December 2, 2025 • 24 mins
Discover the mindset shifts to break out of analysis paralysis, choose progress over perfection, and build your novel layer by layer until it's complete.
Feeling stuck writing your novel? You're not alone. Most writers think they're struggling because they don't have enough time, talent, or discipline. But more often than not, the real issue is actually mindset. In fact, it's the root cause of stuckness: rewriting the same chapters, second-guessing every decision, or trying to fix everything at once.
In this episode, I’m sharing three mindset shifts that'll ease the pressure you're putting on yourself, help you get clarity on your draft, and write forward instead of sideways.
You will hear me talk about things like:
[03:15] Why getting stuck on the first few chapters is more about how you're thinking than how you're writing, and what to pay attention to instead.
[06:45] How preparing, planning, and researching can quietly stall your first draft, and the moment you know it's time to switch into writing mode.
[12:05] The reason drafting feels overwhelming when you try to fix everything at once, and the reframe that makes finishing your story feel doable.
If you've been feeling pressure to get everything right before you can move forward, these shifts will help you see your draft in a much clearer and more manageable way.
Your story doesn’t need perfection to grow; it's allowed to be messy while you figure things out.
🔗 Links mentioned in this episode:
- Get on the Notes to Novel waitlist!
- Take The Author Success Blueprint Quiz
- 5 Writing Roadblocks Keeping You Stuck & How to Break Through
⭐ Follow & Review
If you loved this episode, please take a moment to follow the show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your review will help other writers find this podcast and get the insights they need to finish their books. Thanks for tuning in to The Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast! See you next week!
👉 Looking for a transcript? If you’re listening on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, scroll down below the episode player until you see the transcript.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (02:02):
And when you're trying to juggle plot and prose
and theme and character all atonce, you're doing this as well.
You're trying to write afinished, polished, layered
novel in one single draft.
And the reason that this doesnot work is because again,
writing a novel is not a linearprocess.
It is an iterative process inwhich you make decisions, you
(02:23):
test those decisions, you seewhat works, you adjust, and then
you build on what's strong, youfix what is weak, and you
clarify what is muddy.
But you can only do that if youhave something to work with, and
that something is a completedraft.
Welcome to the Fiction WritingMade Easy Podcast.
My name is Savannah Gilbo, andI'm here to help you write a
(02:45):
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 abrand new episode with simple,
actionable, and step-by-stepstrategies that you can
implement in your writing rightaway.
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.
(03:07):
In today's episode, I'm sharingthree powerful mindset shifts
that every writer needs to makein order to finish their drafts.
Whether you're just starting outwith your very first story idea
or have a folder full ofunfinished drafts, these shifts
are the key to writing forwardand finishing your first draft
with confidence.
And I wanted to tackle thistopic today because if you're
(03:28):
like most of the writers I talkto, you probably have a handful
of opening chapters collectingdigital dust in a folder on your
computer, or you have threedifferent versions of chapter
one, or maybe you have anoutline that felt great for
about a week and then suddenlydidn't feel right anymore.
Or maybe you keep getting to thesame spot in your story, usually
(03:49):
somewhere around the first actor the beginning of the middle
of your story, and theneverything starts to slow down
and fall apart.
If any of these scenarios soundfamiliar, I want you to know
you're not alone.
These are some of the mostcommon patterns I see with
writers, especially those whoare embarking on their first
draft.
And when you find yourself stuckin situations like this, it's so
(04:10):
easy to make these situationsmean something about you.
So it's really easy to thinksomething like, well, if I were
really a writer, I would havefinished my draft by now.
Or other people seem to get thisfigured out.
Maybe I just don't have what ittakes, right?
It's really easy to go intothose mindset spirals.
So before we go any further, andbefore I share the three mindset
(04:32):
shifts with you, I want to saythis as clearly as I can.
You are not the problem.
Your talent is not the problem.
What usually needs to change isjust the way you're thinking
about the drafting process,which is what we're going to
talk about in this episode.
So today I'm going to walk youthrough three mindset shifts
that will help you write forwardinstead of writing in circles.
(04:54):
And these are the exact mindsetshifts I've watched transform
stuck and frustrated writersinto people who actually finish
their books.
So if you have a folder full ofabandoned drafts or if you're
already worried that you'regoing to stall out again on your
most current project, then graba pen, because we're going to
dig into what's really going onbeneath the surface and what to
(05:15):
do instead.
So without further ado, let'sdive right into mindset shift
number one.
The first mindset shift that Iwant you to make that will help
you get to the end of your draftis to embrace progress over
perfection.
Now you've probably heard me saythis on the podcast before, but
your first draft only has onejob, and that is to exist.
Its only job is to help you getyour ideas out of your head and
(05:37):
onto the page.
But most writers don't treattheir first drafts this way.
What ends up happening is theywrite chapter one, they read it
back, they don't like it, and sothey revise it.
Then a few days pass and theyend up revising it again.
Maybe they change the openingparagraph or they rewrite the
first couple of lines, maybethey even tweak the dialogue or
do another pass on the prose,whatever it is, and then at some
(05:59):
point they feel okay enough tomove on to the next chapter.
But as soon as they moveforward, the pattern pops up
again.
So they get a few pages in, thatcritical voice pops up and says
the whole thing's terrible, it'snot good enough yet, and so they
go back and fix it and maybeeven go back to chapter one
before making any furtherprogress forward.
If you can relate to this, Iwant you to know it's very
(06:20):
common.
And I think this instinct comesfrom a really good place.
It means you care about yourstory, you want it to be the
best it can be, and you wantwhat's on the page to match the
vision that's in your head.
And there is nothing wrong withthat.
That's a great goal.
So the problem is not that youcare this deeply about your
story.
It's where you're putting thatcare in the process.
(06:40):
And what I mean by that is whenyou keep looping over your
opening chapters, trying to getthem perfect, you're trying to
perfect your story before youeven know what the whole thing
looks like.
And because you don't know whatthe whole thing looks like,
you're not going to know what'simportant or not important, or
what revisions actually matterversus which ones don't.
So you really do need a wholestory, beginning, middle, and
(07:04):
end, before you can see what'sworking, what's missing, and
what needs to change.
One of my notes to novelstudents, Jenny, is a really
good example of this.
So she spent, I think it was 12years caught in this cycle of
writing a few chapters, decidingthey weren't good enough, and
starting over again and againand again.
She cared so much about gettingit right that she couldn't move
(07:25):
forward until her openingchapters felt strong.
But what finally changed forJenny is embracing this mindset
shift of progress overperfection.
So she gave herself permissionto write a messy draft all the
way through.
And guess what happened?
She finished the whole thing insix months.
Was it perfect?
No, of course not, because nofirst drafts ever are, but it
(07:45):
was a real draft, and once itwas real, then she could finally
see what her story was reallyabout, what was already working,
and what needed to improve.
So that clarity that she'd beenchasing for over a decade came
after she finished her draft,not from perfecting those
opening chapters.
So the first mindset shift Iwant you to embrace is the idea
(08:05):
of progress over perfection,forward movement before
beautiful prose.
I want you to get the story downfirst and then worry about
making it good later.
And if it helps to have languagefor this, you can literally say
to yourself, I am not writing myfull completed book today.
I am just sitting down todiscover my story.
I am writing my draft today.
(08:25):
I think this helps becausethere's a big difference between
discovering your story orworking on your draft compared
to writing a book.
Writing a book sounds veryofficial and like it has to come
out perfect, right?
The draft is just the rawmaterial, so it doesn't need to
be impressive or fancy oranything like that.
It just needs to exist.
Okay, so that is the firstmindset shift I'd encourage you
(08:47):
to make.
I want you to embrace progressover perfection.
And now let's move on to thesecond mindset shift because it
connects very closely to thisfirst one.
And so the second mindset shiftI want you to embrace is action
over analysis.
Now I have a few slightlyuncomfortable questions to ask
you.
Number one, how many writingcraft books do you own right now
(09:09):
on your bookshelf?
You don't need to count to getan exact number, but just take a
peek or think about your Kindle.
How many writing craft books doyou have?
Question two, how many podcastsabout writing have you
downloaded on your phone?
How many episodes do you have inyour download folder that you're
waiting to listen to someday?
Question number three, how manywriting-related workshops or
(09:30):
writing courses have you takenthis year?
Again, you don't have to come upwith a perfect number.
I just want you to think aboutthat.
Now, last question, how manywords did you write last week?
If you're cringing right now,you are not alone.
When you're someone who caresdeeply about writing a book and
you want to get it right, it canfeel really productive to keep
learning, to get one more craftbook, or learn one more plotting
(09:53):
method, or do one more bit ofpreparation before you're really
ready to start.
On the surface, all of thisfeels productive, right?
You're learning about storystructure and character arcs and
themes and how to write a scene.
You're underlining things andtaking notes.
And all of that can be useful toan extent.
Obviously, I love talking aboutthe craft of writing.
I do it all the time on thispodcast, but there is something
(10:16):
to be said about getting stuckin that analysis or in that
learning mode.
And really what it boils down tois this all of that studying or
information gathering is reallyjust fear in disguise.
So it's a way to stay safe fromthe messy, vulnerable act of
putting words on the page.
And I know hearing me say thatprobably stings a little.
(10:37):
It's probably not what youwanted to hear today, but it is
the truth.
And to bring this to life, Iwant to tell you about one of my
notes to novel students whospent about 10 years in this
cycle.
So she would write a fewchapters, her progress would
stall, and then she would go andconsume more writing advice.
And she genuinely wanted tounderstand story structure and
how to plot a novel before shebegan because she thought that
(11:00):
was her biggest problem.
She thought that that's why shewould only ever get a few
chapters in and then her storywould kind of stall out.
So she absorbed everything shecould find on story structure
podcasts, craft books, she wentto writing workshops, you name
it.
But every time she came back toher draft, she still felt lost.
And when I hear stories likethis, I'm like, of course you
felt lost, right?
(11:21):
Because reading about writingand actually writing are not
really the same skill.
It's kind of like trying tolearn how to swim by only
reading about swimming.
That wouldn't work, right?
At some point you have to get inthe water.
And when you get in the water,it's going to feel awkward and
splashy and imperfect, no matterhow many books you read about
having the perfect butterflystroke, right?
So back to my notes to novelstudent.
(11:42):
Her name is Liz.
When she finally made this shiftout of analysis and into action,
it's not like she stoppedlearning completely.
What she did was just flip theratio.
So she decided that her defaultgoing forward would be doing,
not researching.
And one of the first actions shetook was creating a very simple
scene-by-scene outline.
(12:03):
So it was nothing fancy, it wasjust a list of what happens in
what order from beginning toend.
And she let that outline be astarting point for her, not a
contract.
So it was a flexible outlinethat she updated as she got to
know her story more.
And then she committed toshowing up to her draft three
days a week, even if she didn'tfeel ready.
So she stopped telling herselfshe had to understand everything
(12:24):
there was to know aboutstructure before she started
writing.
Instead, it was more like, I'mgonna learn what I need to learn
by writing my way through it andmaking mistakes.
And that's exactly whathappened.
The momentum that she had beenlooking for after chasing down
different craft knowledge for 10years, it didn't come from any
book or workshop.
It came from putting words onthe page and being willing to
(12:46):
learn as she was doing the work.
So if you recognize yourself inthis story, then the mindset
shift I want you to make is allabout getting into action over
analysis.
And another way to think aboutthis is that courage comes
before confidence.
So you are not going to feelperfectly ready before you start
writing.
Confidence is something thatgrows because you've taken
(13:08):
action and you've gottenfamiliar with what you're doing.
It's not something that you waitfor or have before you start
taking action.
All right, so a practical way toapply this mindset shift is that
for the next week, I want you togive yourself a simple writing
commitment that feels doableeven on a busy day.
That might be sitting down andwriting for 15 minutes, it might
be writing 300 words, it mightbe finishing a scene.
(13:31):
However, you define that isfine.
And when your brain says maybe Ishould just watch a plotting
video first, or maybe I shouldlisten to that podcast or read
that chapter in a craft book, Iwant you to gently push that
thought aside and just focus ongetting into action.
And if you do this, then overtime you're going to start
feeling your relationship withwriting shift.
You'll go from feeling likesomeone who is always preparing
(13:54):
to write or waiting to write tosomeone who is actually in the
middle of a draft.
And that identity shift is ahuge part of finishing a novel.
Okay, so that is the secondmindset shift I want you to
embrace.
I want you to choose action overanalysis.
All right, now the third mindsetshift I want you to embrace is I
want you to trust the layerednature of storytelling.
(14:16):
And this one's really importantbecause one of the biggest
sources of overwhelm I see iswhen writers try to do
everything all at once in theirfirst draft.
So they're thinking about plotand their prose and the
character development and theworld building and their theme
and the pacing and the subplotsand the symbolism and all of
that stuff at the same time onthe sentence level, at the page
(14:37):
level, at the scene level, atthe act level, and all the way
up to the global story level.
If you're resonating with this,then of course you feel
overwhelmed, right?
That is way too much for anybrain to hold at one time.
And so what I want you to do isI want you to imagine that
you're building a house.
If you were building a house,you would not be picking out
paint colors while you're stilldigging the foundation.
(14:59):
You wouldn't be stressing aboutcrown molding before you even
have your walls put up.
And you would definitely not beagonizing over which pillows to
put on the couch before you evenhave a roof, right?
There is a natural order to thatprocess.
You build the foundation first,then you do the framing, then
you put up the walls and theroof, and then you do all the
finishes, and then comes thedecoration.
(15:20):
So I tell you this becausewriting a novel works in the
exact same way.
Your favorite novels were notbuilt in one perfect pass.
Instead, they were built inlayers.
So I want you to think about itlike this.
Layer one is your foundation.
This is where you figure outthose core elements of your
story.
So things like what genre you'rewriting in, who is your
(15:41):
protagonist, what do they wantand why, what's the central
conflict they're going to faceand what's your antagonist all
about?
What are those big plot pointsor turning points that you know
you want to hit and you knowthings like that.
So at this stage, it's not aboutwriting pages and pages of
polished prose, right?
It's all about discovering thestory you actually want to tell
and making sure thosefoundational elements all work
(16:04):
together.
All right, and then after thatin layer two, this is where
structure comes into play.
So once you have that foundationbuilt, you can start mapping out
how the story is going to unfoldfrom beginning to end.
For you, that might look like adetailed outline or it might be
a little bit of a looser list ofkey scenes to guide you.
It doesn't really matter whatthat looks like, but the key
(16:24):
thing about this stage is thatyou're making decisions about
the order of events and thecause and effect between
different events.
So one scene happens, whichleads to the next scene, which
complicates the scene afterthat, which forces this big
decision, you know, stuff likethat.
All right, and then after that,in layer three, this is where
you're actually writing each ofyour scenes.
And the beautiful thing is thatwhen you've done all that
(16:47):
foundation and structure work inlayers one and two, you're not
just wandering around on thepage word vomiting up things,
hoping it all comes together.
And that's because you have aroadmap.
So you know why your protagonistis doing what they're doing, you
know what they want, you knowwho's getting in their way, you
know what each scene is buildingtoward, and you have something
to measure all your creativedecisions against.
(17:09):
All right, so again, stories arebuilt in layers, not in one
perfect pass.
And to bring this to life, Iwant to tell you about one of my
notes to novel students, Julia.
So she came into the programafter years of trying to juggle
all of these elements at thesame time.
So she would draft a scene, andthen she would go back and
revise the prose, revise thecharacter arc, and tweak some
(17:30):
world building details and makesure her word count was on track
and things like that, all at thesame time.
And so she felt like she wasconstantly rewriting the first
half of her book and neverreaching the end.
And she felt like that becauseit was basically true, right?
And so the turning point forJulia came when she heard me
talk about this idea of storiesbeing built in layers.
And so she went back to buildingout the foundation of her story
(17:54):
first.
She clarified her character'swant and need, she nailed down
the central conflict, she gotreally clear on her story's big
plot points, and then she builta simple scene-by-scaling, and
only then did she go back todrafting.
And once she did, she stoppedtrying to make all the sentences
in her pages beautiful, and shestopped worrying about her theme
being profound and her worldbeing perfectly detailed all at
(18:17):
the same time.
She knew she was going to havetime to do that later, and so
she let herself focus on doingone primary job per layer.
And the result was that shefinished her first draft in four
months.
So four months after years ofbeing stuck in the same place.
And again, this isn't becauseshe suddenly became more
talented or got an MFA oranything like that.
(18:37):
It's all because she stoppedexpecting one draft or one pass
to do the job of five.
And the best part is that shewas so much happier with both
her draft and her writingprocess because she wasn't
trying to juggle everything atonce.
So the key point here is thatwhen you trust this kind of
layered approach, the overwhelmdisappears.
You know exactly what to focuson at each stage, you stop
(19:00):
second-guessing every decisionbecause you understand where
you're at in the process andwhat your story needs right now.
And then the path from idea tofinish draft becomes a whole lot
more clear.
All right, so to put thismindset shift into practice this
week, I just want you toconsider where you're at in the
process right now or what layerare you in.
If you're in that foundationlayer, then your job is not to
(19:22):
write perfect scenes.
Your job is to ask thosefoundational questions like who
is this story about?
What do they want?
What gets in their way?
What changes, what are readersgoing to expect from a story
like yours, and things likethat.
If you're in that second layerwhere it's time to worry about
structure and plot and thingslike that, then your job is not
to write perfect or polishedsentences.
(19:44):
Your job is to make sure thatthere is a clear cause and
effect throughout your entirestory from scene to scene,
right?
You're structuring those ideasyou came up with in the
foundational layer and turningthem into an actual plot.
Now, if you're in the draftinglayer, then your only job is to
get the story down on paper.
And remember, this is all goingto be based on decisions you've
(20:04):
already made in the foundationlayer or in the structure layer.
And when you're here, you cantrust that there's gonna be time
later to refine your language,deepen your theme, adjust the
details, and things like that.
So again, the more that you canthink about your story as being
built in layers, the lesspressure you're gonna put on
yourself and your draft to carrythe entire weight of the book
(20:25):
all at once.
All right, so that is the thirdmindset shift I want you to
make.
I want you to embrace thelayered nature of storytelling.
Now, let me pull all of thistogether because I want to make
sure the through line of thisepisode is clear.
All three of these mindsetshifts that we talked about
today are actually addressingthe same core problem, just from
different angles.
(20:46):
And that core problem is thatmost writers are trying to write
their final book on their firstpass.
So when you loop endlessly onchapter one, this is what you're
doing.
You're trying to make it finalbook quality before you know
what the final book actuallyneeds to be.
And when you stay in learningmode instead of writing mode,
you're doing this as well.
So you're trying to understandeverything perfectly before you
(21:09):
allow yourself to make mistakeson the page.
And when you're trying to juggleplot and prose and theme and
character all at once, you'redoing this as well.
You're trying to write afinished, polished, layered
novel in one single draft.
And the reason that this doesnot work is because again,
writing a novel is not a linearprocess.
It is an iterative process inwhich you make decisions, you
(21:32):
test those decisions, you seewhat works, you adjust, and then
you build on what's strong, youfix what is weak, and you
clarify what is muddy.
But you can only do that if youhave something to work with, and
that something is a completedraft.
So when I say progress overperfection, I'm really saying
give yourself permission towrite an imperfect version of
your story so you can see whatyou're actually working with.
(21:55):
When I say action over analysis,I'm really saying trust that the
answers you're looking for willcome from doing the work, not
from consuming more contentabout the work.
And when I say trust the layerednature of storytelling, I'm
really saying you don't need tohave it all figured out at once.
You really can focus on one jobat a time and let each layer
(22:16):
inform the next.
All right, now I know it can betempting to hear an episode like
this and think, okay, I need toput all of these mindset shifts
into practice at once.
But I don't want you to do thatbecause that's just another
version of overwhelm.
Instead, I want you to just pickone of these mindset shifts,
whichever one hit you in the gutthe most, and focus on that for
the next week.
So if perfectionism is yourbiggest challenge, then I want
(22:38):
you to push yourself to writeforward without editing as you
go.
Set a small goal like fivescenes or a certain number of
words, and promise yourself youwill not go back to revise those
pages until you hit that goal.
If you're someone who tends tolive in learning mode, then set
a boundary around your craftconsumption.
Maybe that looks like no craftbooks during your writing hour,
or for every podcast episode youlisten to, you're gonna write
(23:02):
for at least 20 minutes.
If you're someone who feels likeyou're trying to juggle
everything at once, then giveyourself permission to step back
into that first foundationallayer.
So spend a few days just gettingclear on your protagonist, their
goal, their obstacles, and thecore shape of your story.
And then let that work supportyour next drafting session
instead of trying to reverseengineer it on the fly.
(23:23):
The point here is not to becomea perfect writer overnight,
because remember, perfectwriters don't exist.
The point is more about startingto relate to the drafting
process in a way that's actuallygoing to help you get to the end
of your draft.
All right, now one last thingbefore I let you go.
If you've been listening to thisepisode today and you're like,
man, I really need help puttingsome of this stuff into practice
(23:44):
so I can finish my novel, then Iwant to let you know that my
notes to novel course is openingup for enrollment very soon.
And in that course, I walk youthrough the exact layered
approach I talked about today,from building a strong
foundation for your story tomapping out your structure to
drafting your novel in a waythat feels focused and
manageable instead ofoverwhelming.
(24:04):
So if you've been stuck in acycle of false starts or
half-finished drafts, and if youwant support, accountability,
and a proven framework tofollow, I would love to invite
you to join the Notes to Novelwait list.
When you're on the wait list,you'll be the first to know when
doors open again, and you'llalso get some extra fun behind
the scenes resources to help youstart thinking about your story
(24:24):
this way even before the programbegins.
You can add your name to thewait list by going to Savannah
Gilbo.com forward slash waitlist or clicking the link in the
show notes, and I'll make sureyou're the first to hear when
enrollment opens.
So one more time, that'sSavannah Gilbo.com forward slash
waitlist.
Alright, so that's it for thisepisode of the Fiction Writing
(24:45):
Made Easy Podcast.
Head over to Savannah Gilbo.comforward slash podcast for the
complete show notes, includingthe resources I mentioned today,
as well as bonus materials tohelp you implement what you've
learned.
And if you're ready to get morepersonalized guidance for your
specific writing stage, whetheryou're just starting out, stuck
somewhere in the middle of adraft, drowning in revisions, or
(25:06):
getting ready to publish, takemy free 30-second quiz at
savannaGilbo.com forward slashquiz.
You'll get a customized podcastplaylist that'll meet you right
where you're at and help you getto your next big milestone.
Last but not least, make sure tofollow this podcast in your
podcast player of choice becauseI'll be back next week with
another episode full ofactionable tips, tools, and
(25:26):
strategies to help you become abetter writer.
Until then, happy writing.
And when you're trying to juggle plot and prose
and theme and character all atonce, you're doing this as well.
You're trying to write afinished, polished, layered
novel in one single draft.
And the reason that this doesnot work is because again,
writing a novel is not a linearprocess.
It is an iterative process inwhich you make decisions, you
(02:23):
test those decisions, you seewhat works, you adjust, and then
you build on what's strong, youfix what is weak, and you
clarify what is muddy.
But you can only do that if youhave something to work with, and
that something is a completedraft.
Welcome to the Fiction WritingMade Easy Podcast.
My name is Savannah Gilbo, andI'm here to help you write a
(02:45):
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 abrand new episode with simple,
actionable, and step-by-stepstrategies that you can
implement in your writing rightaway.
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.
(03:07):
In today's episode, I'm sharingthree powerful mindset shifts
that every writer needs to makein order to finish their drafts.
Whether you're just starting outwith your very first story idea
or have a folder full ofunfinished drafts, these shifts
are the key to writing forwardand finishing your first draft
with confidence.
And I wanted to tackle thistopic today because if you're
(03:28):
like most of the writers I talkto, you probably have a handful
of opening chapters collectingdigital dust in a folder on your
computer, or you have threedifferent versions of chapter
one, or maybe you have anoutline that felt great for
about a week and then suddenlydidn't feel right anymore.
Or maybe you keep getting to thesame spot in your story, usually
(03:49):
somewhere around the first actor the beginning of the middle
of your story, and theneverything starts to slow down
and fall apart.
If any of these scenarios soundfamiliar, I want you to know
you're not alone.
These are some of the mostcommon patterns I see with
writers, especially those whoare embarking on their first
draft.
And when you find yourself stuckin situations like this, it's so
(04:10):
easy to make these situationsmean something about you.
So it's really easy to thinksomething like, well, if I were
really a writer, I would havefinished my draft by now.
Or other people seem to get thisfigured out.
Maybe I just don't have what ittakes, right?
It's really easy to go intothose mindset spirals.
So before we go any further, andbefore I share the three mindset
(04:32):
shifts with you, I want to saythis as clearly as I can.
You are not the problem.
Your talent is not the problem.
What usually needs to change isjust the way you're thinking
about the drafting process,which is what we're going to
talk about in this episode.
So today I'm going to walk youthrough three mindset shifts
that will help you write forwardinstead of writing in circles.
(04:54):
And these are the exact mindsetshifts I've watched transform
stuck and frustrated writersinto people who actually finish
their books.
So if you have a folder full ofabandoned drafts or if you're
already worried that you'regoing to stall out again on your
most current project, then graba pen, because we're going to
dig into what's really going onbeneath the surface and what to
(05:15):
do instead.
So without further ado, let'sdive right into mindset shift
number one.
The first mindset shift that Iwant you to make that will help
you get to the end of your draftis to embrace progress over
perfection.
Now you've probably heard me saythis on the podcast before, but
your first draft only has onejob, and that is to exist.
Its only job is to help you getyour ideas out of your head and
(05:37):
onto the page.
But most writers don't treattheir first drafts this way.
What ends up happening is theywrite chapter one, they read it
back, they don't like it, and sothey revise it.
Then a few days pass and theyend up revising it again.
Maybe they change the openingparagraph or they rewrite the
first couple of lines, maybethey even tweak the dialogue or
do another pass on the prose,whatever it is, and then at some
(05:59):
point they feel okay enough tomove on to the next chapter.
But as soon as they moveforward, the pattern pops up
again.
So they get a few pages in, thatcritical voice pops up and says
the whole thing's terrible, it'snot good enough yet, and so they
go back and fix it and maybeeven go back to chapter one
before making any furtherprogress forward.
If you can relate to this, Iwant you to know it's very
(06:20):
common.
And I think this instinct comesfrom a really good place.
It means you care about yourstory, you want it to be the
best it can be, and you wantwhat's on the page to match the
vision that's in your head.
And there is nothing wrong withthat.
That's a great goal.
So the problem is not that youcare this deeply about your
story.
It's where you're putting thatcare in the process.
(06:40):
And what I mean by that is whenyou keep looping over your
opening chapters, trying to getthem perfect, you're trying to
perfect your story before youeven know what the whole thing
looks like.
And because you don't know whatthe whole thing looks like,
you're not going to know what'simportant or not important, or
what revisions actually matterversus which ones don't.
So you really do need a wholestory, beginning, middle, and
(07:04):
end, before you can see what'sworking, what's missing, and
what needs to change.
One of my notes to novelstudents, Jenny, is a really
good example of this.
So she spent, I think it was 12years caught in this cycle of
writing a few chapters, decidingthey weren't good enough, and
starting over again and againand again.
She cared so much about gettingit right that she couldn't move
(07:25):
forward until her openingchapters felt strong.
But what finally changed forJenny is embracing this mindset
shift of progress overperfection.
So she gave herself permissionto write a messy draft all the
way through.
And guess what happened?
She finished the whole thing insix months.
Was it perfect?
No, of course not, because nofirst drafts ever are, but it
(07:45):
was a real draft, and once itwas real, then she could finally
see what her story was reallyabout, what was already working,
and what needed to improve.
So that clarity that she'd beenchasing for over a decade came
after she finished her draft,not from perfecting those
opening chapters.
So the first mindset shift Iwant you to embrace is the idea
(08:05):
of progress over perfection,forward movement before
beautiful prose.
I want you to get the story downfirst and then worry about
making it good later.
And if it helps to have languagefor this, you can literally say
to yourself, I am not writing myfull completed book today.
I am just sitting down todiscover my story.
I am writing my draft today.
(08:25):
I think this helps becausethere's a big difference between
discovering your story orworking on your draft compared
to writing a book.
Writing a book sounds veryofficial and like it has to come
out perfect, right?
The draft is just the rawmaterial, so it doesn't need to
be impressive or fancy oranything like that.
It just needs to exist.
Okay, so that is the firstmindset shift I'd encourage you
(08:47):
to make.
I want you to embrace progressover perfection.
And now let's move on to thesecond mindset shift because it
connects very closely to thisfirst one.
And so the second mindset shiftI want you to embrace is action
over analysis.
Now I have a few slightlyuncomfortable questions to ask
you.
Number one, how many writingcraft books do you own right now
(09:09):
on your bookshelf?
You don't need to count to getan exact number, but just take a
peek or think about your Kindle.
How many writing craft books doyou have?
Question two, how many podcastsabout writing have you
downloaded on your phone?
How many episodes do you have inyour download folder that you're
waiting to listen to someday?
Question number three, how manywriting-related workshops or
(09:30):
writing courses have you takenthis year?
Again, you don't have to come upwith a perfect number.
I just want you to think aboutthat.
Now, last question, how manywords did you write last week?
If you're cringing right now,you are not alone.
When you're someone who caresdeeply about writing a book and
you want to get it right, it canfeel really productive to keep
learning, to get one more craftbook, or learn one more plotting
(09:53):
method, or do one more bit ofpreparation before you're really
ready to start.
On the surface, all of thisfeels productive, right?
You're learning about storystructure and character arcs and
themes and how to write a scene.
You're underlining things andtaking notes.
And all of that can be useful toan extent.
Obviously, I love talking aboutthe craft of writing.
I do it all the time on thispodcast, but there is something
(10:16):
to be said about getting stuckin that analysis or in that
learning mode.
And really what it boils down tois this all of that studying or
information gathering is reallyjust fear in disguise.
So it's a way to stay safe fromthe messy, vulnerable act of
putting words on the page.
And I know hearing me say thatprobably stings a little.
(10:37):
It's probably not what youwanted to hear today, but it is
the truth.
And to bring this to life, Iwant to tell you about one of my
notes to novel students whospent about 10 years in this
cycle.
So she would write a fewchapters, her progress would
stall, and then she would go andconsume more writing advice.
And she genuinely wanted tounderstand story structure and
how to plot a novel before shebegan because she thought that
(11:00):
was her biggest problem.
She thought that that's why shewould only ever get a few
chapters in and then her storywould kind of stall out.
So she absorbed everything shecould find on story structure
podcasts, craft books, she wentto writing workshops, you name
it.
But every time she came back toher draft, she still felt lost.
And when I hear stories likethis, I'm like, of course you
felt lost, right?
(11:21):
Because reading about writingand actually writing are not
really the same skill.
It's kind of like trying tolearn how to swim by only
reading about swimming.
That wouldn't work, right?
At some point you have to get inthe water.
And when you get in the water,it's going to feel awkward and
splashy and imperfect, no matterhow many books you read about
having the perfect butterflystroke, right?
So back to my notes to novelstudent.
(11:42):
Her name is Liz.
When she finally made this shiftout of analysis and into action,
it's not like she stoppedlearning completely.
What she did was just flip theratio.
So she decided that her defaultgoing forward would be doing,
not researching.
And one of the first actions shetook was creating a very simple
scene-by-scene outline.
(12:03):
So it was nothing fancy, it wasjust a list of what happens in
what order from beginning toend.
And she let that outline be astarting point for her, not a
contract.
So it was a flexible outlinethat she updated as she got to
know her story more.
And then she committed toshowing up to her draft three
days a week, even if she didn'tfeel ready.
So she stopped telling herselfshe had to understand everything
(12:24):
there was to know aboutstructure before she started
writing.
Instead, it was more like, I'mgonna learn what I need to learn
by writing my way through it andmaking mistakes.
And that's exactly whathappened.
The momentum that she had beenlooking for after chasing down
different craft knowledge for 10years, it didn't come from any
book or workshop.
It came from putting words onthe page and being willing to
(12:46):
learn as she was doing the work.
So if you recognize yourself inthis story, then the mindset
shift I want you to make is allabout getting into action over
analysis.
And another way to think aboutthis is that courage comes
before confidence.
So you are not going to feelperfectly ready before you start
writing.
Confidence is something thatgrows because you've taken
(13:08):
action and you've gottenfamiliar with what you're doing.
It's not something that you waitfor or have before you start
taking action.
All right, so a practical way toapply this mindset shift is that
for the next week, I want you togive yourself a simple writing
commitment that feels doableeven on a busy day.
That might be sitting down andwriting for 15 minutes, it might
be writing 300 words, it mightbe finishing a scene.
(13:31):
However, you define that isfine.
And when your brain says maybe Ishould just watch a plotting
video first, or maybe I shouldlisten to that podcast or read
that chapter in a craft book, Iwant you to gently push that
thought aside and just focus ongetting into action.
And if you do this, then overtime you're going to start
feeling your relationship withwriting shift.
You'll go from feeling likesomeone who is always preparing
(13:54):
to write or waiting to write tosomeone who is actually in the
middle of a draft.
And that identity shift is ahuge part of finishing a novel.
Okay, so that is the secondmindset shift I want you to
embrace.
I want you to choose action overanalysis.
All right, now the third mindsetshift I want you to embrace is I
want you to trust the layerednature of storytelling.
(14:16):
And this one's really importantbecause one of the biggest
sources of overwhelm I see iswhen writers try to do
everything all at once in theirfirst draft.
So they're thinking about plotand their prose and the
character development and theworld building and their theme
and the pacing and the subplotsand the symbolism and all of
that stuff at the same time onthe sentence level, at the page
(14:37):
level, at the scene level, atthe act level, and all the way
up to the global story level.
If you're resonating with this,then of course you feel
overwhelmed, right?
That is way too much for anybrain to hold at one time.
And so what I want you to do isI want you to imagine that
you're building a house.
If you were building a house,you would not be picking out
paint colors while you're stilldigging the foundation.
(14:59):
You wouldn't be stressing aboutcrown molding before you even
have your walls put up.
And you would definitely not beagonizing over which pillows to
put on the couch before you evenhave a roof, right?
There is a natural order to thatprocess.
You build the foundation first,then you do the framing, then
you put up the walls and theroof, and then you do all the
finishes, and then comes thedecoration.
(15:20):
So I tell you this becausewriting a novel works in the
exact same way.
Your favorite novels were notbuilt in one perfect pass.
Instead, they were built inlayers.
So I want you to think about itlike this.
Layer one is your foundation.
This is where you figure outthose core elements of your
story.
So things like what genre you'rewriting in, who is your
(15:41):
protagonist, what do they wantand why, what's the central
conflict they're going to faceand what's your antagonist all
about?
What are those big plot pointsor turning points that you know
you want to hit and you knowthings like that.
So at this stage, it's not aboutwriting pages and pages of
polished prose, right?
It's all about discovering thestory you actually want to tell
and making sure thosefoundational elements all work
(16:04):
together.
All right, and then after thatin layer two, this is where
structure comes into play.
So once you have that foundationbuilt, you can start mapping out
how the story is going to unfoldfrom beginning to end.
For you, that might look like adetailed outline or it might be
a little bit of a looser list ofkey scenes to guide you.
It doesn't really matter whatthat looks like, but the key
(16:24):
thing about this stage is thatyou're making decisions about
the order of events and thecause and effect between
different events.
So one scene happens, whichleads to the next scene, which
complicates the scene afterthat, which forces this big
decision, you know, stuff likethat.
All right, and then after that,in layer three, this is where
you're actually writing each ofyour scenes.
And the beautiful thing is thatwhen you've done all that
(16:47):
foundation and structure work inlayers one and two, you're not
just wandering around on thepage word vomiting up things,
hoping it all comes together.
And that's because you have aroadmap.
So you know why your protagonistis doing what they're doing, you
know what they want, you knowwho's getting in their way, you
know what each scene is buildingtoward, and you have something
to measure all your creativedecisions against.
(17:09):
All right, so again, stories arebuilt in layers, not in one
perfect pass.
And to bring this to life, Iwant to tell you about one of my
notes to novel students, Julia.
So she came into the programafter years of trying to juggle
all of these elements at thesame time.
So she would draft a scene, andthen she would go back and
revise the prose, revise thecharacter arc, and tweak some
(17:30):
world building details and makesure her word count was on track
and things like that, all at thesame time.
And so she felt like she wasconstantly rewriting the first
half of her book and neverreaching the end.
And she felt like that becauseit was basically true, right?
And so the turning point forJulia came when she heard me
talk about this idea of storiesbeing built in layers.
And so she went back to buildingout the foundation of her story
(17:54):
first.
She clarified her character'swant and need, she nailed down
the central conflict, she gotreally clear on her story's big
plot points, and then she builta simple scene-by-scaling, and
only then did she go back todrafting.
And once she did, she stoppedtrying to make all the sentences
in her pages beautiful, and shestopped worrying about her theme
being profound and her worldbeing perfectly detailed all at
(18:17):
the same time.
She knew she was going to havetime to do that later, and so
she let herself focus on doingone primary job per layer.
And the result was that shefinished her first draft in four
months.
So four months after years ofbeing stuck in the same place.
And again, this isn't becauseshe suddenly became more
talented or got an MFA oranything like that.
(18:37):
It's all because she stoppedexpecting one draft or one pass
to do the job of five.
And the best part is that shewas so much happier with both
her draft and her writingprocess because she wasn't
trying to juggle everything atonce.
So the key point here is thatwhen you trust this kind of
layered approach, the overwhelmdisappears.
You know exactly what to focuson at each stage, you stop
(19:00):
second-guessing every decisionbecause you understand where
you're at in the process andwhat your story needs right now.
And then the path from idea tofinish draft becomes a whole lot
more clear.
All right, so to put thismindset shift into practice this
week, I just want you toconsider where you're at in the
process right now or what layerare you in.
If you're in that foundationlayer, then your job is not to
(19:22):
write perfect scenes.
Your job is to ask thosefoundational questions like who
is this story about?
What do they want?
What gets in their way?
What changes, what are readersgoing to expect from a story
like yours, and things likethat.
If you're in that second layerwhere it's time to worry about
structure and plot and thingslike that, then your job is not
to write perfect or polishedsentences.
(19:44):
Your job is to make sure thatthere is a clear cause and
effect throughout your entirestory from scene to scene,
right?
You're structuring those ideasyou came up with in the
foundational layer and turningthem into an actual plot.
Now, if you're in the draftinglayer, then your only job is to
get the story down on paper.
And remember, this is all goingto be based on decisions you've
(20:04):
already made in the foundationlayer or in the structure layer.
And when you're here, you cantrust that there's gonna be time
later to refine your language,deepen your theme, adjust the
details, and things like that.
So again, the more that you canthink about your story as being
built in layers, the lesspressure you're gonna put on
yourself and your draft to carrythe entire weight of the book
(20:25):
all at once.
All right, so that is the thirdmindset shift I want you to
make.
I want you to embrace thelayered nature of storytelling.
Now, let me pull all of thistogether because I want to make
sure the through line of thisepisode is clear.
All three of these mindsetshifts that we talked about
today are actually addressingthe same core problem, just from
different angles.
(20:46):
And that core problem is thatmost writers are trying to write
their final book on their firstpass.
So when you loop endlessly onchapter one, this is what you're
doing.
You're trying to make it finalbook quality before you know
what the final book actuallyneeds to be.
And when you stay in learningmode instead of writing mode,
you're doing this as well.
So you're trying to understandeverything perfectly before you
(21:09):
allow yourself to make mistakeson the page.
And when you're trying to juggleplot and prose and theme and
character all at once, you'redoing this as well.
You're trying to write afinished, polished, layered
novel in one single draft.
And the reason that this doesnot work is because again,
writing a novel is not a linearprocess.
It is an iterative process inwhich you make decisions, you
(21:32):
test those decisions, you seewhat works, you adjust, and then
you build on what's strong, youfix what is weak, and you
clarify what is muddy.
But you can only do that if youhave something to work with, and
that something is a completedraft.
So when I say progress overperfection, I'm really saying
give yourself permission towrite an imperfect version of
your story so you can see whatyou're actually working with.
(21:55):
When I say action over analysis,I'm really saying trust that the
answers you're looking for willcome from doing the work, not
from consuming more contentabout the work.
And when I say trust the layerednature of storytelling, I'm
really saying you don't need tohave it all figured out at once.
You really can focus on one jobat a time and let each layer
(22:16):
inform the next.
All right, now I know it can betempting to hear an episode like
this and think, okay, I need toput all of these mindset shifts
into practice at once.
But I don't want you to do thatbecause that's just another
version of overwhelm.
Instead, I want you to just pickone of these mindset shifts,
whichever one hit you in the gutthe most, and focus on that for
the next week.
So if perfectionism is yourbiggest challenge, then I want
(22:38):
you to push yourself to writeforward without editing as you
go.
Set a small goal like fivescenes or a certain number of
words, and promise yourself youwill not go back to revise those
pages until you hit that goal.
If you're someone who tends tolive in learning mode, then set
a boundary around your craftconsumption.
Maybe that looks like no craftbooks during your writing hour,
or for every podcast episode youlisten to, you're gonna write
(23:02):
for at least 20 minutes.
If you're someone who feels likeyou're trying to juggle
everything at once, then giveyourself permission to step back
into that first foundationallayer.
So spend a few days just gettingclear on your protagonist, their
goal, their obstacles, and thecore shape of your story.
And then let that work supportyour next drafting session
instead of trying to reverseengineer it on the fly.
(23:23):
The point here is not to becomea perfect writer overnight,
because remember, perfectwriters don't exist.
The point is more about startingto relate to the drafting
process in a way that's actuallygoing to help you get to the end
of your draft.
All right, now one last thingbefore I let you go.
If you've been listening to thisepisode today and you're like,
man, I really need help puttingsome of this stuff into practice
(23:44):
so I can finish my novel, then Iwant to let you know that my
notes to novel course is openingup for enrollment very soon.
And in that course, I walk youthrough the exact layered
approach I talked about today,from building a strong
foundation for your story tomapping out your structure to
drafting your novel in a waythat feels focused and
manageable instead ofoverwhelming.
(24:04):
So if you've been stuck in acycle of false starts or
half-finished drafts, and if youwant support, accountability,
and a proven framework tofollow, I would love to invite
you to join the Notes to Novelwait list.
When you're on the wait list,you'll be the first to know when
doors open again, and you'llalso get some extra fun behind
the scenes resources to help youstart thinking about your story
(24:24):
this way even before the programbegins.
You can add your name to thewait list by going to Savannah
Gilbo.com forward slash waitlist or clicking the link in the
show notes, and I'll make sureyou're the first to hear when
enrollment opens.
So one more time, that'sSavannah Gilbo.com forward slash
waitlist.
Alright, so that's it for thisepisode of the Fiction Writing
(24:45):
Made Easy Podcast.
Head over to Savannah Gilbo.comforward slash podcast for the
complete show notes, includingthe resources I mentioned today,
as well as bonus materials tohelp you implement what you've
learned.
And if you're ready to get morepersonalized guidance for your
specific writing stage, whetheryou're just starting out, stuck
somewhere in the middle of adraft, drowning in revisions, or
(25:06):
getting ready to publish, takemy free 30-second quiz at
savannaGilbo.com forward slashquiz.
You'll get a customized podcastplaylist that'll meet you right
where you're at and help you getto your next big milestone.
Last but not least, make sure tofollow this podcast in your
podcast player of choice becauseI'll be back next week with
another episode full ofactionable tips, tools, and
(25:26):
strategies to help you become abetter writer.
Until then, happy writing.
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