Wolverine, Mario, and Link all started as strange, rough, and surprisingly humble ideas before evolving into cultural icons over years-- sometimes decades.

In this episode, we explore why modern creators often get trapped trying to perfect their work before anyone ever sees it, and how that fear can suffocate great ideas before they have the chance to grow. By looking at the fearless creative process behind classic comics and video games, we uncover an important truth: iconic things become iconic through evolution, experimentation, and time-- not perfection on day one.

Every writer knows the feeling: the cursor blinking, the page going nowhere, the project that started with such promise now collecting dust.

In this episode of Fiction Writer's Toolshed, I sit down with Ramona Ausubel-- award-winning author and longtime teacher-- to talk about her new book Unstuck: 101 Doorways Leading from the Blank Page to the Last Page (a LitHub Most Anticipated Book of 2026).

Whether you're staring down a first draft, stalled in the middle, or trying to finish something you've been carrying for years, this conversation is a doorway of its own. We had a great conversation that will help any auther get Unstuck.

In this episode, we go to a quiet corner of the toolshed, where I sit down with author J.A. Merkel to talk worldbuilding, long-term creative projects, and the ideas behind The Fourth Portal (1 book released) and The Fall Gauntlet (3 books released, with 4 coming this summer).

From early inspiration to publishing ambitious, interconnected stories-- this episode is all about what it really takes to bring big ideas to life.

Get your ebook copy of The Fall Gauntlet, Book One here: https://jamerkel.com/newsletter-sign-up/

About The Fall Gauntlet:

Seventeen-year-old Benji Calyx finally has a chance to save his mother from her off-world prison. All he has to do is win the Fall Gauntlet, an ancient, fight-to-the-death tournament designed to please the gods and goddesses, and keep them at bay.

Benji has made it to the finals. He's trained for this moment for seven long years. There's just one problem. The hulking man behind the bear mask is his estranged younger brother, Soren.

Things just got a lot more complicated.

You're probably not stuck-- you're just not aware of what part of the journey you're on.

In Part 2 of The Creation Funnel, I'll give you a full diagnostic of the 8 stages of making anything, so you can figure out where you are and what to do next.

Each stage comes with:

• Signs you're there
• Signs you're struggling
• What's really going on
• And one practical tool to move forward

Because when you don't know where you are… every part of the process feels wrong.

Clear the confusion. Stop spinning your wheels.
Do the work that belongs to the stage you're in.

Let's go.

There's a moment on a long road trip where it feels like you should already be there… but you're not even halfway.

Most writers quit in that moment.

Not because they're incapable-- but because they don't realize it's part of the journey.

In this episode, I lay out The Creation Funnel: a practical framework for understanding exactly where you are in a creative project-- and why it feels the way it does. It's a map for your creative journey.

If you've ever wondered:

• "Why is this so hard right now?"
• "Was this idea ever good?"
• "Why can't I finish anything?"

This episode might change how you see your work entirely.

In this episode of Fiction Writer's Toolshed, we're talking about the moment before the work-- the hesitation, the resistance, and the quiet lie that you need to feel like it before you begin.

And how a Blood Punch might set you free.

This episode breaks down two core ideas that can radically change how you approach your writing practice.

We also explore the trap of endless ideation: how keeping projects in your head feels safe but ultimately keeps them from ever existing, and why sometimes what you need isn't more planning, but a decisive, imperfect burst of action.

If you've ever found yourself standing at the edge... knowing you should write, intending to write, but not starting... this episode is your push.

And when I say go… go.

For a lot of writers, the novel has quietly become the default starting point.

If you're serious about writing, the assumption often becomes:
start planning your novel… or your trilogy… or your series.

And if you're not doing that, it can start to feel like you're not quite doing the "real thing" yet.

But in this episode, I want to suggest something that might sound uncomfortable at first:

For many writers, you probably shouldn't be writing a novel right now.

Not because novels are bad.
Not because you shouldn't write one someday.

Novels are incredible creative undertakings. But I bet you shouldn't be writing one right now.

Join us inside the Fiction Writer's Toolshed to find out why.