what do I really need? To write a solid first draft, and, yes, those details and the polished prose will matter eventually, right, but again, not for your first draft. So instead, I would rather see you focus on building out the foundation of your story things like the characters, the plot, the setting, weaving your theme through everything, hitting the requirements of your genre and things like that and then worry about the prose and the details and the research later. This is what's going to help you become a better writer. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help you write a story that works.

I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming, so each week, I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable and step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away. So, whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft, this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started. In today's episode, I'm going to share 10 things that will not make you a better writer. In today's episode, I'm going to share 10 things that will not make you a better writer, and these are 10 things I see writers doing all the time, so my hope is that, by shining a light on some of these things, you might see how you're potentially getting in your own way when it comes to finishing your book, and or so that you can stop doing any one of these 10 things and start making actual progress towards your next big writing, editing or publishing milestone. So, with that in mind, let's dive right into the 10 things that will not make you a better writer, starting with number one waiting until you're quote-unquote ready to write a book. And I say ready in quotes, because there's never going to be a time when you feel 100% ready. There's always going to be something you want to figure out a little more, or think about a little more, or research a little more, and there isn't really ever going to be a day where you sit down at your desk and feel 100% ready to start writing. Trust me, I've worked with so many writers who exhaust themselves, hoping that that day will come, that day where everything is clicked into place and they're like okay, yeah, now I can write this book and the book that I do write will be 100% perfect because I waited until I was ready. No, that doesn't happen.

And what I want to encourage you to think about is where this need to wait until you're ready is coming from. Spoiler alert it's most likely rooted in self-doubt. So underneath this need or this pressure to wait until you're ready are probably thoughts like this Am I good enough to write a book? Am I smart enough, capable enough, whatever enough right? Or what if I start writing a book and then I get stuck? What will I do? Or even what if I finish it and then people hate my book?

We all have these fears and questions swirling around in our heads, especially when we start out to do something big like writing a book. And if you relate to what I'm saying, I want you to know this is 100% normal. A lot of people feel this way and have these questions. So it's not just you. But the thing is.

Waiting for the day when you feel ready is really just delaying the inevitable. You're delaying because you know writing a messy draft and not having all the things figured out is going to feel uncomfortable, and as humans, we like to avoid discomfort, right. But here's what a lot of people don't consider Not writing your book and waiting until you feel more ready that can be pretty uncomfortable too. So you kind of have to ask yourself which type of discomfort do I want to sit in? Would I rather be making progress towards actually writing and publishing a book, even though the process will be a bit messy and frustrating at times? Or would I rather deal with the discomfort of not even getting started because I'm letting fear and self-doubt win and you get to decide? You're the only one who can decide, so it's up to you which kind of discomfort you want to sit in. So just a little something to think about. And that wraps up the first thing that will not help you become a better writer Waiting until you're ready. It's 100% better to get into action, even if it's messy or uncomfortable action, or if you feel like you don't know what you're doing every single step of the way. Getting into action is always better than waiting, and clarity is going to come through action. So please don't wait.

The second thing that will not help you become a better writer is writing a lot of words without getting feedback on what you've written. Now I know we've all heard the advice from Stephen King that says if you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others Read a lot and write a lot, and I do agree with Stephen King. Practicing your craft by writing and reading other books is really important. Of course it is right. But if you write, let's say, a thousand words a day for an entire year and you never get feedback on what you're writing, well, guess what happens In most cases? You'll probably end up making some of the same fundamental mistakes that many aspiring writers make over and over again and turning those mistakes into ingrained habits. So imagine that Without getting feedback on what's working and not working in your pages, you might actually end up becoming a worse writer than when you started. Now, I know that's not the case for everyone, but I do see it happen often enough that I wanted to include it in this list.

So it's really important to get outside feedback on your work. It's important to know what you're doing well so that you can keep doing it, and what you need to work on so you can actually improve your writing. Because here's the thing if writing a lot and cranking out hundreds of thousands of words was all it took to be a great writer, then many people would have turned pro years and years ago. But it just does not work that way. So, yes, keep practicing your craft by writing and, yes, keep reading books to see how published authors have constructed their stories, but also get feedback on your pages. So find someone you trust whether that be a developmental editor, a book coach, beta readers, a critique partner, whoever it is and get some feedback on your work. This is what's going to help you become a better writer, not just writing an arbitrary number of words each day. Not just writing an arbitrary number of words each day to tick a box.

Now, related to what I just talked about, is the third thing that will not make you a better writer, and that is joining the wrong kind of writing group, specifically, a writing group full of other aspiring writers who aren't able to give you helpful and constructive feedback. Now, this isn't a blanket statement that applies to all writing groups. Some writing groups can be really great so don't get me wrong but for the most part, writing groups can do more harm than good. But for the most part, writing groups can do more harm than good. Many writers join writing groups thinking their fellow group members will give them the feedback they need to become a better writer, but instead they end up feeling frustrated and, in many cases, full of self-doubt. And this happens because their fellow group members give feedback that is sometimes vague, sometimes unhelpful, sometimes based on personal taste or opinion and sometimes just flat out mean. And oftentimes writers will walk away from a group meeting with multiple sets of feedback, all of which can be contradictory and or confusing in terms of how to implement it. And here's the thing many people in writing groups really want to be helpful, but they've never been trained on how to give constructive feedback, and or they don't actually know what makes a story work. So it's not really always their fault, but as writers, we are the ones that are in control of who we get feedback from and who we surround ourselves with.

So if you do want to join a writing group, I have a few suggestions. First, make sure their vibe and their goals align with yours. There's nothing worse than joining a writing group that's full of members who are out querying when you're starting a brand new first draft. That can make conversation and camaraderie kind of challenging right. Second, it's best to form a group of people who speak a common language, and what I mean by this is if everyone in the group likes the Save the Cat method, or StoryGrid's Five Commandments of Storytelling, or Lisa Krohn's method for developing characters.

Whatever it is, if everyone likes and uses the same tools, it gives you a common language to talk about each other's books with. It also gives you the same lens through which to provide feedback. So, as an example in my membership, that writers are invited to after they've completed the Notes to Novel course, we all share the same language and that's the language we learned in Notes to Novel. So when it comes to critiquing each other's pages, there's no language barrier to cross in order to understand the critique. So if one writer says, hey, your scene's crisis moment is weak, I think you can do better here, the writer of those pages doesn't have to wonder what that comment means or what to do about it. They have that shared language and because they understand what the critiquer is talking about, they can take action on that feedback, if they want to, immediately. So having a shared language just makes things easier on all fronts.

And that wraps up the third thing that will not help you become a better writer joining the wrong kind of writing group. The next thing that will not help you become a better writer is comparing yourself to other writers, and this could mean so many things, right? It could mean scrolling Instagram and seeing that one of your writing friends finished their draft or got an agent and, instead of feeling happy for them, you judge yourself for your quote unquote lack of success. It could mean reading someone's first chapter and thinking that it's way, way better than yours. It could also mean comparing your work in progress to a published book that you've just read and feeling like your work in progress falls short. Writers do this all the time, myself included, I hate to admit. We finish a book, we love that book, and then we look at our work in progress and we just think it's horrible in comparison and all of these things, no matter which one you're doing all of this comparing it's not fair or accurate.

So, first of all, comparing your work in progress to a published book isn't a true or fair comparison. That published book has gone through so many rounds of editing and revising and it's had so many different eyes on it. Right? Your work in progress is the opposite. It's just what it is. It's literally a work in progress, so it can't compare to something that's published. It's just not a fair comparison. And if you see someone on Instagram who shares. They just got an agent. You never really know how much work or how many years went into that person getting to where they are now.

So, again, it's not a fair or accurate comparison, and if you're relating to what I'm talking about right now, I would encourage you to try turning those urges to compare yourself to others into something that's more helpful, so something like creative fuel and inspiration. So next time you read a really great book and you feel the urge to compare it to yours, I want you to stop and challenge yourself to say something different. So, for example, you could think, wow, this book is great, I can't wait to be able to write books like this someday, and I can, if I hang in there, finish my draft and keep doing the work to improve my craft. So something like that is a small reframe, right, but it really does help. And so that's the fourth thing that will not help you become a better writer comparing yourself to other writers and or published books.

Now, speaking of published books, the next thing that will not help you become a better writer is refusing to read. And yes, I get that we're all busy and we can't all carve out a ton of time to read books. But that's what audiobooks are great for, right. You can listen to them on the go while you do other things, and that 100% totally counts. But here's what I see happen.

A lot Writers will be working on their work in progress, waiting to feel ready to actually write it, and they refuse to read books in their genre because they don't want to get inspired by something else or they don't want to accidentally plagiarize. And sure that's fair, right. Maybe some of us would accidentally get inspired by the books we read. But hear me out for a second. Of us would accidentally get inspired by the books we read. But hear me out for a second.

If you're someone who is guilty of waiting to feel ready to write, how many years or months have you been waiting to write? How many years have you been waiting to feel ready, and how many of those years have you spent avoiding reading because you don't want to be influenced? The months and years can add up really quickly, right? So I'm not saying there's a certain number of books you need to read per year or anything, but I do want you to consider the benefits of reading books both inside and outside of your genre. First reading books in your genre helps you see what's currently working in the market, so what books are popular, what tropes are working and which ones have been done to death. You know things like that. It also helps you participate in conversation with other writers about books. So two really important things right.

Second, reading books both inside and outside of your genre will definitely teach you things about the craft of writing and also what you do and don't like about other stories. All of this can inform your own writing and be super helpful. In fact, one of the most helpful exercises that I recommend to my students all the time is to read a book that they love and pick apart the scenes. So identify the scenes and identify those structural elements within a scene. Not only is this a fun exercise because you're dissecting a book you love, but it will also teach you how to write scenes that work too. So just something to think about.

The other thing is reading books outside your genre is equally important to reading books inside your genre. So, for example, if you're writing fantasy but you want to write really juicy plot twists, it can really help to read some mysteries or thrillers that have really good plot twists If you have a romantic subplot in your story and you really want to nail the chemistry between your characters, it can be helpful to read some romances. So all of this to say is that reading is super important for writers, and avoiding reading other books while you're writing is probably going to do you more harm than good and it certainly won't help you become a better writer. The next thing that will not help you become a better writer is focusing on the wrong things, and there are a couple of things I mean by this. So, for example, many writers are super concerned with writing beautiful prose in their first draft, and this is the wrong thing to focus on in a first draft, because that draft is going to need revisions, and the longer you spend polishing your prose, the harder it's going to be to edit that prose later. So that's what you shouldn't focus on. What should you focus on instead? Crafting a story that works, and once you do this, you can polish your prose all you like.

The other thing I see writers do a lot is they spend a lot of time fleshing out details or researching when writing a first or second draft, and it's kind of the same thing we just talked about. Sometimes, those details or whatever you're researching. Sometimes that will matter in a first or second draft, but most of the time they don't, and you can get away with writing something like details TK as a placeholder for those details. So if you haven't heard me talk about this before, details TK stands for details to come, and it's a K instead of a C because the letters T and K are not found next to each other in any word in the English language, and that makes it super easy to do a search in your manuscript in Word or wherever you're editing In Microsoft Word or Scrivener or wherever you're writing your book in. It makes it really easy to find all instances of details TK and replace with relevant details.

So, with all this being said, you kind of have to ask yourself what do I really need to write a solid first draft? And yes, those details and the polished prose will matter eventually, right, but again, not for your first draft. So instead I would rather see you focus on building out the foundation of your story, things like the characters, the plot, the setting, weaving your theme through everything, hitting the requirements of your genre and things like that and then worry about the prose and the details and the research later. This is what's going to help you become a better writer not agonizing over your word choice or minute setting details again, especially in that first draft, speaking of focusing on the wrong things. The next thing that will not help you become a better writer is writing and revising at the same time, and honestly, this is one of the worst things you can do. Not only are you trying to use both sides of your brain at the same time, so the creative side and the analytical side. It just doesn't make sense from a big picture perspective. And that's because when you revise while you write, you don't know where things are headed yet.

So, for example, you might go into scene three and decide that your protagonist needs a sidekick. So you might go back to scenes one and two and three to weave that sidekick character in. And then, let's say, you keep writing forward until maybe scene 12. Then you get to scene 12 and you realize like, yeah, that sidekick wasn't really a good idea. They're kind of just hanging out in the background. Maybe I don't really need them. I think I'm going to remove them. So again, you stop and you go back to scenes one through 12, removing that character, and you know the effects that character had in your plot and things like that. So then you write forward, maybe until scene 14, and you realize you know what. I probably should have kept that character in, but maybe made them into a budding love interest, and you know. So you go back and you revise scenes 1 through 14, and this cycle just repeats and repeats, and repeats. And this is a problem because you don't know what's going to be decided by the end of your draft. So why not just wait and see where things land before you go back and revise everything? You can, of course, keep notes and keep track of what you're thinking, but you don't need to go backwards and keep editing the same scenes before you get to the end.

Now, on a smaller scale, I see other writers who will stop mid-scene, mid -sentence, because they want to find a better word for something. So they'll grab their thesaurus and, who knows, they'll spend 10 to 30 minutes picking a new word. That's 10 to 30 minutes that you weren't writing, and who knows if that word will even end up in your final draft. So it can add up to a lot of wasted time, right? If you're spending 10 to 30 minutes on just one word, imagine what that is over time. So it's kind of like I said before you need to focus on the right things.

When you're writing your draft, focus on writing. When it's time to revise, focus on revising. It sounds simple and obvious, but it's surprisingly hard to do. However, again, writing and revising at the same time will not make you a better writer, so please, please, don't do that to yourself. The next thing that will not make you a better writer is writing and rewriting your first chapter over and, over and over again, and I see this happen all the time. These writers, they'll get stuck at the starting line and they'll never make progress beyond the first few chapters and they certainly don't finish their books. And this kind of ties back to what I was just saying about not writing and revising at the same time.

Sometimes you just have to let your first chapter be what it is until you know where your story is going at the end. And then, once you get to the end of your draft, you're going to know so much more about your story that it will actually be easier to write a compelling opening chapter that fits the rest of the story and sets up things to come. So you'll know where your character's arc ends and therefore where it needs to start. You'll know what world building details are important and therefore what you need to set up at the beginning, and things like that. Also, if we zoom out and think about what this behavior is rooted in, it's most likely perfectionism, right?

A lot of writers think if they can just get their first chapter quote unquote right, then the rest of their story will work, can just get their first chapter quote-unquote right, then the rest of their story will work. But that is not true. You're going to need to revise your story no matter what, and the opening chapter is often the chapter that needs the most revising, no matter how hard you worked on it or how much time you've spent on it already. It's just the nature of how things go because, like I said, you need to know the ending of your story to write a compelling beginning. So please don't let yourself get stuck here writing and rewriting that opening chapter. This will not make you a better writer and it will really just stall all of your progress and your growth. So don't get stuck there Now. Similarly to what I just said, the next thing that will not make you a better writer is obsessively studying story theory or story structure without putting it into practice.

A lot of writers think they can write the perfect first draft if they study all kinds of story theory, or they think they can fix whatever's wrong with their writing by studying story theory or, you know, learning one more way of plotting out your book. And yes, sometimes stuff like this can be helpful, but more often than not, writers will dig into a bunch of different writing methods, like the hero's journey, save the cat, the snowflake method I mean, there are so many different methods, right and they'll read a bunch of books on story structure and story theory. They watch YouTube videos, binge podcasts, et cetera, et cetera, but what they're not doing is actually taking action on what they're learning. So they're just absorbing knowledge, and this is great in theory, right, it's good to read craft books, but you're not actually internalizing what you're learning as much as you could be if you were putting what you're learning into practice. So learning story theory and or a new, different way to structure your story or develop your characters probably won't help you become a better writer. It's more about putting into practice what you learn. That will, for sure, help you become a better writer and actually finish your draft. Now, another little thing I want to add on to this one is that the other thing I don't want you doing is layering different writing methods together and trying to make your story tick all the boxes. And an example of what this looks like in real life I worked with a writer once who came to me with the first draft and said something like I think I need to give up on this, I think it's really broken beyond repair, and I just kind of need you to confirm that that's the case.

So I read his draft and it was pretty much the same quality of a lot of other first drafts I've read, so it wasn't shockingly horrible or anything like that to me. There were some things that worked, some things that needed small tweaks in order to work and other things that needed to be added or removed so very standard, in my opinion, for a first draft. And then I opened this other attachment that he sent me, which was this giant spreadsheet or grid or whatever you want to call it, of like 20 different writing methods and a tab for each element. So one tab was character development, the other was plot structure. There was one for scene writing, you know stuff. One for setting. He had tabs for everything. On that plot structure tab he had Save the Cat, heroes Journey, the Snowflake Method, story Grids, genre Framework, story Grids, genre Framework, the Three-Act Structure, dan Harmon's Story Circle. I mean, he had so many different things on this one tab and what he thought he needed was to check off every single box in every single one of these methods for his story to work.

But that wasn't true. His first draft was actually doing everything a first draft should do. So it helped him get his ideas on the page. It gave him something to revise and to mold to match his vision and, like I said, it was not broken beyond repair. It wasn't any worse off than the other first drafts I read. So I told him this and he was relieved but kind of also thinking like, well, what do I do now? Right, should I not use these methods or what? And what ended up happening is I gave him my edit notes because I was doing a manuscript evaluation for him and I said, ok, follow these notes, go in order of big picture to small picture and you will be able to turn this first draft into something that's more like the quality of a third draft. And I told him.

You know, it's totally fine to follow a plotting method or a character development method or whatever, but just pick one, because the thing is they're all going to get you to the same place, and what I like to say is that each method is really just someone's interpretation of, and advice on, how to write a novel. So I like to use the example of let's say, I move into a brand new house and I ask five people how should I decorate my house? Each one of them will give me a solution and a plan for decorating my house, but I would not be able to combine all of their ideas or methods or plans into anything that actually looked good or worked. And so it's the same thing with writing right. All of those methods will get you to ideally, the same result, which is a story that works. But it's going to be impossible, and you're going to drive yourself crazy, to follow every single one of them and tick all the boxes of every single method out there. So better to just pick one. Use it from start to finish. That way, you'll start to understand it on a deeper, more practical level and, like I said, they're all designed to get you to the same result, so better to pick one and stick with it than trying to do too many things at once.

Now, the final thing that will not help you become a better writer is an unwillingness to invest in your craft. And hear me out, because I don't just mean financially investing in your craft, but I will talk about that in a second. The first thing you can invest is your time, so carving out time and actually showing up to your desk to write. Again, you'll want to make sure you're focused on the right things when you do sit down to write, so crafting a solid story versus filling out a handful of character trait tables or things like that. You can also invest in learning about something new. So you know, signing up for a workshop on world building that's a great investment in your craft, for sure. But again, what you need to make sure you're doing is taking action on what you learn in that workshop, right? But again, what you need to make sure you're doing is taking action on what you learn in that workshop, right? Investing might also look like swapping first drafts with a critique partner, so you would be investing your time and energy into reading their draft and offering feedback in exchange for them doing the same for you, right? So lots of ways you can invest your time.

Now what about investing your money? I do think that at some point it is worth investing in your craft, if you can. I know not everyone can, and that is okay too. So if you can't afford it, that is okay. But let's say you can't. What could this look like? Well, if you're struggling to get your story started and finished, maybe you hire a book coach to help you flesh out your ideas and get your draft finished. If you've already written a draft, that would be a good time to work with a developmental editor before taking the next steps, whether that's self-publishing or querying agents. You could also work with beta readers, and there is a great beta reading service I recommend. They're called the Spun Yarn. You can Google them if you're interested, but because they're a professional service that gives you feedback from multiple beta readers at once, it does cost money compared to finding a random beta reader on the internet. Also, they are very well trained, so you would be paying for that as well.

Now, why do I say it's worthwhile to invest money in your craft? Well, this is the best, most personalized way to learn what you're doing and what you can improve on. So, whether you're working with a writing coach or a developmental editor or whoever it is, you're getting that one-on-one attention and feedback, and that can really help you grow a lot in a short amount of time. So if you do have the budget to work with a professional at any point in the process, I do highly recommend it. I also recommend checking out online writing courses, as long as you're going to implement what you learn. So, like I said earlier, you can take all the writing classes in the world, but unless you're implementing what you're learning, it's not going to matter. In my own course, notes to Novel, that's opening for enrollment in a few weeks I've actually baked in implementation weeks where there's no new content delivered, but it's more about catching up on doing all the work, so implementing what you're learning, and the students that go through my course love this part because it helps them actually make progress towards their goals, which, in my opinion, is the whole point, right.

So, all of that being said, I do think investing your time and or your money into your craft at some stage is important. It's an investment in other people, yes, but more importantly, it's an investment in yourself and your dream of being an author and, if you ask me, that's pretty dang important and it's definitely something you deserve. So that's the last thing I have for you today. That will not help you become a better writer, and I know I went over a lot. So let me quickly recap the 10 things that will not make you a better writer before I let you go.

So number one is waiting until you're quote unquote ready to write a book, and this is something you shouldn't do, because chances are you will never feel 100% ready to start writing better, to just get into action. Number two is writing a lot of words without getting some kind of outside feedback, and this is something you don't want to do, because what you're going to end up doing is turning those mistakes that every writer makes during their first second draft into ingrained habits. So, potentially, you're going to end up becoming a worse writer in this scenario, which is not ideal. The third thing that will to end up becoming a worse writer in this scenario, which is not ideal, the third thing that will not help you become a better writer is joining the wrong kind of writing group. So, again, usually this is an aspiring group of writers who are not able, for whatever reason, to give you helpful and or constructive feedback. Again, not a blanket statement, but you really want to find a group with similar vibes, similar goals and, ideally, a common language, because that will help you get the kind of result you want from a writing group.

Number four is comparing yourself to other writers and or comparing your work in progress to published drafts, to published books, and the reason this is a problem is because it's just not a fair or accurate comparison. So we don't know what went into that writer's journey or that published book. Right, we can't compare their final result with our work in progress. It's just not fair. Number five is not reading published books in your genre. So, again, whether you're waiting to start reading after you've already written your book, or if you're just not reading because you haven't carved out the time or because you don't want it to influence your draft, whatever it is, I do think this is a mistake for all the reasons I listed earlier. So really important to make sure you're reading inside and outside your genre.

Number six is focusing on the wrong things. So, again, these are things that maybe, if you're writing a first draft, don't actually matter to your first draft, things like polishing your prose or making sure you have the right word choice or all those details of a setting figured out right. Those things don't matter when you're writing your first draft. So make sure you're focusing on the right things. And speaking of number seven is writing and revising at the same time. So, again, we don't want to do this because it is using two parts of our brain and that makes it really hard for us to focus. It makes it really hard for us to complete something. So when you're writing, focus on writing. When you're revising, focus on revising.

Number eight is writing and rewriting your first chapter. Again, a lot of writers do this because they think if I write the perfect first chapter, then I will write a draft that works. But that's not how it works. So let your first chapter be what it is, get to the end and then come back and tackle it again. Number nine is learning story theory without putting it into practice and or layering different writing methods together. So it is great to learn different methods for doing things, whether it be plotting or character development or whatever, but without putting what you're learning into practice, or if you go the other extreme of putting trying to put all the things into practice, it's not actually going to help you become a better writer. And finally, number 10 is not investing your time and or your money into your craft.

So that's it for today's episode. As always, thank you so much for tuning in and for showing your support. If you want to check out any of the links I mentioned in this episode, you can find them in the show notes listed in the description of each episode inside your podcast player or at savannahgilbocom forward slash podcast. If you're an Apple user, I'd really appreciate it if you took a few seconds to leave a rating and a review. Your ratings and reviews tell Apple that this is a podcast that's worth listening to and, in turn, your reviews will help this podcast get in front of more fiction writers just like you. And while you're there, go ahead and hit that follow button, because there's going to be another 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 and until then, happy writing.