intro:
2025’s “Write Stuff” Storybundle has kicked off – ten books to help you on your writing career path. (Including my book Enrichment Activities: 30 Days of Stay-at-Home Learning, Business, and Self-Care Activities for Writers.) I’m writing profiles for each of the books in the bundle. They’re all very practical books, either with concrete steps to follow, or with a very grounded insight into the writing life. Enjoy!
book description:
There’s a moment in every writer’s life where you think:
Am I doing this right? Am I where I’m supposed to be?
In Stages of a Fiction Writer, Dean breaks down the writing journey into four clear stages that every successful author ends up travelling. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to level up, this book will help you understand what stage you’re in, what comes next, and how to make real progress.
It’s time to ditching imposter syndrome and understand that you are on a writing career path.
One that wanders. A lot.
Curator's note from the storybundle:
Dean Wesley Smith has sold over 35 million books in his career, with more selling every day. He has also edited fiction for decades. He has forgotten more about writing than most writers ever learn. He has gone through all of the stages he describes in this little book, and continues to carve his own path forward, as one of the most prolific writers of all time. – Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Who Should Read This:
- New writers who aren’t sure what “good” looks like yet
- Intermediate authors who feel like they’re stuck
- Anyone looking to grow without burning out
Dean doesn’t sugarcoat things (hahahahaha). But he does give you the map so you know what to look for as you grow.
Excerpt:
Stages of a Fiction Writer
Know Where You Stand on the Path to Writing
CHAPTER ONE
There are four basic stages of commercial fiction writing that are pretty clear. For this book, I just number them one through four.
I kind of think of them as places where writers live.
Basically, I’m an early-to-middle stage four writer. So is Kris. And we’re working to get better all the time, as we always have.
Writers start in stage one and eventually work up into stage four if they keep learning and don’t quit.
These stages will often have traits that carry over from one stage to another.
The lines between the stages are not dark and concrete, but are transitions that often take time to cross.
All of us, without exception, go through the early stages of fiction writing. No way around it.
And often writers can spend decades moving through a stage.
Or get stuck and have their career end in a stage.
So another way to think of this is like a journey.
A journey without an end point.
You never arrive, you never know it all as a fiction writer. Learning continues.
The key is never stop on the road. Keep moving and learning.
A Chess Example
To try to understand some of what I am talking about in coming chapters, keep in mind chess.
Those who have never played chess, or only played a few games, might know the moves of the pieces. But they can watch two chess masters and not have a clue what the masters are doing. The game is played on other levels than the prescribed moves of pieces.
When a beginning writer looks at a long-term bestseller, it is impossible to see what that writer did for book after book to get millions of readers every book. The books are just words, put into sentences. Right?
How hard can that be?
And chess pieces are just game pieces that move.
Just keep that in mind.
I Want to Jump Ahead Some Stages
Well, no. This question always comes up. No matter how much a beginning writer wants to get lucky and hit with some top selling books, which does happen, the skill level doesn’t jump ahead.
We all go through the stages.
No matter how much of a hurry the writer might be in. And stage one writers are always in a hurry.
Now, that said, paying the price in the stages, the learning required to move through an early stage, can come from other places.
Often nonfiction professional writers can make a jump to professional fiction quicker. They might not be in the same stage with their fiction writing as they are with their nonfiction writing, but they can move quicker and start higher because they have “paid the price” in learning in nonfiction.
This also applies to those who started off writing plays, those writing for Hollywood, those coming out of advertising writing, and so on.
For those, the early stage or two were learned in other areas.
Bio:
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