SPEAKER_02: 0:40

Unlike real life, which is often random and chaotic, stories need to follow an internal logic that creates meaning. So each scene needs to grow naturally from what came before it and plant seeds for what comes after it. This deliberate type of cause and effect chain is what's going to distinguish a story that's well crafted from a story that's full of just a sequence of events. 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, we're going to do something fun and a little different. Since we're nearing the end of 2025, I thought it would be fun to do a little highlight reel of clips from the top 10 most listened to episodes this year. So I took the top 10 most popular episodes and I grabbed my favorite clip from each one to share with you today. And trust me when I say that you are in for a treat. You're going to hear tips on things like how to write a great plot twist, how to prioritize the romantic relationship in a romanticy, how to edit your novel using a reverse outline, and so much more. And if a particular clip catches your ear, don't worry, I've got you covered. All the links to these full episodes are waiting for you in the show notes, ready for a deep dive whenever you are. So grab your favorite notebook, settle in, and let's kick things off with tip number 10. The first tip on our countdown, or tip number 10, comes from episode number 187 called How to Write an Unforgettable Plot Twist in Your Novel with Samantha Skall. And in this episode, we dive into the mechanics of crafting plot twists that are both surprising and satisfying. In this clip, Samantha shares her secrets for using red herrings and misdirection to lead readers down the wrong path while still playing fair. So here's the clip.

SPEAKER_03: 2:48

Once you figure out what your villain is doing and why, think about what your protagonist will assume is going on because assumptions of motivations is another way to think about twists. It's like I'm assuming this very logical thing about why this person is doing this thing, and I am wildly wrong. And the wildly wrong reveal is your twist, right? So if I'm looking, you know, I'm in my awesome dress and I'm in this basement in prohibition era and there's barrels of whiskey or whatever all around, I'm going to assume that it's about the whiskey. But maybe it's not. Maybe it's about the building, maybe it's about who this person was. And then, you know, you can kind of play it out like that, but always think about the fact that your person who's doing bad things is trying actively not to get caught. And so they will be putting things in place to prevent your protagonist from figuring out what's happened, which can be red herrings, right? So even if your villain is going in there and being like, ooh, look, there's this, I don't know, chest of gold that is obviously the reason this is happening. Like, what if that was planted there for the sole purpose of derailing your protagonist's investigation into what happened?

SPEAKER_02: 3:52

Yeah, that makes sense. And so there's things, like you said, the villain can do. There's things that think about if you have, let's say, five people in the room, right? There's another person that might have been cheating on their spouse. And so they might be worried they're gonna be found out. So they're also trying to manipulate, even though they have nothing to do with the crime, they just don't want to be questioned, right? So it's like you can just think about like what is everyone doing, which I find really helps populate the plot.

SPEAKER_03: 4:17

Absolutely. Someone who's being shifty when being questioned, the assumption is going to be that they were a part of the crime. But if they have a very good reason for that shiftiness that has nothing to do with it, all of a sudden there's a twist. Yes. Right. And it's it doesn't have to be like a major twist. It can just be, you know, maybe closer to your midpoint, maybe like 65% or something. It just keeps it moving. So one of my favorite things to do when I get to that point is, you know, once I kind of have a landscape of what's going on and I have all this messy stuff, I figure out what I want my climactic kind of moment to look like and which person my protagonist is going to face off against. That doesn't always have to be your person doing bad things ultimately. It does have to answer the story question of like who killed the person in the, you know, the body on the first page. Um, but you can have all kinds of stuff that happens before then. And so mapping out like what my protagonist is experiencing is what's on the page as the plot. And it'll have like sub-bullets of what the villain is actually doing during all of this and what they're like, oh my God, they're too close. I'm gonna burn this building down or whatever. Um, and then seeing how the protagonist reacts to that on-screen clue, basically, of like, oh, the building burned down because of lightning, right? You know, or because this cheating spouse decided they didn't want their evidence to be uncovered, but that doesn't actually solve my initial crime. And so getting messy, really good way of saying it.

SPEAKER_02: 5:41

All right, now tip number nine comes from episode number 210 called Five Tips for Writing a Multi-Point of View Novel Without Confusing Your Readers. If you've ever struggled to juggle multiple viewpoint characters, or if you've ever felt worried that they all sound the same, then this episode and this clip is for you. In this clip, I break down exactly how to develop distinctive voices that make each point of view character feel like the protagonist of their own story. So let's dive right into the clip. So once you've figured out which point of view characters are truly necessary, it's time to develop each one fully. And I mean fully. Each point of view character should feel like the protagonist of their own story, complete with their own arc and their own distinctive voice. And here's what I mean by distinctive voice. Your reader should be able to tell whose perspective they're reading from the writing alone, without needing chapter headings or name tags. Of course, you can include those things as well, but ideally, readers should be able to tell whose perspective they're in just from reading the text alone. So to come up with a distinctive voice for each character, I want you to think about how each one of your point of view characters uses different sentence structures. So for example, do they talk in a short and clipped way, or is their way of speaking more flowing and descriptive? I also want you to think about how each point of view character notices different details in their environment. So for example, a soldier might spot exits in every room, while an artist might focus on the light and color of any given environment. You can also think about each character's unique vocabulary, the metaphors they use, and the speech patterns they have, as well as how they each react emotionally in ways that reflect their personality. Alright, so that's where I would start in terms of developing distinctive voices for each of your characters. But voice is just one piece of the puzzle. Each point of view character also needs their own complete character arc. So they should start the story with specific goals and flaws, face challenges that test them, grow throughout the story, and reach some kind of resolution by the end. And so if you're writing a story with multiple point of view characters, here's what I want you to do. I want you to create a character worksheet for each point of view character that includes their unique voice characteristics, their worldview, their goals, and a description of their art. And then as an extra challenge, I want you to write a page from each character describing the same moment. Their voices should be so distinct that someone else could read those pages and immediately know which character is which. Alright, now this next tip or tip number eight comes from episode number 175 called Five Easy Time Management Strategies to Write Your Novel Faster. This episode is packed with practical strategies for making the most of your writing time, but this particular tip is for all the perfectionists out there. In this clip, I challenge you to take off your perfectionist hat and embrace the messy first draft because trying to write and edit at the same time is most likely what's keeping you stuck and keeping you in perfectionism. So here is the tip. Perfectionism can really, really hurt your time management because when you're hung up on creating the perfect sentence or figuring out the perfect details or whatever you're trying to do, you literally halt your forward momentum and most of the time you'll stay stuck. So if you do have that hour set aside that you're trying to write for the day, you basically spend that hour just being stuck on the same thing, and therefore your entire session more or less becomes a waste of time. So it's really, really hard to move forward when you're in this perfectionism state because you feel like you have to get everything right before going on ahead. But what happens to many writers, and what I don't want to happen to you, is that this feeling of perfectionism or this desire to kind of halt progress and make sure you get things figured out, more often than not, that's the main reason that writers end up giving up. It's because they don't produce something that's perfect or they don't produce, you know, the first draft that looks like other finished books. And so they end up walking away from their story altogether, which I hate to see. So let me share an analogy that will maybe help to put this in perspective. I want you to think about when you're spring cleaning or cleaning your house at any time of the year. The first thing that most of us do is we make a giant mess, right? So we pull everything from the closet or the kitchen drawers or whatever, and we throw it all over our counter or our bed or on the floor. And it really is a giant mess. I am guilty of this as well. Then the next thing we do is maybe we separate it into piles, right? So there's stuff we want to throw away, there's stuff we want to keep, and there's stuff we want to donate because we don't need it anymore. So we separate things into piles, and then everything that we keep we put away in a neat and orderly fashion. So we have this fresh, clean closet that we're super proud of, or these fresh kitchen drawers that are all organized, and it's a really great feeling, right? There's no better feeling than a freshly cleaned house. Now, what does this have to do with writing? Well, your first draft works exactly the same way. First, you need to get all those ideas out of your head and onto the page. And yes, it's going to be messy and imperfect. That's totally fine. And then once you have everything on the page, only then can you start organizing and polishing that mess into something you're proud of. Now, I know this can feel really uncomfortable. The urge to edit as you go is so, so strong. But when you try to write and edit at the same time, what you're doing is constantly switching between your creative brain and your analytical brain. And every time you make that switch, you're breaking your momentum and making it harder to get back into the flow of your story. So here's what I want you to try instead. When you sit down to write, give yourself permission to write something that's messy. Yes, messy, not tidy. We are not worried about being tidy or having everything figured out when you sit down to write your first draft. And here's why. Your first draft is supposed to be a work in progress. It's literally called a work in progress, right? Your only job is to get the story out of your head and get it onto the page so you have something to revise later. Now, if you find the idea of trying this strategy tough, because many writers do, then I want you to just start small. So try writing for just 10 minutes without allowing yourself to edit. And then as you go, let's say like each week, you can gradually increase that time. So week one, maybe you write for 10 minutes without allowing yourself to edit, and then the next week you try to do it for 15 minutes without allowing yourself to edit. I really do think you'll be amazed at how much more you can get accomplished when you're not consistently second-guessing or going back to rewrite every single word. Alright, now tip number seven comes from episode number 182 called Writing Romanticy: How to Balance Fantasy Elements and Romance in Your Novel. And with romanticity taking the publishing world by storm, understanding how to balance these two elements in your story is crucial. So in this clip, I explain why the romantic relationship in your romantic novel needs to do more than just add romantic tension. It needs to fundamentally change your characters and help them grow and change. So here is the tip. Whether you're writing fantasy romance or romantic fantasy, the romantic relationship between your characters is critical to your story's success. You'll want to start by fully developing each character individually before bringing them together. So for each character, you can ask yourself things like, how does this character feel about love and relationships? Do they want love or a relationship? And if so, why? Do they avoid or fear love in relationships? If so, why? Do they feel they're deserving or undeserving of love or an intimate relationship? And if so, why? And then how do these beliefs change by the end of the story? Now, if you're writing fantasy romance, your story will show how characters grow and change in their beliefs about love. Since these are romance stories first, the romantic relationship needs to be the primary catalyst for that internal conflict and growth. The action and fantasy elements can definitely contribute to the character development, but that romantic relationship needs to be the primary catalyst for that change. If you're writing romantic fantasy, on the other hand, your story will demonstrate how love helps change your protagonist and how that change either helps or harms their survival. And what this means is that both the external conflict and the romantic relationship should drive your character's growth and change. And it's this dual catalyst for growth and change that distinguishes romantic, particularly romantic fantasy, from a standard fantasy novel with a romantic subplot. Okay, I'm gonna say that one more time because it's really important. It's this dual catalyst for growth that distinguishes romantic novels, particularly romantic fantasy novels, from standard fantasy books with romantic subplots. So in a regular fantasy story like The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, Kvos' relationship with Dennna isn't the primary driver of his growth. His education, his experiences, and his confrontations with the external conflicts and sources of antagonism play a much larger role, challenging him and encouraging him to grow and change. Okay, so that's an example of a regular fantasy novel that includes a romantic subplot. But in true romantic novels, whether that's fantasy romance or romantic fantasy, the love interest or that romantic subplot must significantly contribute to or cause the protagonist's transformation. Now, back to romantic fantasy. When it comes to the relationship in your romantic fantasy novel, remember that readers aren't necessarily expecting or guaranteed a happily ever after ending, especially in a book series. Your story might feature more of a slow burn romance that develops gradually over books, or it might even feature a protagonist who has multiple romantic partners across a book series. So think of someone like Ailen in Throne of Glass or Tori in Zodiac Academy, right? Both characters have multiple romantic partners across a series and they eventually get there happily ever after. Either way, what matters most is that readers care deeply about your characters, both individually and as a romantic pairing. In stories that have high-stake action and complex plots, this emotional connection is really key. If readers don't care about your characters and their relationships, then they're not going to be invested in their survival or happiness. So this step is really important. You'll need to develop the relationship between your characters, of course, starting with their individual development and then their relationships development once you bring them together. All right, now the next tip or tip number six comes from episode number 195 called How Deliberate Practice Can Improve Your Fiction Writing with Tim Groll. And in this conversation, Tim shares an approach from Story Grid that flips traditional writing education on its head. In this clip, he explains why starting with scene-level mastery instead of big picture plotting is the key to actually finishing your novel. So here's the tip.

SPEAKER_00: 16:39

The number one thing you have to learn how to do is get the five commandments of storytelling in with a clear object of desire. So that means something has changed in the scene. And in order for something to change, there has to be conflict. And so with a story without conflict isn't a story, it's a list of things that happened. Right. And so the way that you get conflict in, and the first thing to practice is two characters that want different things. So if I come to you and um I'm like, Savannah, I need to borrow$50,000. And you're like, I don't want to let you borrow$50,000. Right. But now we have conflict, and I'm the antagonist because I want something from you and you don't want to do it for me. I was the inciting incident by asking you for$50,000. Right. Now we decide, well, how far are each of us going to go to get our object of desire? So why do I need$50,000? Is it because I want a new Tesla or because my daughter was kidnapped, and if I don't have that money to them by 9 a.m., they're going to kill her. Right. Now, how far will I go to get that$50,000? Right?

SPEAKER_02: 17:44

Yeah, which means we need that strong motivation.

SPEAKER_00: 17:46

Yeah. Yeah. And you could see it could become physical between us if that's how bad I want that$50,000.

SPEAKER_02: 17:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:53

So it's like, can you write that very simple setup of a scene that changes to the point where either you didn't give me$50,000 or you did give me$50,000? Somebody has to win the scene.

SPEAKER_02: 18:06

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 18:06

And so that's where we start writers is can you write those types of scenes? And then you can start getting more nuanced.

SPEAKER_02: 18:13

Yeah. And I'm sure there's discussion around like, okay, yes, you can write it. And I see this happen sometimes where they'll be like, you gave me a budget of 1,500 words, and I just got to the inciting incident at 1,500 words. And so it's like, yes, you can write it, but it also needs to be balanced with the descriptions, the showing and telling, the you know, action, things like that.

SPEAKER_00: 18:32

Yeah, we actually start people at 800 words. I started when I was running the workshops at 1,500 words. And what I found is if you can't do it at 800 words, you can't do it at 1500 or 3,000 or 4,000 words. And straining it down does is it forces you to cut out all of the fluff and get right to the point.

SPEAKER_02: 18:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00: 18:51

Then what we found is once people can do that 800 words and we start loosening up the word count, they get right into the point and the scenes actually become better and better and better. Yeah. Or if we start somebody at 2,000 words and they just fill it with fluff, it's so much harder to get through and get feedback on.

SPEAKER_02: 19:10

All right, next up is tip number five from episode number 192 called Five Big Picture First Draft Mistakes and How to Fix Them. In this clip, I talk about narrative drive and I explain what it really is and why disconnected conflicts that happen to your protagonist instead of because of their choices will lose you readers fast. So here is the tip. Narrative drive is really just what keeps readers turning the pages. It's what pushes your story forward through clear cause and effect relationships between events. So what does that look like? So let's say that your current draft features a series of disconnected scenes where things just kind of happen to your protagonist rather than because of their choices, then you're likely lacking that sense of narrative drive. So this might feel like this happened in this scene, then this happened in this scene, and then this other thing happened in this other scene with no real clear connection between each scene or each event. And this is what I like to call the so what problem. Readers finish a scene and instead of being pulled into the next one, they pause and they think, well, so what? Why should I care what happens next? And this is important because unlike real life, which is often random and chaotic, stories need to follow an internal logic that creates meaning. So each scene needs to grow naturally from what came before it and plant seeds for what comes after it. This deliberate type of cause and effect chain is what's going to distinguish a story that's well crafted from. From a story that's full of just a sequence of events. So if you think you have this problem in your draft, let's talk about how to fix it. I want you to go through each one of your scenes and ask yourself: does this scene happen because of choices made in previous scenes? Does it force new choices that will affect future scenes? If not, then you might need to strengthen all the connections between scenes or reconsider whether a particular scene belongs in your story at all. This exercise is going to quickly reveal where that sense of narrative drive in your story breaks down and/or where it needs reinforcement. Alright, now tip number four comes from episode number 197 called How to Write a Novel That Hooks Readers Through Curiosity, Not Confusion. And I love this tip because a lot of writers think that withholding information creates tension and suspense, but it often just creates frustrated readers. So in this clip, I break down exactly what information you need to share up front so that readers can focus on the mystery that actually matters. So here is the clip. The first thing you need to do is give readers the essential context. So before you can make readers curious about the missing piece of the puzzle, whatever that is, they need to understand the overall picture or the bigger scope of the story. This means establishing things like your story world, your characters, and the basic conflict or situation clearly. So your job is not to hide everything. Instead, it's to ground readers in the essential context so that they can focus on the mystery that matters. As an example, consider how the book Gone Girl opens. Amy is one of the protagonists and she is missing. Nick is the husband, he's the other protagonist, and the police are investigating what happened. So we're not confused about the genre, the setting, the timeline, or the basic situation. The author has given us all of the big picture context immediately, and therefore we're able to focus on the real question, which is what really happened to Amy. So again, the key is to provide enough context so that readers can properly focus on the mystery and the story instead of scrambling to understand where they are or what's happening. And the key thing to remember here is that any information that you do choose to withhold from readers should be carefully constructed and intentional. Readers need to understand the shape of what's missing while feeling completely grounded in your story and the bigger context. So again, you're not hiding that bigger context or the foundation of kind of where that mystery comes from. You're just strategically placing gaps within a clear context or a clear foundation. All right, now tip number three comes from episode number 209 called How to Revise Your Novel Like a Pro Without Losing Your Mind with Alice Sudlow. And if you've ever felt overwhelmed trying to revise your manuscript, then this episode is a must-listen. In this clip, Alice shares the reverse outlining method that helps you see your story's true structure and identify exactly what needs work. So here is the clip.

SPEAKER_01: 23:41

So the next thing to do is to come back to the manuscript and read it with purpose. And the purpose at this stage, in the approach that I take, the purpose at this stage is to make an outline of what is on the page. So you're not reading the manuscript with the uh uh goal of going in to make changes. Absolutely not. That's the last thing I recommend. We're not trying to make any changes to the manuscript right now. Uh one more time for the people in the back, Alice. Do not make changes to the manuscript at this stage. You're just going to be like putting in energy in the least efficient way. You will, you know, things will be different, but they won't be holistically improving the manuscript on the whole. Yeah. Um, so we are not here to make changes. We're also not really here at this stage to look for things to change. Those ideas are going to come up. And so I recommend keeping a list to the side where you're writing down all of the ideas for things that you are that are coming to mind as you're going through this, but you're not even necessarily going to look for those things. All we're trying to do is to go into the manuscript and create an outline of what is there. And there are a few different forms that this outline can take. It can be really, really brief and short. I've made outlines of manuscripts that are just reminders for me of what each scene basically is, where I just write down like five words to describe the scene. Um, but really at this stage, what I think is most helpful is if you challenge yourself to summarize what is on the page and capture both what is happening, like what literally the characters are doing, and also why that matters to the story, how it impacts the plot and how it impacts the characters internally. And what you will do as you do that, first off, you'll condense the story down into a document that's way easier to manage. You will no longer have to hold 100,000 words in your head at a time. You will just have to hold 5,000 words in your head. And that's so much easier. But also, you're going to see, oh, wait, I can't figure out why this scene matters. There's no answer to that. And that's going to be a really illuminating thing with that, will just start already sparking ideas for noticing what's working really strong in the story and where you've got some weak spots. So the next thing is, I'm assuming at this point, as you have gone through that story and noticed, oh, this the scene with the characters getting coffee is really boring, you've probably made note of that in your list of notes about your story. Now, what I recommend is to it's like go down to base principles. I actually, so when I'm working with a writer, I read this outline and then we set it aside for a while and we use it as reference when we need to remember, okay, what did Katniss do in that scene? But we don't actually even make any changes to that outline at this stage. We go back down to base principles, and I ask or I recommend that you ask yourself really fundamental questions. So that would be, in fact, let me pull up my my my guide here that I'm building out with the list of questions that I ask. Um that would be why are you writing this story at all? Like, let's just start there. What's the purpose of this story? What is the point of this story? So what is kind of the meaning that this story is carrying underneath it? Every story does have a point. So we're not trying to be super didactic here. We're just trying to acknowledge what what movement is happening in this story. Right. Uh what is your what is your character's goal? What are they trying to accomplish in this story? Uh, what are the stakes of the story? What changes is this, you know, are we have do we have life or death stakes? Do we have success or failure stakes? What are the stakes in this story? What are the what's the what's the character's arc of change? This is kind of related to the stakes, but it's the stakes on the inside of the character. How are they going to be different at the ends at the end of the story than the beginning of the story? Uh, and what is the genre of the story? And I ask that one last at the end of that list because all of those other questions are going to give you clues to the genre. And so the genre is kind of like doubling down on, okay, now that we see all of these things, they point us here. I know that you, or I think that you encourage your writers to go into their first draft process with some awareness of what their genre is. So some of these questions, again, because we're using the same tools at the same different stages, some of these questions are going to be easier to answer because you've already answered them. But sometimes those answers change, you know, over the course of your drafting process. Sometimes they shift, sometimes you discover new layers to them. So now we're going back to these questions and doubling down. And then the last one in that stage is what is the story's point of view, which is it's I ask it at this stage, I kind of hold it to the end because that's really about how we're presenting the information to the reader. Those, all those other ones, though, they're about what information are we trying to present. So those that's what I do at this stage is we ask a ton of fundamental questions about what the story is.

SPEAKER_02: 28:47

All right, now our second to last tip comes from episode number 177 called Three Things You Need to Write Your Novel in 2025, although this can apply to any year. Now, many writers focus exclusively on learning craft techniques when they set out to write a book. And I believe this is actually what leads to perfectionism and procrastination. So in this clip, I explain why craft is just one piece of the puzzle and how focusing on craft alone can actually keep you stuck in writer's block. So here is the clip. Alright, now the third thing you need to write your novel in 2025 or any year really is craft. And this is what most writers focus on exclusively. So the actual writing techniques and storytelling skills needed to write a story that works. And while of course craft is really important, it's not everything. If you don't have a process to follow to help you turn your ideas into an actual full-length story, it doesn't matter if you know how to write technically good sentences or the most beautiful prose. If you don't have the right mindset to stay in the game when things get tough, it doesn't matter if you know how to develop your character's backstory or build a story world from scratch. Now, I'm not going to go too deep into this one because this podcast is full of craft tips, but here's what all of this boils down to. I see way too many writers focus on just learning the craft of writing. And what this leads to is perfectionism and oftentimes procrastination. We know what we need to do in theory. We see examples of stories that work, and then we try to write our own stories only to feel disappointed that the stories we write don't live up to the examples we see or to our expectations, which are usually pretty high. I also see too many writers discount the importance of mindset. And when you're not in the right mindset to write a book and deal with the ups and downs that happen to everybody, not just first-time writers, this is what makes us spiral into self-doubt and have those feelings of imposter syndrome pop up. And then I also see too many writers without a process to follow, which leads to overwhelm and trying to do too many things at once. So here's the thing: all of these things, these feelings I just mentioned, self-doubt, overwhelm, perfectionism, and procrastination, all of that's writer's block. And writer's block has nothing to do with your capabilities or the quality of your ideas, okay? I'm gonna say that one more time because it's very important. If you're experiencing writer's block, it has nothing to do with your capabilities or the quality of your ideas. It all boils down to trying to write a book with an imbalance of those three things: process, mindset, and craft. You need these three things working together in tandem to be the kind of writer that finishes and publishes their book. And when these three things work together, that's when the magic happens. But when they're out of balance, that's when writers typically struggle. All right, moving on to our very last clip, I saved the best one for last, and this one comes from episode number 203 called Why Writing Advice is Keeping You Stuck and What to Do Instead. And this might be the most important message for writers who have been consuming advice but struggling to finish their novels. In this clip, I reveal why having too much information creates paralysis, and I share one question that changes everything for stuck writers. So here is the clip. One of my students spent five years, yes, five years, writing and rewriting the first few chapters of her novel. She'd read an article about opening hooks and then go back to revise it. She'd discover a new plotting method and then she would start over. She'd listen to a podcast about character voice and think, oh my gosh, I've been doing it all wrong. And you guessed it, she'd start over. And eventually she scrapped the whole thing. Sound familiar? If you can relate to this, I want you to know that you're so not alone. But here's what's really happening when you're stuck in this research or information gathering mode. What's really happening is that you're not actually learning to write. You're learning to avoid writing. And that's because every new piece of advice becomes another reason to doubt what you've already written. Every expert's quote-unquote must-haves become another standard that you're failing to meet. Every contradictory opinion becomes another excuse to stop and reconsider everything you've already done. And I get it, I really do. You've heard me say before that I am a recovering perfectionist. I love to learn, I love to collect information. But when you're just starting out or when you've been stuck writing your novel for a while, it can often feel safer to keep learning than to risk doing it wrong. And that's because your inner critic will whisper things to you like, you need to know more before you start, or real writers understand all this stuff already. Or if you just find the right method, then maybe writing your first draft will be easy. Or maybe worst of all, you're just not ready yet. But here's the truth bomb that you need to hear. You are never going to feel ready enough. And I'm gonna say that one more time because it's so important. You are never going to feel ready enough to write a novel. I've worked with hundreds of writers and not one of them has felt ready enough before starting. But the ones that go on to finish their books, they start anyway. Okay, so think about it like this for a second. When you're trying to write your novel, you're already juggling like 47 different elements, right? Plot, character development, dialogue, pacing, world building, theme, voice, scene structure, and approximately 39 other things. Now add to the fact that every expert out there has their own terminology, their own quote-unquote foolproof method, and their own strong opinions about the quote-unquote right way to do things. And it starts to become a lot, right? The save the cat method says that your inciting incident should happen at the 10% mark, but the hero's journey calls it the call to adventure and suggests that it happens around 12 to 15%. Depending on where you look, the three-act structure might have it at the end of act one. And then you might find yourself over on Story Grid's website that has totally different terminology altogether. And it's not just about structure, right? One expert might swear by a detailed 40-page outline that maps out every single scene. Another insists that outlines kill creativity and that you should just go ahead and pants the whole thing. Some say that you must know your ending before you even start writing, and others say discovering the ending is half the fun. And we could still go on and on. So it's no wonder you're feeling stuck or overwhelmed or worried about getting right. In one of my group coaching calls earlier this week, one of my students described it perfectly. She was talking about how she'd consumed almost every writing podcast, and yes, even this one that you're listening to. She'd bought multiple courses and knew more about the craft of writing a novel than many published authors seem to. But despite having all of that knowledge stored in her notebook, her web browser, her brain, whatever, she still couldn't finish a first draft. And that's because too much information creates way too many choices for you. And too many choices creates this kind of paralysis or freezing and not being able to move forward. So instead of asking, what else do I need to learn? I'd rather you ask something like, what would happen if I only followed one approach all the way through to the end of my draft? So we're not looking for the perfect approach, we're not looking for a combination of 17 different methods, just one complete system from start to finish. Now, like I said, I know a lot of writers who experience this kind of overwhelm from all of the craft advice out there. And when some of my students made this shift from thinking, let me try to couple all these methods together to I'm gonna follow one process from start to finish. Here's what happened. Jenny went from 12 years of false start to completing her first draft in six months, despite being a busy mom with a full-time job and elderly parents to care for. Lindsay spent six months trying to draft on her own and only managed to write 25,000 words, and then she committed to one clear process from start to finish, and she wrote 100,000 words in the next six months. Another writer went from five years of writing and rewriting the same chapters to actually finishing a complete manuscript. And yes, these are people just like you who finally stopped collecting advice and started following one proven process from start to finish. Alright, so there you have it, some of the best clips from the fiction writing made easy podcast in 2025. If any of these clips sparked your attention and you haven't checked out the full episode yet, be sure to go back and take a listen. I'll have all of the episodes linked up for you in the show notes. Now, before I let you go, I just want to say thank you so much for joining me not only today, but week after week or whenever there's a new episode. I am so grateful that I got to show up for you this year and share all of these writing tips and strategies with you. And I'm so excited to see all the wonderful things that 2026 has in store for us. So with that being said, have a great holiday season and I will talk to you in 2026. Alright, so that's it for this episode of the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. Head over to Savannagilbo.com forward slash podcast for the complete show notes, including the resources I mentioned today, as well as bonus materials to help you implement what you've learned. And if you're ready to get more personalized guidance for your specific writing stage, whether you're just starting out, stuck somewhere in the middle of a draft, drowning in revisions, or getting ready to publish, take my free 30-second quiz at savannaGilbo.com forward slash quiz. You'll get a customized podcast playlist that'll meet you right where you're at and help you get to your next big milestone. Last but not least, make sure to follow this podcast in your podcast player of choice because I'll be back next week with another episode full of actionable tips, tools, and strategies to help you become a better writer. Until then, happy writing.