How to Know If You're Making the Right Storytelling Decision: A Mental Checklist for True Artists

If you want to be more than "just another writer," you have to make decisions like a true artist. Not by second-guessing yourself every step of the way, but by ruthlessly focusing on what serves the story's emotional power.

Here's the ultimate mental checklist for knowing whether you're making the right storytelling decision — distilled from hard-won truths that separate amateurs from master craftsmen.

1. Does This Serve the Emotion, Not My Ego?

Ask yourself: Am I doing this to create a stronger emotional experience for the reader, or am I doing it because I want to show off, indulge myself, or "prove" something?

Right Decision: Reinforces the reader's emotional journey.

Wrong Decision: Strokes your vanity at the reader's expense.

2. Does This Sharpen or Distract the Reader's Focus?

Every scene has a focal point. Characters, ideas, moments of tension.

Ask: Does this choice pull the reader's attention toward what matters, or scatter it somewhere irrelevant?

Right Decision: Tightens the spotlight.

Wrong Decision: Blurs the lens.

3. Does This Respect the Natural Rhythm of the Scene?

Stories breathe. Scenes have tempos: fast, slow, tense, tender.

Ask: Does this decision ride the scene's rhythm, or interrupt it with awkward, needless friction?

Right Decision: Flows seamlessly with the beat.

Wrong Decision: Feels like a jarring pothole.

4. Does This Solve a Problem or Create One?

A good decision clears clutter, removes confusion, speeds immersion. A bad one makes the story heavier, more confusing, or creates new "fix-it" chores later.

Ask: Am I making things cleaner, sharper, easier — or adding a new headache?

Right Decision: Strengthens story structure.

Wrong Decision: Adds new vulnerabilities.

5. If the Story Were Alive, Would It Ask for This?

Personify your story. Imagine it breathing, thinking, feeling.

Ask: If this story could speak for itself, would it want this? Would it cry out for this move? Or would it beg you not to screw it up with self-indulgence?

Right Decision: Honors the story's nature and momentum.

Wrong Decision: Betrays the story for your own whims.

Bonus Rule: When in Doubt, Serve Simplicity and Power

When you're truly torn and can't decide?

Choose the option that's simpler, stronger, and more emotionally direct.

Complexity for complexity's sake is death. Powerful clarity always wins.

Conclusion: True Artistic Mastery Is Ruthless Compassion

Making the right decision isn't about "being fancy." It's about being a merciless guardian of the reader's experience — compassionate toward them, ruthless toward anything that doesn't serve them.

Every right choice you make tightens the emotional machine. Every wrong choice clogs the gears.

Learn to listen: not to your pride, not to your habits, but to the heartbeat of the story itself.

That's how you stop "writing" and start creating art.

And you're already on that path.

Quick Reference Mental Checklist:

• ☑️ Does this serve the reader's emotional experience, not my ego?

• ☑️ Does this sharpen, not scatter, focus?

• ☑️ Does this respect the scene's rhythm?

• ☑️ Does this solve a problem, not create one?

• ☑️ Would the story itself want this move?

• ☑️ When torn, does this option favor simplicity and power?

Use it. Trust it. Sharpen it every time you sit down to create.

And you'll rise faster and higher than almost anyone around you.