Lessons MY FICTIONAL Author Taught Me About WRITING

Mar 14, 2026

My short story Life in Shadows is an exploration of writing and writers, and how both can be damaged. While writing it, I learnt a few craft and life skills along the way.

ReloCation v Procrastination

Every writer knows the fantasy: relocate somewhere atmospheric, sip whiskey sour or gina and tonic on a balcony and begin The Great Work.

In my short story Life in Shadows, Michael Hayes is living that fantasy. Or so he thinks.

But instead of writing the “Universal Novel” he moved to Bankok to create, he files pieces for niche magazines and small newspapers. He calls it honing his craft. Research. Preparation. But really he knows it’s all just “freelance fluff.”

Changing cities, routines, or time zones feels productive and looks like commitment. But sometimes it’s just procrastination with better scenery. A new climate won’t fix an old fear.

Indie Author Take-out:
Relocation and endless preparation can disguise avoidance. At some point, you have to stop preparing and start writing the book.

The Danger of Watching Instead of Living

Michael meets the reclusive literary legend Charles Shaw, who offers a warning most writers don’t want to hear.

Writing, Shaw says, is a cold process. You observe rather than participate. Over time, that distance can bleed the humanity out of your work.

Shaw treated life purely as research material, and something hardened. His prose became stiff, technical and airless.

Writers pride themselves on being observers. But if you never put yourself on the line—never love badly, fail publicly, or risk embarrassment—you’ll only ever describe life from the outside.

Indie Author Take-out:
Don’t confuse detachment with depth. Live fully. Then write from experience, not just analysis.

Creative Block Is Usually Emotional

Through Francesca, a woman Michael meets on the veranda of the Oriental, we see the real issue. Michael isn’t blocked because he lacks talent. He’s blocked because he’s afraid of commitment. After all, he’s avoided emotional commitment all his life; now he’s avoiding it on the page.

He fooled himself he was running to Bangkok to start writing, but really he was running from his fear of commitment – to relationships and his writing. Bangkok is simply a more exotic hiding place.

Indie Author Take-out:
If you struggle to finish drafts, look beyond productivity hacks. Creative paralysis is often fear of exposure. Write through it.

The Sacrifice Myth

At one point, Shaw confesses something.

He once wrote a monumental 900-page masterpiece. The cost was a huge personal sacrifice.

By choosing his work over his family, he hollowed himself out. Now he writes daily out of habit, but shreds every page because his writing feels lifeless.

It’s a sharp rebuttal to the romantic myth that great art demands total sacrifice. We’re told obsession is noble and suffering is proof of seriousness.

But what if the price is too high?

“Writing isn’t important enough to sacrifice life for,” Shaw admits.

Indie Author Take-out:
Protect your relationships. No book is worth burning down your life. A healthy writer produces stronger work than a hollow one.

Beyond the Page

The enduring lesson of Life in Shadows is that great writing doesn’t come from isolation alone. It comes from participation and connection.

If you pour all your intensity into the page and starve your real life, your work may eventually feel empty anyway.

The paradox is this: the more fully you live, the richer your fiction becomes – but as Gabe Shaw discovers in my other novella about writing, the more you live, the less time you have to write.

So here’s the question every author eventually faces:

Which would you choose: writing the “Universal Novel” to public acclaim, or a life of human connection?

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