January 14, 2025 • 34 mins
See how Notes to Novel™ helped these five writers go from a blank page to a story that works (without the overwhelm).
With Notes to Novel™ (season 6) right around the corner, I'm bringing you something incredibly special today. I'm chatting with five amazing writers from season 5 about their experience inside the course.
And let me tell you, they're in the trenches right now, actively working on their novels. Some have finished their outlines, while others are deep in the drafting phase, and one has already completed her manuscript!
This is what we talk about:
[02:55] How Katherine finished the “cleanest draft” she’s ever written (at 72k words) in only 3 months—and then went on to edit that same draft in just 8 weeks
[09:47] How the Notes to Novel framework helped Kay stay focused on what *really* mattered in her story (and avoid chasing every new shiny object idea that popped into her head)
[15:27] What happened when I suggested one of my students, Danyel, eliminate one of her two point-of-view characters during one of our live Q&A calls
[21:35] How Harlow used her genre’s key scenes to create an outline (and why this made outlining much more approachable)
[27:47] And finally, how Madi wrote her first draft in 6 months (despite being a super busy mom of four)—plus her thoughts on the overall vibe and atmosphere of the group coaching aspect
So, if you’re feeling stuck, flustered, or unsure about your writing process, these 5 Notes to Novel students show you what's possible when you have the right tools and support. Enjoy the episode!
🔗 Links mentioned in this episode:
- Get on the Notes to Novel™ waitlist
- Katherine Varley’s website and Threads
- Kay Aprea’s Instagram
- Danyel Nicole’s website and Instagram
- Harlow Black’s Instagram
- Madison Unruh’s Instagram
⭐ Rate + Review + Follow on Apple Podcasts
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Also, if you haven't done so already, make sure you're following the podcast! I'll be adding a bunch of bonus episodes to the feed, and if you're not following the show, there's a good chance you'll miss them.
Click here to register for my FREE training: 3 Things You Need to Write Your Novel in 2025.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
On one hand, it can be really overwhelming to absorb
so much information, andsometimes it's even harder to
know what to do, when or inwhich order to do things but
also because everyone's processor method is different, right?
So sometimes the more contentyou consume, the harder it is to
parse through everything, andwhat ends up happening to a lot
(00:22):
of writers is that they startcomparing all the different
methods to each other.
Welcome to the Fiction WritingMade Easy podcast.
My name is Savannah Gilbo andI'm here to help you write a
story that works.
I want to prove to you thatwriting a novel doesn't have to
be overwhelming, so each week,I'll bring you a brand new
episode with simple, actionableand step-by-step strategies that
(00:45):
you can implement in yourwriting right away.
So whether you're brand new towriting or more of a seasoned
author looking to improve yourcraft, this podcast is for you.
So pick up a pen and let's getstarted.
In today's episode, we're goingbehind the scenes of five
writers' journeys to see what itwas like for them as they
brainstormed, outlined and wrotetheir first draft inside the
(01:08):
Notes to Novel course.
I reached out to some of myNotes to Novel Season 5 students
and I asked them to share thenumber one thing they learned
about writing a first draftwhile actually working on their
first draft.
So in this episode, you'regoing to hear from real writers
who are in the trenches activelyworking on their novels, and in
many cases, these writers havefinished an entire outline or
(01:31):
they've written to the end oftheir first drafts.
So I think it will be very funfor you to hear how they did it,
plus some of their biggesttakeaways from their experience
and how the Notes to Novelcourse helped them get to the
end.
So, without further ado, let'sdive right into the first tip
from Katherine Varley.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Hi, I'm Katherine Varley.
I write speculative fictionthat explores what it means to
be human in technologicallyadvanced worlds.
My stories are inspired bysocietal issues and scientific
progress Think Black Mirror foroptimists.
Before I get into my big lightbulb moments, I need to explain
my writing process.
I'm a discovery writer throughand through.
(02:14):
I have wasted years attemptingto be a plotter or someone who
outlines before I write.
It just isn't how my brainworks.
I need to build the story as Iwrite it, and I'm sharing that
because I feel my experiencewith notes to novel will differ
from others who can see theirstory before writing it, and I
(02:34):
want to offer some insight tothose like me who might wonder
how a course like notes to novelcould help them.
I'm a quick drafter.
I can write a zero draft inthree weeks without a problem.
What I can't do is edit thatzero draft into what I call my
functional first draft that hasno story level issues or plot
holes.
(02:55):
I signed up for Nosta Novelspecifically for help at the
story level editing stage.
Spoiler, the course did help mewith editing, but it wasn't in
the way I thought it would be.
Before Nosta Novel, I gave upon seven manuscripts, all in the
developmental editing stage.
I would sprint to the end of myzero draft and then stall out
(03:19):
while editing.
But after going through thecourse, I made one change to my
drafting process.
It isn't exciting, but it wasoh so effective for me.
I checked in with my scenes.
Savannah urged us to write a fewscenes and then go back and
check our outlines to see whatneeded to be tweaked.
Because I didn't have anoutline already, I had to create
(03:40):
one.
As I wrote, I printed off theflexible outline worksheet that
she provided and after everywriting session I would write
two to three sentences about thescenes I had just drafted One
sentence about the external plotand one to two sentences about
the internal arc of change.
If you were like me and don'twrite chronologically, don't
worry, scenes tend to movearound in editing.
(04:02):
Just put the scene where youfeel it might belong and keep
moving forward.
After filling in my outlineworksheet for the day, I would
ask myself a couple questions.
Were my scenes moving the plotforward while providing an
internal arc of change throughthe classic goal motivation and
conflict?
And was it a key scene orleading to one?
And was it a key scene orleading to one.
(04:23):
I would also check my genrecheat sheets, also provided by
Savannah, to keep it clear in mymind what readers were
expecting of my story.
I didn't write down the answersto these questions, I just
thought about them.
If I felt that the scene wasn'tdoing what I wanted it to do, I
made a color-coded note at thestart of the scene of what I
(04:44):
would improve and then moved on.
But because I was consideringthese questions daily, they
began to subconsciously changehow I wrote.
My drafting speech slowed towhat felt like a crawl and while
I was frustrated that it wastaking longer, I knew personally
and through feedback fromcritique partners that the story
(05:06):
I was writing was much strongerthan it would have been
otherwise.
My scenes deepened and mycharacters became more vivid,
all while the story remainedcomplex without becoming
confusing.
By slowing down to check inwith my scenes and the outline I
was creating, to check in withmy scenes and the outline I was
(05:26):
creating, I ended up with thecleanest zero draft I've ever
written Not only the cleanest,but the longest.
I'm an underwriter, so this wasa big win for me.
Instead of three weeks to draft50,000 words, it took me three
months to draft 72,000.
Instead of one year to editthose 50,000 words and then
(05:47):
abandoning it out of frustration, it took me only two months to
do a developmental edit on the72,000 words.
For anyone who likes math, thismeans I went from around 2,300
words per daily writing sessionto 800.
I eliminated nine months ofpainful developmental edits,
(06:09):
while also writing less each day.
I slowed down to speed up and,for someone who loves efficiency
, that was my biggest andhappiest aha moment of the
entire course aha moment of theentire course.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I feel like Catherine just spoke to my soul when she
said that she's a fan ofefficiency because I am too.
But how cool is what she saidabout having to slow down to
speed up later.
I find this to be so true,regardless of whether you're a
planner or a pantser or maybeyou fall somewhere in the middle
of that spectrum Because moreoften than not, slowing down and
(06:52):
spending time on thosefoundational elements of your
story like plot, character,theme etc.
And then kind of mapping outhow all of those foundational
elements play together andaffect each other it can save
you so much time later on.
Just like Catherine said, shewent from writing about 50,000
words in three weeks that didn'tnecessarily work from a big
picture standpoint to writing72,000 words over three months.
(07:15):
And then not only did sheactually go through and edit
that draft, which is somethingshe had never done before she
edited those 72,000 words injust two months, which is a
major improvement, right.
So I just love that Catherineshared this as her biggest aha
or takeaway from the course,because I think this is what so
(07:36):
many writers want we're willingto put in the work, but we want
to see results from our work too.
So we want to stop gatheringdrafts on our hard drives that
never see the light of day,right.
So, yeah, very cool.
Very well said, catherine.
I also love hearing how pantsersapproach different things like
outlining and keeping in mindplot structure and things like
(07:57):
that, because the thing is, nomatter where you fall on that
plotter-pantser spectrum, you dohave to pay attention to that
stuff at some point.
Plotters do it up front,pansers typically do it after
the draft is written.
But I love what Catherine saidabout kind of keeping the
different principles or you know, the key scenes of her genre in
mind as she wrote.
So she didn't let the structureor the frameworks stifle her
(08:20):
creativity.
Instead, she used it to keepherself on track and look at the
results she got.
So, again, very cool, and I'mso thankful to Catherine for
sharing her experience with us.
If you want to get in touchwith Catherine or follow along
on her writing journey, I willpost the link to her website and
social media in the show notesNext up.
You're going to hear from KeaPriya, so let's dive into her
(08:43):
clip and see what she said aboutoutlining and writing her first
draft.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Hi, I'm Kea Priya.
I live in New Jersey and I'mcurrently working on a buddy
love worldview story.
One of my key takeaways fromthe Notes to Novels course was
the six key scenes for eachgenre.
These are the scenes thatreaders of a particular genre
expect to see when they pick upyour book.
Without these scenes, yourstory can leave the reader
feeling unsatisfied andexperience.
(09:11):
No writer wants so.
For example, in a love story,the lovers must meet, fall in
love, break up or have a majorobstacle stand in the way of
their relationship and then havea happy ending.
This is what readers of lovestories want.
It's why they read love storiesto experience falling in love
and to see love conquer all.
And in some way I think Ialready knew this, that there
(09:33):
were certain expectations thatreaders have, but for some
reason the six key scenes laidit out in a way that made
everything so clear thateverything all of a sudden
clicked into place and I knewwhere I was going in my story.
And the great thing about thesix scenes is they provide a
framework for you to hang yourstory on.
(09:54):
They provide structural supportfor you to build your story
from in whatever way you want todo it.
Before I learned about the sixkey scenes, I was struggling to
make progress with my story'soutline.
I was getting to the middle ofthe story, and then I would come
up with a thousand and onedifferent ways for the story to
move forward.
But I had no real way ofdeciding which path my story
should take, and so I just keptwandering around thinking, oh,
(10:16):
what if this happened?
Or oh, what if that happened?
Or, or what if we went here?
Or what if she said this?
But with the six key scenes, Ihave these guideposts to walk
towards, and that helped me sortthrough the thousand and one
different ways my story couldunfold.
All I had to do was ask if aparticular idea helped me move
closer to the next guidepost,and if it did not, then it might
(10:38):
be perfect for another story,but it did not belong in this
story.
And some people may find this alittle limiting, but I find it
incredibly freeing because I canbe as creative as I want,
getting between the differentguideposts, and since I have a
framework to work with, it justmakes it so much easier to get
(10:58):
the words down on paper, whetherit's in an outline or the
eventual draft, and sinceincorporating the six key scenes
into my outline, I've been ableto make so much progress.
I know where I'm going and thathas made getting there fun
again.
I know I can finish my outlineand that my initial draft, and
then I'm really looking forwardto applying the other tools I
(11:19):
learned in notes to novels as Irevise and refine my draft.
I can't thank Savannah enoughfor all of her help.
Because of the six key scenes,I'm no longer wandering around
aimlessly, feeling frustratedand stuck.
I'm well on my way to gettingmy story down on paper in a way
that works.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I love doing these type of episodes because we just
heard from Catherine, who ismore of a pantser and kind of
kept those key scenes in mind asshe wrote her draft.
And then we heard fromCatherine, who is more of a
pantser and kind of kept thosekey scenes in mind as she wrote
her draft.
And then we heard from Kay, whoused them more as guideposts to
flesh out her outline and writeher first draft.
I think it's really fascinatingto hear how different writers
use different tools to get thejob done, and I think this is
(12:00):
important for all of us to hearright.
It just proves that there's noone right way to do things and
that the tools and frameworksare there to help you accomplish
your goals, no matter how orwhen you decide to use them, and
different writers gravitatetowards different tools as well.
So for Catherine, who we heardfrom a minute ago, she talked
(12:20):
about adding in a new layer toher thought process while
writing.
So she wrote down a shortsummary at the end of each scene
she had written and then askedherself does this contribute to
the bigger story or do I need tomake a note and change
something later?
So for Catherine, just that onenew way of looking at her story
(12:40):
helped her a lot.
And then for Kay, it's like shesaid she intuitively knew how a
love story was supposed tounfold.
But then, once you get in theweeds of your idea and start
outlining and writing, it's kindof like we all get amnesia
about those things that weintuitively know.
Right, it happens to me too.
Believe it or not, I think it'sjust super hard for our brains
(13:01):
to hold on to two different waysof thinking at one time.
So if you relate to this,you're definitely not alone.
But yeah, I really love doingthese type of episodes because I
love a good look behind thescenes at how other people do
things.
So, kay, thank you so much forsharing your experience with us.
For everyone listening, I'mgoing to put the link to Kay's
website and social media in theshow notes if you want to say
(13:23):
hello or follow along with herjourney.
Next up we're going to hearfrom Danielle Nicole, so let's
dive into her clip and see whatshe said about outlining and
writing her first draft in theNotes to Novel course.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Hi there, I'm Danielle Nicole and I'm in the
first year of my novel writingjourney.
A year ago I put action to mydream of writing a fiction novel
and started the process ofoutlining it.
I love reading commercialfiction novels in the worldview,
thriller and romance genres, soI'm pretty sure that's where my
book will sit when it's done.
The very first idea for my bookwas to create a story with.
(14:00):
The very first idea for my bookwas to create a story with a
female character that otherwomen could relate to and have a
few laughs with, because theysee some of their own anxieties
or insecurities in my maincharacter as well.
The stories morph quite a bit,but making sure others can
relate to my character with herinsecurities and her mother's
intuition is important to me.
(14:21):
Early in the process I startedplotting out my scenes on a wall
in my house with butcher paper,post-it notes, markers in every
color.
For my day job I facilitatedesign thinking workshops and do
experience journey mapping, sonaturally I went to the wall and
post-its to figure out my story.
But then I soon found out thatthere was a lot to be learned
(14:43):
between plotting out my storyand sitting down to write it.
So I started reading books andfollowing podcasts like
Savannah's to learn about storystructure and I became hooked
Like really really hooked onlearning how to craft a story
that will resonate with readers,on learning how to craft a
story that will resonate withreaders.
I took Savannah's Notes toNovel course because I love how
(15:03):
she breaks down story structurein a way that just totally makes
sense, and having access to herthoughts and feedback in the
class on any questions andinquiries about our own stories
is amazing.
It was also great being in aclass with other writers who
were at different parts of theirown writing journeys.
I'm all about connecting withother writers so we can cheer
(15:27):
each other on and learn fromeach other.
From the very beginning, Ialways saw my book being written
with two very strong points ofview One as my main character
and her journey to find hercollege-age daughter who's
missing, and the second as thedaughter who is actually missing
.
That's how I came up with theconcept of the story and what
excited me about writing it.
But it wasn't until I wentthrough Savannah's course on
(15:50):
story point of view that Irealized I wasn't approaching
point of view in the best way.
I'd say.
My biggest aha moment was whenI asked Savannah how to balance
the two points of viewthroughout the story and she
came up with some feedback thatblew my mind Like I couldn't
stop thinking about it.
Savannah suggested I considerwriting with just one point of
(16:12):
view and from the protagonist'sviewpoint, to help leave the
readers more mystery aroundwhat's happening to the daughter
, like if she'll be found or ifsomething terrible has happened.
And after considering thatapproach I realized that would
actually solve a lot of theissues I was coming up against
in my writing and it got meexcited to be able to lean into
(16:32):
my main character's journey moreto find her daughter, and
hopefully that will keep readerswanting to keep turning the
pages to find out what happensat the end.
So this suggestion fromSavannah rocked my world for a
little bit, all in a good way,and I had to literally go back
to the drawing board, but itreally helped open up other
threads of interactions betweenmy key characters and it got me
(16:55):
super excited to get back towriting scenes.
When I look back, it wasnecessary for me to think about
the two different points of viewto help build out what the
missing daughter is goingthrough, what she's thinking, so
that I could visualize what'sactually happening to her.
But that didn't mean I needed towrite the story from both
points of view.
(17:16):
I have a plan to reveal thosedetails that I've already
written about later in the storyand that gets me so excited to
get to the finish line.
If Savannah hadn't lightlysuggested I reconsider my point
of view structure, I probablywould have kept going down the
path of two points of view andmy story would have probably
fallen off the rails ordefinitely would have been more
(17:38):
complicated than it needed to be.
A great piece of adviceSavannah provided on point of
view is that it's harder forreaders to establish a deep
emotional connection whenthere's multiple point of view
characters that have less pagetime, versus if you were
focusing more on them throughoutthe story.
So that advice, that change inhow I was structuring my point
(18:01):
of view across the story, reallyset me in the right direction
and for that I'm so thankful toSavannah and her Notes to Novel
class.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I love that Danielle chose to share this detail about
changing her point of viewplans, because I remember this
exact Q&A call and I rememberthinking, oh my gosh, danielle
is not going to like what I haveto say.
She is not going to want toeliminate one of her points of
view, but of course she was solovely and open to feedback and
we talked through her options,which ultimately led her to
focus on one point of viewcharacter.
(18:34):
And what's really cool aboutthese Q&A calls is it's not just
about getting my feedback.
I remember, in this particularsituation, we opened up the
question to the other writers inthe group who were on that live
call and we got their opinionson what kind of story they'd be
most interested to read as well.
So either one with a singlepoint of view or one with dual
(18:55):
point of view, like Danielle hadoriginally planned, and it's
not like Danielle had to take myadvice or what the other
writers said as kind of like ourword is law or anything.
I'm a really big advocate thatwhoever's writing the story gets
to make the decisions.
And just because I'm an editorand a book coach, that doesn't
mean you have to agree with meor take every single piece of my
(19:16):
advice, but it's always superhelpful to hear different
opinions, whether that be myopinion or the opinions of other
students in the course.
This is actually one of myfavorite things about running
the Notes to Novel program live,because we get that kind of
real-time feedback andinteraction from other writers
and readers as well.
So anyway, danielle, I'm soglad you shared this takeaway
(19:40):
and if anybody wants to followalong with Danielle's writing
journey, I will link to herwebsite and social media and
stuff like that.
In the show notes Next up we'regoing to hear from Harlow Black
, so let's go ahead and diveinto their clip and hear about
their experience inside theNotes to Novel course novel
(20:06):
course.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Hi, I'm Harlow Black and I use they, them and she her
pronouns.
I love to read queer, romanticfantasy novels and, more
recently, I like to write themtoo.
I really debated if I shouldsign up for Notes to Novel and I
hesitated because I was alreadysuch a fan of Savannah's work
that I had listened to almostevery podcast episode.
I had read her book and I hadeven bought some of her one-off
(20:31):
trainings.
Savannah puts out so muchcontent for free and I wasn't
sure if there would be enoughnew content in Notes to Novel
for it to be worth it for aSavannah superfan like me.
However, I was struggling withoverwhelm Basically every time I
sat down to write my novel, andI really wanted some structure.
(20:55):
My brain does well when I havea framework to follow,
especially when I'm doingsomething new, like writing my
first full-length book.
So I signed up, and I am veryglad I did.
This course delivered thestructure and frameworks that I
was wanting, plus so much morethat I didn't even know that I
(21:17):
needed.
I learned what I really hadwere the seeds of a story, but I
needed more content.
I needed more subplots.
I needed more characters toactually fill out a full-length
novel, and then I learned how tocreate these things.
One of the parts of Notes toNovel that was most helpful for
(21:38):
me was getting the genre cheatsheets.
So these cheat sheets tell youexactly which key scenes you
need to include in your book,based on your external and
internal genres, and they giveexamples of how other successful
books have implemented thesekey scenes.
(21:59):
These were a total game changerfor me.
Instead of looking at a blankoutline and knowing that I need
to fill in 40 scenes but notknowing which ideas to put where
, I can now use these key scenesas milestones throughout the
outline to help guide me.
(22:20):
And seeing how the key scenesmove the story along is very
helpful for me, and it made myoutline more approachable.
Instead of having to figure outa sequence of 40 scenes, I just
had to figure out which scenesmade sense to build up to a key
scene and which scenes madesense to follow a key scene, and
(22:43):
then I could just repeat thatprocess with all of the key
scenes until I had a roughoutline.
I am very excited to say that Iwas able to finish my outline a
few weeks after Notes to Novelwrapped up, and I am now working
my way through my messy roughdraft, and I am now working my
way through my messy rough draft.
(23:04):
On top of everything that Ilearned about writing, I was
struck by the thought that manyof the entrepreneurial and
coaching skills that I alreadyhave from my current job would
lend themselves well to being awriting coach.
I had never considered thiscareer path, but in doing this
program I realized that I reallywant to be a writing coach
(23:25):
myself.
So I actually just started theAuthor Accelerator book coaching
program and I hope to somedaysoon help writers like Savannah
does.
I'm really excited about thisshift in my career and I credit
this new path to my greatexperience with Savannah and
(23:45):
with her teachings in Notes toNovel.
So thank you so much, savannah.
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I love this so much.
This is the first time I'mhearing that Harlow is going to
pursue book coaching, which Ithink is amazing.
I always say it's the best jobin the world, especially if
you're a writer and a book lover.
So Harlow, that is so cool.
But something Harlow saidreally stood out to me, which is
that they had already consumeda lot of free content between
books on the craft of writing,podcasts on writing, you know.
(24:17):
Whatever it might be, but likemany other writers, harlow still
couldn't get to the end of afirst draft.
And I think this is very, verycommon, because, on one hand, it
can be really overwhelming toabsorb so much information and
sometimes it's even harder toknow what to do, when or in
which order to do things, butalso because everyone's process
(24:39):
or method is different, right?
So sometimes the more contentyou consume, the harder it is to
parse through everything.
And what ends up happening to alot of writers is that they
start comparing all thedifferent methods to each other
so, for example, comparing thesave the cat plotting method
with the hero's journey or thesnowflake method or whatever it
(24:59):
is.
And not only do each of thesemethods come with different
terminology, they might explainthings in a way that's seemingly
contradictory or confusing whenyou start comparing them.
So, for example, in Save theCat they call the inciting
incident, the catalyst, and inthe hero's journey it's called
the call to adventure.
And then one method might saythat this key plot point, this
(25:22):
inciting incident, needs tohappen at the 10% mark, while
others say it happens moretowards the 12 or 15% mark, and
it all starts to get reallyconfusing really fast.
So, anyway, the point is, Ithink what Harlow mentioned is
very common, and I'm so glad tohear that the notes, the novel
course, helped them cut throughthe noise and make so much
progress on their messy firstdraft.
(25:44):
So, harlow, thank you so muchfor sharing that, and if you're
listening and you want to followalong with Harlow's journey, I
will link to their website andsocial media in the show notes.
Okay, so last up we're going tohear from Maddie Unruh and I'm
just going to go ahead and playher clip.
I don't want to spoil anythingfor you, but make sure you stay
to the end.
I saved hers till the end for avery special reason, so let's
(26:07):
dive right in.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Hi everyone.
My name is Maddie Unruh, I am29 years old, I live in
California and I'm currentlywriting romance.
I am actually a professionalwriter.
I'm a copywriter for manydifferent businesses, so writing
has always been a big part ofmy life, but this is the first
time I've ever attempted towrite a novel.
I always knew I wanted to do itsomeday.
(26:32):
I always felt called to do it,but I had never taken that step
until I started listening toSavannah's podcast and
eventually joined the Notes toNovel course.
One of the biggest things thatNotes to Novel gave me was
really just the ability to takemyself seriously as a novelist.
I feel like signing up for thatcourse was me putting a stake
(26:53):
in the ground and saying that Ibelieved in that call in my life
and was willing to invest in itand take it seriously.
So for me that was a really bigstep and it led to me
completing my first draft, whichis so exciting.
Another big thing I got out ofthe notes novel course was the
ability to outline.
I had attempted a little bit ofnovel writing before, but I'd
(27:14):
always attempted to pants, andit turns out that outlining was
really a key to me beingsuccessful in writing a story
that worked.
So going through those modulesin the notes to novel course was
so helpful just learning how tooutline with key scenes and
conventions, how to pressuretest that outline.
It really gave me a roadmap formy writing, which was super
(27:35):
helpful because I have fourlittle kids aged one to six, and
so my writing time is verylimited, so it was so helpful to
know exactly what I needed tosit down and write at every one
of my writing sessions.
It helped me make really quickprogress and in fact I ended up
soon after taking the course,finding out that I was pregnant
(27:55):
with my fourth and last baby andI had to take a long break for
my novel about a year from theend of my pregnancy, through the
newborn phase, until I wasready to come back to it.
But thanks to my outline thatwas just pressure tested and
waiting for me, I was able topick right back up and write the
next scene as though I hadn'ttaken that break, which was so
(28:15):
helpful.
So even though I took a longbreak in the middle, thanks to
everything I learned in Notes toNovel, I was able to write my
first draft in six months ofactual writing time, which felt
like a huge accomplishment to me.
And then the last thing that Ireally got out of Notes to Novel
that I would just is.
The biggest reason probably thatI would recommend it to any
(28:36):
aspiring novelist is howpositive and fun Savannah is and
just her presence and herability to believe in you and
your story so much that youbelieve in yourself and your
story too.
I really feel like she is sogifted at being a book coach and
joining notes novel was justlike having my own little
(28:56):
cheerleader, not just empoweringme with the tools that I needed
and just so much incrediblethings that we needed to know to
write the novel, but also theencouragement that you
inevitably need along the waywhen you hit all those kind of
rough spots in novel writing.
So I loved the notes novelcourse.
I loved it so much I ended upjoining the story lab afterwards
(29:17):
and I would highly recommend itto anybody on the fence to just
go for it.
Take the chance, take your callon your life as a novelist
seriously and join Notes toNovel.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
This is so awesome and there are so many things I
want to talk about here.
Maddie had to put everything onpause to have her last baby,
but then, when she was ready,she was able to come back and
pick it right up once they allhit the newborn phase and
overall, it took her about sixmonths to finish her first draft
.
All of that is amazing.
So way to go, maddie.
I love all of that so much, butI wanted to end with Maddie's
(29:53):
tip for a reason, and it'sexactly what she said at the end
there.
She said take the chance,answer the call and start taking
yourself seriously as anovelist, and I want to echo
that statement because, althoughit sounds simple, it can be
anything but simple to claimyour space as a capital, a
author.
But I hope, if you're listeningand if this clip in particular,
(30:15):
resonated with you, I hope youtake inspiration from Maddie's
story and the other storiesshared today, and I hope you
feel empowered and encouraged tostake your claim, call yourself
a writer and take your storyseriously, because you can and
you deserve to.
So, with that being said, Iwant to extend a big thank you
to Catherine Kay, danielleHarlow and Maddie for sharing
their stories and theirexperience inside the Notes to
(30:37):
Novel course.
I truly appreciate each one ofyou.
A big thank you to Catherine,kay, danielle, harlow and Maddie
for sharing their stories andtheir experience inside the
Notes to Novel course.
I truly appreciate each one ofyou so very much and for my
listeners, if you enjoyed thisepisode, go check out the social
media or the websites of allthe different writers we had on
the show today.
Say hello, give them a highfive for sharing their stories,
(30:57):
struggles and aha moments withus and let them know how this
episode has affected you.
I'm sure they would absolutelylove to hear from you and if
you're interested in signing upfor my Notes to Novel course,
enrollment for the next livecohort opens from January 21st
through January 30th.
I would be so thrilled to haveyou join us so you can learn
(31:18):
more and enroll atsavannagilbocom forward slash
yes.
One more time that'ssavannagilbocom, forward, slash
yes.
And hopefully I will see youinside the course.
So that's it for today's episode.
As always, thank you so muchfor tuning in and for showing
(31:39):
your support.
If you want to check out any ofthe links I mentioned in this
episode, you can find them inthe show notes listed in the
description of each episodeinside your podcast player or at
savannahgilbocom forward slashpodcast.
If you're an Apple user, I'dreally appreciate it if you took
a few seconds to leave a ratingand a review.
Your ratings and reviews tellApple that this is a podcast
(32:00):
that's worth listening to and,in turn, your reviews will help
this podcast get in front ofmore fiction writers just like
you.
And while you're there, goahead and hit that follow button
, because there's going to beanother brand new episode next
week, full of actionable tips,tools and strategies to help you
become a better writer.
So I'll see you next week anduntil then, happy writing.
On one hand, it can be really overwhelming to absorb
so much information, andsometimes it's even harder to
know what to do, when or inwhich order to do things but
also because everyone's processor method is different, right?
So sometimes the more contentyou consume, the harder it is to
parse through everything, andwhat ends up happening to a lot
(00:22):
of writers is that they startcomparing all the different
methods to each other.
Welcome to the Fiction WritingMade Easy podcast.
My name is Savannah Gilbo andI'm here to help you write a
story that works.
I want to prove to you thatwriting a novel doesn't have to
be overwhelming, so each week,I'll bring you a brand new
episode with simple, actionableand step-by-step strategies that
(00:45):
you can implement in yourwriting right away.
So whether you're brand new towriting or more of a seasoned
author looking to improve yourcraft, this podcast is for you.
So pick up a pen and let's getstarted.
In today's episode, we're goingbehind the scenes of five
writers' journeys to see what itwas like for them as they
brainstormed, outlined and wrotetheir first draft inside the
(01:08):
Notes to Novel course.
I reached out to some of myNotes to Novel Season 5 students
and I asked them to share thenumber one thing they learned
about writing a first draftwhile actually working on their
first draft.
So in this episode, you'regoing to hear from real writers
who are in the trenches activelyworking on their novels, and in
many cases, these writers havefinished an entire outline or
(01:31):
they've written to the end oftheir first drafts.
So I think it will be very funfor you to hear how they did it,
plus some of their biggesttakeaways from their experience
and how the Notes to Novelcourse helped them get to the
end.
So, without further ado, let'sdive right into the first tip
from Katherine Varley.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
Hi, I'm Katherine Varley.
I write speculative fictionthat explores what it means to
be human in technologicallyadvanced worlds.
My stories are inspired bysocietal issues and scientific
progress Think Black Mirror foroptimists.
Before I get into my big lightbulb moments, I need to explain
my writing process.
I'm a discovery writer throughand through.
(02:14):
I have wasted years attemptingto be a plotter or someone who
outlines before I write.
It just isn't how my brainworks.
I need to build the story as Iwrite it, and I'm sharing that
because I feel my experiencewith notes to novel will differ
from others who can see theirstory before writing it, and I
(02:34):
want to offer some insight tothose like me who might wonder
how a course like notes to novelcould help them.
I'm a quick drafter.
I can write a zero draft inthree weeks without a problem.
What I can't do is edit thatzero draft into what I call my
functional first draft that hasno story level issues or plot
holes.
(02:55):
I signed up for Nosta Novelspecifically for help at the
story level editing stage.
Spoiler, the course did help mewith editing, but it wasn't in
the way I thought it would be.
Before Nosta Novel, I gave upon seven manuscripts, all in the
developmental editing stage.
I would sprint to the end of myzero draft and then stall out
(03:19):
while editing.
But after going through thecourse, I made one change to my
drafting process.
It isn't exciting, but it wasoh so effective for me.
I checked in with my scenes.
Savannah urged us to write a fewscenes and then go back and
check our outlines to see whatneeded to be tweaked.
Because I didn't have anoutline already, I had to create
(03:40):
one.
As I wrote, I printed off theflexible outline worksheet that
she provided and after everywriting session I would write
two to three sentences about thescenes I had just drafted One
sentence about the external plotand one to two sentences about
the internal arc of change.
If you were like me and don'twrite chronologically, don't
worry, scenes tend to movearound in editing.
(04:02):
Just put the scene where youfeel it might belong and keep
moving forward.
After filling in my outlineworksheet for the day, I would
ask myself a couple questions.
Were my scenes moving the plotforward while providing an
internal arc of change throughthe classic goal motivation and
conflict?
And was it a key scene orleading to one?
And was it a key scene orleading to one.
(04:23):
I would also check my genrecheat sheets, also provided by
Savannah, to keep it clear in mymind what readers were
expecting of my story.
I didn't write down the answersto these questions, I just
thought about them.
If I felt that the scene wasn'tdoing what I wanted it to do, I
made a color-coded note at thestart of the scene of what I
(04:44):
would improve and then moved on.
But because I was consideringthese questions daily, they
began to subconsciously changehow I wrote.
My drafting speech slowed towhat felt like a crawl and while
I was frustrated that it wastaking longer, I knew personally
and through feedback fromcritique partners that the story
(05:06):
I was writing was much strongerthan it would have been
otherwise.
My scenes deepened and mycharacters became more vivid,
all while the story remainedcomplex without becoming
confusing.
By slowing down to check inwith my scenes and the outline I
was creating, to check in withmy scenes and the outline I was
(05:26):
creating, I ended up with thecleanest zero draft I've ever
written Not only the cleanest,but the longest.
I'm an underwriter, so this wasa big win for me.
Instead of three weeks to draft50,000 words, it took me three
months to draft 72,000.
Instead of one year to editthose 50,000 words and then
(05:47):
abandoning it out of frustration, it took me only two months to
do a developmental edit on the72,000 words.
For anyone who likes math, thismeans I went from around 2,300
words per daily writing sessionto 800.
I eliminated nine months ofpainful developmental edits,
(06:09):
while also writing less each day.
I slowed down to speed up and,for someone who loves efficiency
, that was my biggest andhappiest aha moment of the
entire course aha moment of theentire course.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I feel like Catherine just spoke to my soul when she
said that she's a fan ofefficiency because I am too.
But how cool is what she saidabout having to slow down to
speed up later.
I find this to be so true,regardless of whether you're a
planner or a pantser or maybeyou fall somewhere in the middle
of that spectrum Because moreoften than not, slowing down and
(06:52):
spending time on thosefoundational elements of your
story like plot, character,theme etc.
And then kind of mapping outhow all of those foundational
elements play together andaffect each other it can save
you so much time later on.
Just like Catherine said, shewent from writing about 50,000
words in three weeks that didn'tnecessarily work from a big
picture standpoint to writing72,000 words over three months.
(07:15):
And then not only did sheactually go through and edit
that draft, which is somethingshe had never done before she
edited those 72,000 words injust two months, which is a
major improvement, right.
So I just love that Catherineshared this as her biggest aha
or takeaway from the course,because I think this is what so
(07:36):
many writers want we're willingto put in the work, but we want
to see results from our work too.
So we want to stop gatheringdrafts on our hard drives that
never see the light of day,right.
So, yeah, very cool.
Very well said, catherine.
I also love hearing how pantsersapproach different things like
outlining and keeping in mindplot structure and things like
(07:57):
that, because the thing is, nomatter where you fall on that
plotter-pantser spectrum, you dohave to pay attention to that
stuff at some point.
Plotters do it up front,pansers typically do it after
the draft is written.
But I love what Catherine saidabout kind of keeping the
different principles or you know, the key scenes of her genre in
mind as she wrote.
So she didn't let the structureor the frameworks stifle her
(08:20):
creativity.
Instead, she used it to keepherself on track and look at the
results she got.
So, again, very cool, and I'mso thankful to Catherine for
sharing her experience with us.
If you want to get in touchwith Catherine or follow along
on her writing journey, I willpost the link to her website and
social media in the show notesNext up.
You're going to hear from KeaPriya, so let's dive into her
(08:43):
clip and see what she said aboutoutlining and writing her first
draft.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Hi, I'm Kea Priya.
I live in New Jersey and I'mcurrently working on a buddy
love worldview story.
One of my key takeaways fromthe Notes to Novels course was
the six key scenes for eachgenre.
These are the scenes thatreaders of a particular genre
expect to see when they pick upyour book.
Without these scenes, yourstory can leave the reader
feeling unsatisfied andexperience.
(09:11):
No writer wants so.
For example, in a love story,the lovers must meet, fall in
love, break up or have a majorobstacle stand in the way of
their relationship and then havea happy ending.
This is what readers of lovestories want.
It's why they read love storiesto experience falling in love
and to see love conquer all.
And in some way I think Ialready knew this, that there
(09:33):
were certain expectations thatreaders have, but for some
reason the six key scenes laidit out in a way that made
everything so clear thateverything all of a sudden
clicked into place and I knewwhere I was going in my story.
And the great thing about thesix scenes is they provide a
framework for you to hang yourstory on.
(09:54):
They provide structural supportfor you to build your story
from in whatever way you want todo it.
Before I learned about the sixkey scenes, I was struggling to
make progress with my story'soutline.
I was getting to the middle ofthe story, and then I would come
up with a thousand and onedifferent ways for the story to
move forward.
But I had no real way ofdeciding which path my story
should take, and so I just keptwandering around thinking, oh,
(10:16):
what if this happened?
Or oh, what if that happened?
Or, or what if we went here?
Or what if she said this?
But with the six key scenes, Ihave these guideposts to walk
towards, and that helped me sortthrough the thousand and one
different ways my story couldunfold.
All I had to do was ask if aparticular idea helped me move
closer to the next guidepost,and if it did not, then it might
(10:38):
be perfect for another story,but it did not belong in this
story.
And some people may find this alittle limiting, but I find it
incredibly freeing because I canbe as creative as I want,
getting between the differentguideposts, and since I have a
framework to work with, it justmakes it so much easier to get
(10:58):
the words down on paper, whetherit's in an outline or the
eventual draft, and sinceincorporating the six key scenes
into my outline, I've been ableto make so much progress.
I know where I'm going and thathas made getting there fun
again.
I know I can finish my outlineand that my initial draft, and
then I'm really looking forwardto applying the other tools I
(11:19):
learned in notes to novels as Irevise and refine my draft.
I can't thank Savannah enoughfor all of her help.
Because of the six key scenes,I'm no longer wandering around
aimlessly, feeling frustratedand stuck.
I'm well on my way to gettingmy story down on paper in a way
that works.
Speaker 1 (11:38):
I love doing these type of episodes because we just
heard from Catherine, who ismore of a pantser and kind of
kept those key scenes in mind asshe wrote her draft.
And then we heard fromCatherine, who is more of a
pantser and kind of kept thosekey scenes in mind as she wrote
her draft.
And then we heard from Kay, whoused them more as guideposts to
flesh out her outline and writeher first draft.
I think it's really fascinatingto hear how different writers
use different tools to get thejob done, and I think this is
(12:00):
important for all of us to hearright.
It just proves that there's noone right way to do things and
that the tools and frameworksare there to help you accomplish
your goals, no matter how orwhen you decide to use them, and
different writers gravitatetowards different tools as well.
So for Catherine, who we heardfrom a minute ago, she talked
(12:20):
about adding in a new layer toher thought process while
writing.
So she wrote down a shortsummary at the end of each scene
she had written and then askedherself does this contribute to
the bigger story or do I need tomake a note and change
something later?
So for Catherine, just that onenew way of looking at her story
(12:40):
helped her a lot.
And then for Kay, it's like shesaid she intuitively knew how a
love story was supposed tounfold.
But then, once you get in theweeds of your idea and start
outlining and writing, it's kindof like we all get amnesia
about those things that weintuitively know.
Right, it happens to me too.
Believe it or not, I think it'sjust super hard for our brains
(13:01):
to hold on to two different waysof thinking at one time.
So if you relate to this,you're definitely not alone.
But yeah, I really love doingthese type of episodes because I
love a good look behind thescenes at how other people do
things.
So, kay, thank you so much forsharing your experience with us.
For everyone listening, I'mgoing to put the link to Kay's
website and social media in theshow notes if you want to say
(13:23):
hello or follow along with herjourney.
Next up we're going to hearfrom Danielle Nicole, so let's
dive into her clip and see whatshe said about outlining and
writing her first draft in theNotes to Novel course.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
Hi there, I'm Danielle Nicole and I'm in the
first year of my novel writingjourney.
A year ago I put action to mydream of writing a fiction novel
and started the process ofoutlining it.
I love reading commercialfiction novels in the worldview,
thriller and romance genres, soI'm pretty sure that's where my
book will sit when it's done.
The very first idea for my bookwas to create a story with.
(14:00):
The very first idea for my bookwas to create a story with a
female character that otherwomen could relate to and have a
few laughs with, because theysee some of their own anxieties
or insecurities in my maincharacter as well.
The stories morph quite a bit,but making sure others can
relate to my character with herinsecurities and her mother's
intuition is important to me.
(14:21):
Early in the process I startedplotting out my scenes on a wall
in my house with butcher paper,post-it notes, markers in every
color.
For my day job I facilitatedesign thinking workshops and do
experience journey mapping, sonaturally I went to the wall and
post-its to figure out my story.
But then I soon found out thatthere was a lot to be learned
(14:43):
between plotting out my storyand sitting down to write it.
So I started reading books andfollowing podcasts like
Savannah's to learn about storystructure and I became hooked
Like really really hooked onlearning how to craft a story
that will resonate with readers,on learning how to craft a
story that will resonate withreaders.
I took Savannah's Notes toNovel course because I love how
(15:03):
she breaks down story structurein a way that just totally makes
sense, and having access to herthoughts and feedback in the
class on any questions andinquiries about our own stories
is amazing.
It was also great being in aclass with other writers who
were at different parts of theirown writing journeys.
I'm all about connecting withother writers so we can cheer
(15:27):
each other on and learn fromeach other.
From the very beginning, Ialways saw my book being written
with two very strong points ofview One as my main character
and her journey to find hercollege-age daughter who's
missing, and the second as thedaughter who is actually missing
.
That's how I came up with theconcept of the story and what
excited me about writing it.
But it wasn't until I wentthrough Savannah's course on
(15:50):
story point of view that Irealized I wasn't approaching
point of view in the best way.
I'd say.
My biggest aha moment was whenI asked Savannah how to balance
the two points of viewthroughout the story and she
came up with some feedback thatblew my mind Like I couldn't
stop thinking about it.
Savannah suggested I considerwriting with just one point of
(16:12):
view and from the protagonist'sviewpoint, to help leave the
readers more mystery aroundwhat's happening to the daughter
, like if she'll be found or ifsomething terrible has happened.
And after considering thatapproach I realized that would
actually solve a lot of theissues I was coming up against
in my writing and it got meexcited to be able to lean into
(16:32):
my main character's journey moreto find her daughter, and
hopefully that will keep readerswanting to keep turning the
pages to find out what happensat the end.
So this suggestion fromSavannah rocked my world for a
little bit, all in a good way,and I had to literally go back
to the drawing board, but itreally helped open up other
threads of interactions betweenmy key characters and it got me
(16:55):
super excited to get back towriting scenes.
When I look back, it wasnecessary for me to think about
the two different points of viewto help build out what the
missing daughter is goingthrough, what she's thinking, so
that I could visualize what'sactually happening to her.
But that didn't mean I needed towrite the story from both
points of view.
(17:16):
I have a plan to reveal thosedetails that I've already
written about later in the storyand that gets me so excited to
get to the finish line.
If Savannah hadn't lightlysuggested I reconsider my point
of view structure, I probablywould have kept going down the
path of two points of view andmy story would have probably
fallen off the rails ordefinitely would have been more
(17:38):
complicated than it needed to be.
A great piece of adviceSavannah provided on point of
view is that it's harder forreaders to establish a deep
emotional connection whenthere's multiple point of view
characters that have less pagetime, versus if you were
focusing more on them throughoutthe story.
So that advice, that change inhow I was structuring my point
(18:01):
of view across the story, reallyset me in the right direction
and for that I'm so thankful toSavannah and her Notes to Novel
class.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
I love that Danielle chose to share this detail about
changing her point of viewplans, because I remember this
exact Q&A call and I rememberthinking, oh my gosh, danielle
is not going to like what I haveto say.
She is not going to want toeliminate one of her points of
view, but of course she was solovely and open to feedback and
we talked through her options,which ultimately led her to
focus on one point of viewcharacter.
(18:34):
And what's really cool aboutthese Q&A calls is it's not just
about getting my feedback.
I remember, in this particularsituation, we opened up the
question to the other writers inthe group who were on that live
call and we got their opinionson what kind of story they'd be
most interested to read as well.
So either one with a singlepoint of view or one with dual
(18:55):
point of view, like Danielle hadoriginally planned, and it's
not like Danielle had to take myadvice or what the other
writers said as kind of like ourword is law or anything.
I'm a really big advocate thatwhoever's writing the story gets
to make the decisions.
And just because I'm an editorand a book coach, that doesn't
mean you have to agree with meor take every single piece of my
(19:16):
advice, but it's always superhelpful to hear different
opinions, whether that be myopinion or the opinions of other
students in the course.
This is actually one of myfavorite things about running
the Notes to Novel program live,because we get that kind of
real-time feedback andinteraction from other writers
and readers as well.
So anyway, danielle, I'm soglad you shared this takeaway
(19:40):
and if anybody wants to followalong with Danielle's writing
journey, I will link to herwebsite and social media and
stuff like that.
In the show notes Next up we'regoing to hear from Harlow Black
, so let's go ahead and diveinto their clip and hear about
their experience inside theNotes to Novel course novel
(20:06):
course.
Speaker 5 (20:07):
Hi, I'm Harlow Black and I use they, them and she her
pronouns.
I love to read queer, romanticfantasy novels and, more
recently, I like to write themtoo.
I really debated if I shouldsign up for Notes to Novel and I
hesitated because I was alreadysuch a fan of Savannah's work
that I had listened to almostevery podcast episode.
I had read her book and I hadeven bought some of her one-off
(20:31):
trainings.
Savannah puts out so muchcontent for free and I wasn't
sure if there would be enoughnew content in Notes to Novel
for it to be worth it for aSavannah superfan like me.
However, I was struggling withoverwhelm Basically every time I
sat down to write my novel, andI really wanted some structure.
(20:55):
My brain does well when I havea framework to follow,
especially when I'm doingsomething new, like writing my
first full-length book.
So I signed up, and I am veryglad I did.
This course delivered thestructure and frameworks that I
was wanting, plus so much morethat I didn't even know that I
(21:17):
needed.
I learned what I really hadwere the seeds of a story, but I
needed more content.
I needed more subplots.
I needed more characters toactually fill out a full-length
novel, and then I learned how tocreate these things.
One of the parts of Notes toNovel that was most helpful for
(21:38):
me was getting the genre cheatsheets.
So these cheat sheets tell youexactly which key scenes you
need to include in your book,based on your external and
internal genres, and they giveexamples of how other successful
books have implemented thesekey scenes.
(21:59):
These were a total game changerfor me.
Instead of looking at a blankoutline and knowing that I need
to fill in 40 scenes but notknowing which ideas to put where
, I can now use these key scenesas milestones throughout the
outline to help guide me.
(22:20):
And seeing how the key scenesmove the story along is very
helpful for me, and it made myoutline more approachable.
Instead of having to figure outa sequence of 40 scenes, I just
had to figure out which scenesmade sense to build up to a key
scene and which scenes madesense to follow a key scene, and
(22:43):
then I could just repeat thatprocess with all of the key
scenes until I had a roughoutline.
I am very excited to say that Iwas able to finish my outline a
few weeks after Notes to Novelwrapped up, and I am now working
my way through my messy roughdraft, and I am now working my
way through my messy rough draft.
(23:04):
On top of everything that Ilearned about writing, I was
struck by the thought that manyof the entrepreneurial and
coaching skills that I alreadyhave from my current job would
lend themselves well to being awriting coach.
I had never considered thiscareer path, but in doing this
program I realized that I reallywant to be a writing coach
(23:25):
myself.
So I actually just started theAuthor Accelerator book coaching
program and I hope to somedaysoon help writers like Savannah
does.
I'm really excited about thisshift in my career and I credit
this new path to my greatexperience with Savannah and
(23:45):
with her teachings in Notes toNovel.
So thank you so much, savannah.
I really appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
I love this so much.
This is the first time I'mhearing that Harlow is going to
pursue book coaching, which Ithink is amazing.
I always say it's the best jobin the world, especially if
you're a writer and a book lover.
So Harlow, that is so cool.
But something Harlow saidreally stood out to me, which is
that they had already consumeda lot of free content between
books on the craft of writing,podcasts on writing, you know.
(24:17):
Whatever it might be, but likemany other writers, harlow still
couldn't get to the end of afirst draft.
And I think this is very, verycommon, because, on one hand, it
can be really overwhelming toabsorb so much information and
sometimes it's even harder toknow what to do, when or in
which order to do things, butalso because everyone's process
(24:39):
or method is different, right?
So sometimes the more contentyou consume, the harder it is to
parse through everything.
And what ends up happening to alot of writers is that they
start comparing all thedifferent methods to each other
so, for example, comparing thesave the cat plotting method
with the hero's journey or thesnowflake method or whatever it
(24:59):
is.
And not only do each of thesemethods come with different
terminology, they might explainthings in a way that's seemingly
contradictory or confusing whenyou start comparing them.
So, for example, in Save theCat they call the inciting
incident, the catalyst, and inthe hero's journey it's called
the call to adventure.
And then one method might saythat this key plot point, this
(25:22):
inciting incident, needs tohappen at the 10% mark, while
others say it happens moretowards the 12 or 15% mark, and
it all starts to get reallyconfusing really fast.
So, anyway, the point is, Ithink what Harlow mentioned is
very common, and I'm so glad tohear that the notes, the novel
course, helped them cut throughthe noise and make so much
progress on their messy firstdraft.
(25:44):
So, harlow, thank you so muchfor sharing that, and if you're
listening and you want to followalong with Harlow's journey, I
will link to their website andsocial media in the show notes.
Okay, so last up we're going tohear from Maddie Unruh and I'm
just going to go ahead and playher clip.
I don't want to spoil anythingfor you, but make sure you stay
to the end.
I saved hers till the end for avery special reason, so let's
(26:07):
dive right in.
Speaker 6 (26:11):
Hi everyone.
My name is Maddie Unruh, I am29 years old, I live in
California and I'm currentlywriting romance.
I am actually a professionalwriter.
I'm a copywriter for manydifferent businesses, so writing
has always been a big part ofmy life, but this is the first
time I've ever attempted towrite a novel.
I always knew I wanted to do itsomeday.
(26:32):
I always felt called to do it,but I had never taken that step
until I started listening toSavannah's podcast and
eventually joined the Notes toNovel course.
One of the biggest things thatNotes to Novel gave me was
really just the ability to takemyself seriously as a novelist.
I feel like signing up for thatcourse was me putting a stake
(26:53):
in the ground and saying that Ibelieved in that call in my life
and was willing to invest in itand take it seriously.
So for me that was a really bigstep and it led to me
completing my first draft, whichis so exciting.
Another big thing I got out ofthe notes novel course was the
ability to outline.
I had attempted a little bit ofnovel writing before, but I'd
(27:14):
always attempted to pants, andit turns out that outlining was
really a key to me beingsuccessful in writing a story
that worked.
So going through those modulesin the notes to novel course was
so helpful just learning how tooutline with key scenes and
conventions, how to pressuretest that outline.
It really gave me a roadmap formy writing, which was super
(27:35):
helpful because I have fourlittle kids aged one to six, and
so my writing time is verylimited, so it was so helpful to
know exactly what I needed tosit down and write at every one
of my writing sessions.
It helped me make really quickprogress and in fact I ended up
soon after taking the course,finding out that I was pregnant
(27:55):
with my fourth and last baby andI had to take a long break for
my novel about a year from theend of my pregnancy, through the
newborn phase, until I wasready to come back to it.
But thanks to my outline thatwas just pressure tested and
waiting for me, I was able topick right back up and write the
next scene as though I hadn'ttaken that break, which was so
(28:15):
helpful.
So even though I took a longbreak in the middle, thanks to
everything I learned in Notes toNovel, I was able to write my
first draft in six months ofactual writing time, which felt
like a huge accomplishment to me.
And then the last thing that Ireally got out of Notes to Novel
that I would just is.
The biggest reason probably thatI would recommend it to any
(28:36):
aspiring novelist is howpositive and fun Savannah is and
just her presence and herability to believe in you and
your story so much that youbelieve in yourself and your
story too.
I really feel like she is sogifted at being a book coach and
joining notes novel was justlike having my own little
(28:56):
cheerleader, not just empoweringme with the tools that I needed
and just so much incrediblethings that we needed to know to
write the novel, but also theencouragement that you
inevitably need along the waywhen you hit all those kind of
rough spots in novel writing.
So I loved the notes novelcourse.
I loved it so much I ended upjoining the story lab afterwards
(29:17):
and I would highly recommend itto anybody on the fence to just
go for it.
Take the chance, take your callon your life as a novelist
seriously and join Notes toNovel.
Speaker 1 (29:30):
This is so awesome and there are so many things I
want to talk about here.
Maddie had to put everything onpause to have her last baby,
but then, when she was ready,she was able to come back and
pick it right up once they allhit the newborn phase and
overall, it took her about sixmonths to finish her first draft
.
All of that is amazing.
So way to go, maddie.
I love all of that so much, butI wanted to end with Maddie's
(29:53):
tip for a reason, and it'sexactly what she said at the end
there.
She said take the chance,answer the call and start taking
yourself seriously as anovelist, and I want to echo
that statement because, althoughit sounds simple, it can be
anything but simple to claimyour space as a capital, a
author.
But I hope, if you're listeningand if this clip in particular,
(30:15):
resonated with you, I hope youtake inspiration from Maddie's
story and the other storiesshared today, and I hope you
feel empowered and encouraged tostake your claim, call yourself
a writer and take your storyseriously, because you can and
you deserve to.
So, with that being said, Iwant to extend a big thank you
to Catherine Kay, danielleHarlow and Maddie for sharing
their stories and theirexperience inside the Notes to
(30:37):
Novel course.
I truly appreciate each one ofyou.
A big thank you to Catherine,kay, danielle, harlow and Maddie
for sharing their stories andtheir experience inside the
Notes to Novel course.
I truly appreciate each one ofyou so very much and for my
listeners, if you enjoyed thisepisode, go check out the social
media or the websites of allthe different writers we had on
the show today.
Say hello, give them a highfive for sharing their stories,
(30:57):
struggles and aha moments withus and let them know how this
episode has affected you.
I'm sure they would absolutelylove to hear from you and if
you're interested in signing upfor my Notes to Novel course,
enrollment for the next livecohort opens from January 21st
through January 30th.
I would be so thrilled to haveyou join us so you can learn
(31:18):
more and enroll atsavannagilbocom forward slash
yes.
One more time that'ssavannagilbocom, forward, slash
yes.
And hopefully I will see youinside the course.
So that's it for today's episode.
As always, thank you so muchfor tuning in and for showing
(31:39):
your support.
If you want to check out any ofthe links I mentioned in this
episode, you can find them inthe show notes listed in the
description of each episodeinside your podcast player or at
savannahgilbocom forward slashpodcast.
If you're an Apple user, I'dreally appreciate it if you took
a few seconds to leave a ratingand a review.
Your ratings and reviews tellApple that this is a podcast
(32:00):
that's worth listening to and,in turn, your reviews will help
this podcast get in front ofmore fiction writers just like
you.
And while you're there, goahead and hit that follow button
, because there's going to beanother brand new episode next
week, full of actionable tips,tools and strategies to help you
become a better writer.
So I'll see you next week anduntil then, happy writing.
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