An Experiment in Writing – Part 80: If All You Have Is a Hammer, It’s Time to Get a New Toolbox
Joseph Carrabis -
April 22, 2026
CritiquingExperiments in WritingFor AuthorsStoryCrafting

I shared a humbling moment in An Experiment in Writing – Part 43: A Humbling Experience – Robin Wilkey Gregory’s Killing Time. Here I’ll share another.

Early in my shift from business owner to full-time author, I studied, read, took courses, hired coaches and mentors, blah, blah, blah. Part of that is documented in my Books on Writing posts.

I’ve felt for a while my writing reached a plateau and lacked…something.

I wasn’t sure what, only that some thing or things weren’t there. My solution is to go back to my sources and review the material again.

And again and again and again.

I do this kind of thing a lot. I reread something and get entirely new gems from it while polishing the gems already gleaned.

Such a case caused this Experiment in Writing.

Time to get new tools. Keep the old tools and add to them.

Which means a new toolbox.

Enjoy

 
(by the way, did you catch the jazzy new background in the video?)

Janet Burroway’s Writing Fiction

Think I’m onto something? Take a class with me, schedule a critique of your work, or buy me a coffee.
Think I’m an idiot? Let me know in a comment.
Either way, we’ll both learn something.

Get copies of my books because it’s a nice thing to do, you care, you can follow along, and I need the money. My latest is my trauma recovery fantasy Chrysalis.

FWIW, I hold a Creators RoundTable the last Thursday of every month from 7:30-8:30pmET. Watch past RoundTables. Register to participate.

Wilderness House Literary Review EIC Steve Glines and I (Senior Fiction Editor) hold monthly open chats with authors interested in a) writing for us, b) improving their craft in general, and/or c) increasing their chances of being accepted by other markets.
Meetings are held via Zoom on the last Friday of each month from 9-10amET.
So, want to know how to write for us? Want to know what gets our attention? Want to know how to write better for whatever market you’re interested in? Join us for our next “Meet the Editors” Zoom session. Seats limited! Sign up and talk with us. We’re relatively easy going and fun to be with.

Last item, finding these experiments useful? Strengthen my ego and link/friend/follow me.

All Experiments

#Experiments in WritingRevisionStoryCrafting

No Responses

Joseph Carrabis, Author Shopping Cart
I feel so empty...
Visit The Shop
Writing Mentoring


Interested in taking your writing to the next level? Want to take a class with other writers and authors perfecting their craft?
Check out Writing Mentoring.
Classes are held on Wednesdays. Each session starts the first Wednesday of the month and ends the last Wednesday of the month. Morning and evening classes available.

Are you a Member? Would you like to be?
One-on-One Chat

Have a question you want answered?
Have a need you want addressed?
Just want to chat?
Book some time with me and let’s do it.


Subscribers! Want to be Interviewed?
Sorry, this content is available to paying subscribers only


Watch previous interviews to learn what they’re like.

History
Tagalicious
About Me Americana Analytics Ecology Anthropology A Tale of the Northern Clan Atmosphere Author Interviews Author Tools Bear Bees Behavior Betrayal Birds BizMediaScience Blurbs Bobcat Body-Mind-Spirit Book Blogs Character Childhood Trauma Children's Stories Chipmunk Conflict Cons-Fairs-Expos Contest Covers Coyote Cozy Murders Creative Non-Fiction Crime Comedy Crime Thrillers Critiques Crow Curses Cymodoce Deer Description Dialogue Economy of Meaning Editing Emotions Empty Sky Espionage Expanded Awareness Experiments in Writing Exposition Fains I Fantasy Fiction Flash Fox Gable Smiled Gel Ink and Rollberball Gender Gothic Romance Great Opening Lines Hanging Tree Harvey Duckman Hawk Heal History Horror Humor Identity iMedia Interpersonal Relationships Jerry and Betty Labyrinth Language Learnings Library of Congress Life Linguistics Literature Lizard Love Story Magic Realism Marketing Mayhem Midnight Garden Midnight Oil Midnight Roost Military Mood Music Mystery Myth Narration Neuroscience Newsletters Noir Non-Fiction Old Ones Opossum Owl Pace Performance Artist Personal Finance Personal Improvement Personality Philosophy Pitch Plot Podcast Poetry POV Psychology Rabbit Rabbit Hole 5 Rabbit Hole 6 Rabbit Hole 7 Rabbit Hole 8 Raccoons Readings Recovery Triptych Relatability Relationships Reviews Revision Ritchie and Phyl Rob and Joan Carter Romance RoundTable Scenes Science Fiction Scinece Fiction Search Self-Discovery Self-Help Setting Skunk Snake Social Sociology Spider Spies Spirituality Spoken Word Sports Stating the Obvious StoryCrafting StoryTelling Structure Style SubStack Susan Tag Tales of the Woods Tales Told 'Round Celestial Campfires Tension
Experiments in Writing
1 – This is How It Begins
2 – Openings
3 – More on Openings, Closings
4 – More on Closings
5 – More on Openings – Establishing Voice, Atmosphere, Setting, and Narrator
6 – Authenticity
7 – Inciting Incidents
8 – Worthy Antagonists
9 – Final Conflicts Worth Reading
10 – Action Scenes (finally)
11 – Language and Word Choice
12 – Overwriting, Toing and Froing
13 – Exposition via Dialogue
14 – Exposition via Character Revelation via Deep POV
15 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 1 – Character Voice
16 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 2 – Author as Character
17 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 3 – Author IS Character
18 – Character Voice, Author Voice Part 4 – Author Voice
19 – Plotlines, Timeslines, Throughlines
20 – Plotting, Pantzing, and Procrastinating – The 3Ps Every Author Should Know and Love
21 – More on Exposition via Dialogue – Holmeses&Watsons
22 – More on Plotlines, Timelines, and Throughlines
23 – Into the Mythic
24 – A Little More Into The Mythic, and The Rule of Three
25 – Accidental POV Shifts
26 – World-Building via 1stPPOV
27 – How to read as an author
28 – Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone Teaches Writing
29 – Character via Exposition
30 – What Happens Next?
31 – Who Haven’t I Written About Lately?
32 – Let the Characters Do the Work
33 – Writer’s Block versus Writer Stuck
34 – Editing
35 – Write Moments and Feelings
36 – Timeline and Plotline Convergence (an Example)
37 – Time Manglement
38 – Subjectively Objective and Objectively Subjective
39 – The First Word
40 – Blurbs, Pitches, and But-Then-Except
41 – An Example of “The First Word”
42 – Technique versus Craft
43 – A Humbling Experience – Robin Wilkey Gregory’s Killing Time
44 – What’s a ‘Flaknoc’? (revealing anything through character interactions)
45 – Drinking the Sand
46 – Atrribution via Action (and a little bit more)
47 – Overwhelmedness
48 – An Experiment in Writing – Part 48: Eating My Own Dogfood (more on reading like an editor, critiquing your own work)
49 – An Experiment in Writing – Part 49: Write/Be/Do What Interests You
50 – Match Narrative Voice to Character Voice
51 – Marketing is a Four-Letter Word
52 – Subtlety
53 – An Example of Poor Story Crafting
54 – You’re not Stephen King, Nora Roberts, JK Rowling, Dan Brown, … so get over it
55 – Backcover copy and Blurbs (again)
56 – Creating Tension, Building Tension
57 – More on Character Voice (Showing Change through Tone, Language, Behavior)
58 – Interesting to Whom? (keeping it interesting for author and reader)
59 – Unreliable Witnesses
60 – HELP! (I need somebody)
61 – Pitching Events (or Marketing, again)
62 – Man From Earth, MindWalk (Conflict Without Conflict)
63 – Eating My Own Dogfood (more on reading like an editor, critiquing your own work)
64 – Recognizing My Worth
65 – Genre Schmenre
66 – Surprise!
67 – Creativity Exercises (Building those Muse Muscles)
68 – Finding the Path
69 – Sensitivity Readers…NOT!
70 – Edit Someone Else’s Work to Improve Your Own
71 – Previously on…(more on backcover copy)
72 – Relatability = Believability = Engagement = Sales
73 – Call Response
74 – The Radical Rewrite
75 – Protagonists, Antagonists, and Weak Endings
76 – Character Interactions (Levels of Interest, Observing, Being Aware of What Others Miss)
77 – Meh! Part 1 (False Tension, Part 1)
78 – Meh! Part 2 (False Tension, Part 2)
79 – The Waiting Game
80 – If All You Have Is a Hammer, It’s Time to Get a New Toolbox!
81 – Marketing (because I’m no good at it)
82 – Convincing the Reader to Go for a Ride
83 – Genre v Literary
84 – Distractions
85 – I’ve Got Rhythm