The Story Craft Cafe Podcast

Kevin Tumlinson, the Wordslinger, is back on the StoryCraft Cafe. We both came up during the first Kindle wave, and lately we've both felt it: that scrappy, take-the-bull-by-the-horns indie spirit is back, and a lot of it is being driven by what's happening in traditional publishing right now.
We talk about why authors are walking away from trad deals, why AI detectors are a scam with a subscription button, how the Claude watermark actually works, and Kevin's best advice for new authors: forget the world and go own your fifty-mile radius.
In This Episode
The indie spirit is back (00:00) — Hank on the early David-and-Goliath days, the hybrid years, and why that energy is brewing again.
What Kevin's up to (03:00) — The Wordslinger Podcast every Thursday, Ten Shots, and the new Story Cuts, reviewing movies and shows from a novelist's point of view.
Back to the Wild West (04:40) — Draft2Digital's new $20 onboarding fee, and how the AI witch hunt has circled indie publishing back to its earliest days.
AI as a writer's room (06:00) — Hank uses a chatbot like a friend across the coffee table for ideation. Nobody clicks a button and gets 80,000 words. Kevin remembers the same panic over Photoshop and CGI.
Guilty until proven innocent (11:40) — The $2.4 million deal an agent pulled over an AI accusation. One more gate, and no law behind it. Hundreds of Kevin's viewers have given up on trad because of it.
AI detectors are a racket (14:50) — A clean manuscript flagged "100% AI," then an upsell to "humanize" it.
How the Claude watermark works (16:55) — Statistical word choices that add up across a fully generated manuscript. It can flag AI text, but it can't name the user. And you shouldn't be generating your book anyway.
Assistive technology isn't cheating (19:10) — Non-native speakers, writers with disabilities, and a quadriplegic author who dictates his books. Never submit what the machine spits out, but don't demonize the tool.
Add a unicorn, blow up the spaceship (22:10) — Two pieces of get-unstuck advice that still hold after fifteen years.
Own your fifty miles (23:45) — A thousand true fans will support a career, so why hunt them worldwide? Kevin set out to be Austin's thriller writer: every bookstore, every farmers market, local ads. Then expand twenty-five miles at a time.
How to become unavoidable (29:30) — Copies in every county library, friends at every bookshop, signings at coffee shops. You can't do that nationally on $500 a month, but you can at home. Hank's rural county has 100,000 people.
Direct sales and the Amazon basket (32:30) — Build your store early but don't push it as the only way to buy. Let retailers do discovery, keep the email list growing, and have the storefront ready for the day Amazon shuts you off.
School visits and Paolini (36:25) — Kevin's hundred talks at Houston schools moved a few thousand copies in three months. Eragon got found the same way.
Trad math doesn't work (43:15) — Smaller advances, higher expectations, spine-out shelving, and no backup when accusations come. Kevin's direct store pays 97%. If you're the engine anyway, keep the money.
Where publishing is headed (46:30) — The most divided Kevin has seen the industry since the early days. In five years the labels stop mattering. Indie and trad are merging, and the future is bright.
LinksKevin's hub for books, Substack, and podcasts: kevintumlinson.comThe Wordslinger Podcast, Ten Shots, and Story Cuts on YouTubeThe Writers, Ink podcastDraft2DigitalKevin Kelly, "1,000 True Fans"
"If you can just dominate local, you will make a living." — Kevin TumlinsonTry out Dabble free for 14 days and see why it’s the best writing tool on the planet—no credit card required! Visit our website at www.dabblewriter.com to get started.Subscribe to our channel for more live events like author interviews, Writing Sprint Wednesdays, Feedback Fridays, and Fireside Chats.
We're all about helping authors hone their craft with engaging, fun, and educational content.
On top of all that, Dabble Premium members get access to exclusive content like Craft Q&A Office Hours, Wordsmith Workshops, Deep Dive articles, bonus resources, and guest speaker workshops.
Happy writing!#IndiePublishing #SelfPublishing  #AuthorTube #KevinTumlinson #StoryCraftCafe #Wordslinger #WritingCommunity #WritingTips #WritingAdvice #AIandWriting #AIDetection #Draft2Digital #BookMarketing #DirectSales #1000TrueFans

A protagonist is only as strong as the wall they're trying to break through. Your antagonist isn't the obstacle to your story, and your antagonist IS your story.

A protagonist is only as strong as the wall they're trying to break through. Your antagonist isn't the obstacle to your story — your antagonist IS your story.
Pull up a chair. Before we dive into Workshop 4, Hank Garner and Abby sit down for a relaxed fireside conversation about the most underrated character in fiction: the one standing in your hero's way. We're talking villains, rivals, systems, storms, and the quiet "no" that forces your protagonist to change. If you've ever written a bad guy who felt flat, cartoonish, or too easy to beat, this one's for you.
This is the warm-up. Grab a coffee, settle in, and come to the workshop ready to build an antagonist readers can't look away from.
In this chat, Hank and Abby get into:- The difference between a villain, an antagonist, and a plain old obstacle- Why the best antagonists are the protagonist of their own story- How a villain's "no" drives your plot forward, scene by scene- Desire, wound, and lie — how the tool that builds heroes builds their enemies too- Sympathetic vs. hateable: when to make readers understand the villain, and when not to- The antagonists we can't stop thinking about — and what makes them work- The most common mistakes that make a bad guy fall flat- Force-of-nature and internal antagonists (when there's no villain at all)
#WritingCraft #Antagonists #Villains #WritingTips #AmWriting #NovelWriting #CharacterDevelopment #Fiction #WritingCommunity #StoryStructure

Why do readers stay up until 2 a.m. turning pages?
It's rarely because of the plot.
It's because they care about the person living through it.
In this one-hour writing workshop, Hank Garner breaks down the core principles behind unforgettable protagonists—the characters readers will follow anywhere, even when they aren't always likable.
You'll learn how to build characters with emotional depth, compelling motivations, and authentic character arcs that keep readers invested from the first page to the last.
In this workshop you'll learn:
What a protagonist actually is (and how they're different from your POV character or hero)
The three pillars every great protagonist needs:
DesireWoundLie
The difference between what your character wants and what they truly need
Why readers don't have to like your protagonist—they simply have to be compelled by them
How specificity, contradictions, vulnerability, and voice make fictional people feel real
How to avoid passive protagonists by giving your characters meaningful choices
A simple five-question character test you can use on every novel you write
You'll also complete a practical character-building exercise and see how Dabble's Character Notes and Plot Grid make it easy to organize your protagonist's arc from beginning to end.
Whether you're outlining your first novel or revising your tenth, this workshop will give you a practical framework you can immediately apply to create protagonists readers won't forget.

Readers don't read your book because of your clever plot. Readers fall in love with your book because of your CHARACTERS. Each book is about a person, and your protagonist is the lightning rod of your book.
In this Fireside chat, Hank and Brooke talk about what makes a great protagonist and how to craft characters that bring people back time and again.

This is an exciting week where we finally get to unveil what's new in Dabble 3.0. Join Abby and Hank as they discuss their favorite new Dabble 3.0 features.

Most unfinished manuscripts in the world died somewhere between chapter eight and chapter sixteen. The writer didn't lose interest. They lost the shape of it. The plot started to drift. The scenes started to feel disconnected. The book stalled.
This 65-minute workshop is about the shape. The bones of a novel that works — and the structural diagnostic that tells you, every time, which beat in your draft is the one that needs work next.
Novelist and writing coach Hank Garner walks through Freytag's Pyramid, why it's incomplete for novels, the modernized six-beat story arc that every working novel hits, the midpoint shift that fixes a sagging middle, and the five most common structural mistakes in first-novel manuscripts.
You'll learn:
Why "pantsers vs plotters" is the wrong fight — and what both sides get rightFreytag's Pyramid, the five-part shape underneath every working drama since the GreeksThe six-beat story arc — Hook, Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Midpoint Shift, Climax, ResolutionThe three-act translation, and why six beats is easier to write than threeThree ways to use the midpoint — false victory, point of no return, revelationHow to diagnose a sagging middle in 60 secondsTry/fail cycles, yes-but / no-and, and the chapter-end question that earns the page turnFive common structural mistakes — and how to fix each one
Try out Dabble free for 14 days and see why it’s the best writing tool on the planet—no credit card required! Visit our website at www.dabblewriter.com to get started.Subscribe to our channel for more live events like author interviews, Writing Sprint Wednesdays, Feedback Fridays, and Fireside Chats.
We're all about helping authors hone their craft with engaging, fun, and educational content.
On top of all that, Dabble Premium members get access to exclusive content like Craft Q&A Office Hours, Wordsmith Workshops, Deep Dive articles, bonus resources, and guest speaker workshops.
Happy writing!

Most new writers freeze on the first line because they think it has to be brilliant. It doesn’t. The opening line isn’t the point. The opening page is. And the opening page is doing a job.In this 60-minute workshop, novelist and writing coach Hank Garner walks through what an opening actually has to do, the three kinds of hooks that work, and a five-question diagnostic you can run on any opening you’ve ever written.You’ll learn:
The lie about first lines that kills more drafts than anythingThe five jobs every working opening must doThree kinds of hooks — situation, voice, image — and when to use eachWhat to cut and what to keep in your first 250 wordsThe prologue trap and the three legitimate usesA diagnostic you can run on any opening in ten minutes
Join us at DabbleU to continue the conversation about this workshop at https://www.dabbleu.com/c/cafe-chats/join-us-today-for-our-dabble-workshop-how-to-start-a-story
Try out Dabble free for 14 days and see why it’s the best writing tool on the planet—no credit card required! Visit our website at www.dabblewriter.com to get started.Subscribe to our channel for more live events like author interviews, Writing Sprint Wednesdays, Feedback Fridays, and Fireside Chats.
We're all about helping authors hone their craft with engaging, fun, and educational content.
On top of all that, Dabble Premium members get access to exclusive content like Craft Q&A Office Hours, Wordsmith Workshops, Deep Dive articles, bonus resources, and guest speaker workshops.
Happy writing!

Beginnings are everything. Not only for starting the journey that you hope the reader takes with you, but the first thing you have to do is HOOK your reader. Want them to go on a journey with you? give them a reason. Join Hank and Abby as they discuss this.

Welcome to First Novel Problems, a brand-new YouTube series from Dabble Writer for anyone who's ever wanted to write a novel and didn't know where to start (or got stuck partway through and gave up).
In this introduction episode, meet your hosts:
Abby Mathews: Community Manager at Dabble, published middle-grade author, and someone who tried (and failed) to write a novel three times before finally figuring it out
Brooke: brand-new to Dabble, brand-new to writing, and signing up to learn the whole process from scratch, on camera, so you don't have to do it alone
Here's the idea: every week, Abby teaches Brooke something real about writing a novel, and you get to learn right alongside her. We'll cover plotting, getting unstuck, picking a genre, the "rules" of writing (and when to break them), and all the roadblocks that stop first-time novelists from finishing.
It's genre-agnostic (although Brooke will have to pick one!). It's beginner-friendly. And it's built on the idea that if you want to write a book, you ARE a writer—you just need someone to walk you through it!
Got a writing roadblock you want us to tackle? Drop it in the comments. Brooke is officially on the hook to ask the embarrassing questions for you.
SUBSCRIBE so you don't miss Episode 1, where we get into the real stuff.
Try Dabble free: https://www.dabblewriter.com/Free writing resources at DabbleU: https://www.dabblewriter.com/dabble-u