But when you develop these pieces together before you start outlining, something kind of magical happens. Each of these elements starts to reinforce each other. So your protagonist's inner obstacle connects to your theme, your antagonist challenges your protagonist in exactly the right way. Your plot structure gives that internal journey somewhere to go, and the story starts to feel inevitable instead of forced. And then when you go to outline your story, you can really see the shape of the whole thing before you've written a single page in your draft. 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 sharing five signs your writing process is broken and how to fix it. This episode is especially for you if you're someone who's been working on your novel for months or maybe even years without making real progress. And if this is you, I want to kick off by saying something really important. The reason that you're probably having trouble moving forward and making progress probably has nothing to do with your talent. More likely, your stuckness or your frustration comes down to a process problem. And the good news is that process problems are fixable. So in this episode, I'm going to share five signs that your writing process is broken. We'll talk about what each of those signs looks like, how they show up, and things like that. And spoiler alert, all five of these signs might look or sound or feel like separate issues, but believe it or not, they all trace back to the same root cause. So we're going to talk through all five signs, and then by the end of the episode, you'll know how to fix your writing process, no matter which one of the five signs you resonated with the most. And so my hope is that when you see one of these signs pop up in your own writing practice, you'll know exactly how to fix it and get back on track. Alright, so let's dive right in, starting with sign number one. Sign number one that your writing process is broken is that you've started multiple books, but you've never finished one of them. So what does this look like in real life? Well, maybe your hard drive is a graveyard of half-finished manuscripts. You started each one of them with so much excitement, it was a shiny new idea, you felt that rush of possibility, and you probably sat down at your desk thinking, this time is going to be different, this is gonna be the book I actually finish. But then somewhere around the 20 to 30,000 word mark, the momentum just completely disappeared. Probably because the story got complicated and you weren't sure what happened next. The scenes you were writing probably felt disconnected from where you started and you couldn't quite figure out how to bridge the gap. So you probably slowed down and maybe you took a break from that story to think things through or let your ideas marinate a little bit longer. And then what probably happened is that almost on cue, another idea showed up. One that was fresher, felt easier, and maybe even felt more exciting. And so then you thought, well, maybe this is the book I'm meant to write. So you started again and the entire cycle repeated. If you can relate to this, I want you to know that you are so not alone. I put this as sign number one for a reason. It's very common. But let's talk about why this keeps happening. And if we think about how it feels when we get a new idea, they feel easy because they're full of potential, right? They're new, they're fresh, and you haven't hit the hard parts yet. But every single story, no matter how experienced of a writer you are, every single story is going to get hard at some point. And without a roadmap to guide you through the messy middle, especially if this is your first time, it feels easier to abandon ship than it does to stay the course. And so the problem isn't really that you haven't found the right idea yet. It's that you don't have a process to push through the difficulty when it inevitably arrives, because it will. All right, so that is sign number one that your process is broken. And that is that you've started multiple books, but you've never finished one. Now, like I mentioned earlier, we're going to go through all five of the signs, and then I'm going to tell you the one thing that will fix your process no matter which sign you relate to the most. All right, so sign number two that your process is broken is that when you sit down to write, you don't know what to work on. So what does this look like in real life? Well, you've probably carved out time to write, maybe you've put it in your calendar, maybe you've protected this hour as fiercely as you can. Maybe you woke up early, you said no to plans that day, you put your phone in another room and told your family not to disturb you. And then maybe you opened your document, you had your hands on the keyboard, and you were ready to go, but then one of two things happens. Either your mind goes completely blank, or your brain starts coming up with a ton of different questions or options for what you could work on. So should you work on chapter three? Should you go back and fix that scene from last week that's been nagging at you? Should you skip ahead to the part you're actually excited about? Or maybe you should just reread everything you've written so far just to get back in the flow of things. If you're like most of the writers I talk to, then at this point you probably pick up your phone and start scrolling social media. Maybe you tinker around with the folders that you have your story saved in. Maybe you read that new craft book that you just purchased, and somehow you're able to convince yourself that this is productive, right? Because maybe you're scrolling through writing tips, or maybe you feel like the reason that you're not making progress is because your scrivener files need to be reorganized. Or maybe just reading that craft book makes you feel productive. But before you know it, your writing time is gone and you've spent all this time on indecision instead of actually writing. So you close your laptop, you feel frustrated, maybe you feel even a little bit ashamed because you had the time and for some reason you couldn't use it. So what's wrong with you, right? We're all guilty of those little shame spirals every once in a while. But what's really going on here again is that you don't have a roadmap. So without knowing things like the key scenes you're building toward, or how the beginning, middle, and end of your story are going to unfold, even at the highest, most big picture level, every writing session you sit down to becomes more of a question mark. And so you're not actually building momentum, you're just showing up and hoping that inspiration strikes and that everything kind of just works out once you're at your desk, right? But what happens is that when you don't know what to work on, it's often easier to default to the only thing that feels safe, and that is going back to the beginning. So that is sign number two that your process is broken, you sit down to write and you don't know what to work on. Now, speaking of going back to the beginning over and over, sign number three that your process is broken is that you keep rewriting the same chapters instead of moving forward. So, what does this look like in real life? Well, maybe you've written your opening scene five times or maybe even ten times. And each version is a little bit different, a little bit better, or at least you hope so, but for some reason you still haven't made it past chapter three. And part of you probably knows that you should move forward. You've read all kinds of advice that says don't edit as you go, give yourself permission to write badly, get all the way to the end of your draft before you go back to the beginning and things like that. But then another part of you probably whispers that you can't go forward on a shaky foundation, and that if the beginning of your story isn't right, then nothing that follows is going to work either. And so you stay stuck in those early chapters and you polish things, you tweak things, and you convince yourself that if you can just get that opening right, then the rest of the book will finally flow. But it never really does, does it? And that's because what you're doing isn't actually revision. It's more like procrastination that is disguised as perfectionism, and it's keeping you trapped in a loop where your novel never actually gets written. So why do we do this? Well, when you don't know where your story is going, the beginning often feels like the only quote unquote safe place to work. You're not confident enough in your story's direction to move forward, and so you just stay where you are, rewriting the same chapters over and over, hoping that clarity will come. But clarity does not come from polishing or revising the same scene over and over and over. Instead, it comes from knowing your destination, getting to the end of that draft, and seeing your story in its entirety. All right, so that is sign number three that your process is broken. You keep rewriting the same chapters instead of moving forward. All right, now the fourth sign that your writing process is broken is that you've written yourself into corners that you can't get out of. So what does this one look like in real life? Well, maybe you were making progress, and I mean real progress. The words were flowing, the story was taking shape, and for once you actually felt like you were a real writer writing a real book. But then maybe you hit a wall, or maybe you wrote yourself into a scene that you have no idea how to get out of. Or maybe you realized halfway through that your villain's motivation makes no sense and that fixing it would mean unraveling everything you've already written. So now you're stuck staring at a manuscript that felt so promising just a few weeks ago, and you're wondering if you should just scrap it and start over again. If you relate to this one, I so feel your pain. This one is tough. But let's talk about why this happens. Usually this happens because you started drafting before you understood the full shape of your story. And I get it, because you were excited, the new idea was fresh, and you wanted to just start writing and capture the momentum while you had it. But I would argue that without knowing how all the pieces of your story connect, it's easy to write scenes that feel right in the moment, but that don't actually lead anywhere or do anything in terms of your bigger story. And what happens is that once you write yourself into a corner like this, the only options feel like backtracking or abandoning the project altogether, which obviously isn't ideal, right? Now, again, we're going to talk about what to do if any of these signs resonate, but that is sign number four that your process is broken, and that is that you've written yourself into corners that you can't get out of. Moving on to the fifth sign that your writing process is broken, and that is that you know your story's beginning, but you have no idea how your story ends. So what this looks like is maybe you have a really killer-opening scene. Maybe you even have a really great first act. You probably know your protagonist, you know details about your world, and you know the inciting incident that kicks everything off. But if someone were to ask you how does your story end, you would have nothing. It would feel like crickets, right? Or maybe you'd have something vague to say or a feeling that you're trying to convey, a general direction, you know, something like that, but not a real concrete ending that you're writing toward. And if this is you, you've probably told yourself that it's okay. You're a panther who discovers your story through writing, and that maybe the ending will reveal itself when you get there. Now, a little caveat, if this is you and this is your process, you are a true panther who doesn't want to know the ending. As long as that's working for you, that's okay. I'm not necessarily talking about that scenario here. I'm talking to the panthers who have maybe been stuck for a while and deep down they know that something is wrong. Okay, so again, if you're a panther who has a process that works, just put some earmuffs on for a second. So going back to the pantzer who knows that something deeper is going on, that something is wrong. The reason that you're probably stuck is because you don't actually know where you're going. It's kind of like you're driving without a map, hoping that you'll end up somewhere good, but secretly you're worried that you're just going in circles. And so if this resonates with you, let's talk about what's really happening here. Now, after working with hundreds of writers at this point, I've seen this over and over. There are a lot of writers who mistake having an idea for having a story. But an idea for a story is just a starting point, right? A story that can support a full-length novel needs a destination. It needs an ending that everything else builds toward. And without it, you can't really make confident decisions about your plot, your characters, your theme, your scenes, things like that. Instead, you're just kind of wandering through your draft, waiting for the story to tell you what it wants to be. And for a lot of writers, that can feel like a really exhausting way to write. All right, so that is sign number five that your process is broken. You know your beginning, but you have no idea how your story ends. Now, let's talk about the real problem behind all five of these signs, because all five of these signs point to the same root cause. Whether you're someone who abandons drafts, whether you freeze up when you sit down to write, or you're someone who endlessly rewrites the same chapter over and over, if you're someone who's written yourself into corners that you don't know how to get out of, or if you're someone who doesn't know how your story ends and therefore you don't know what you're writing towards, these aren't five separate problems. They're five symptoms of one deeper issue. And what's really happening here is that your process is broken because you're trying to draft a novel without a solid foundation for your story. So to explain what I mean by that, the full journey from idea to published book has multiple phases. But if we just zoom into the writing phase, there's a really important sequence of events that matters. And if I were coaching you through this process, I wouldn't have you jump straight into outlining or drafting. Instead, I'd have you slow down and work through the foundational pieces of your story first. Your protagonist, your antagonist, your theme, your central conflict, and your plot structure. And that's because these foundational elements aren't separate things. They are all connected and they all play off each other. Your antagonist is the person who drives the external conflict, and then that external conflict puts pressure on your protagonist, which drives their internal conflict. Your theme shapes your character's arc and how that internal conflict plays out. Your character's arc helps determine your plot and so on and so on. And when one of those pieces is off or underdeveloped or just not thought about, it throws everything else out of alignment. And you usually don't realize it until you're about 20 to 30,000 words in and you're stuck wondering why nothing feels right. But when you develop these pieces together before you start outlining, something kind of magical happens. Each of these elements starts to reinforce each other. So your protagonist's inner obstacle connects to your theme, your antagonist challenges your protagonist in exactly the right way, your plot structure gives that internal journey somewhere to go, and the story starts to feel inevitable instead of forced. And then when you go to outline your story, you can really see the shape of the whole thing before you've written a single page in your draft. You can catch the plot holes, you can spot where the character arc isn't landing, you can notice that your antagonist disappears for five chapters, and you can fix all of these things before you've invested months in a broken draft. And then fast forward to when you do sit down to write, you're not guessing anymore. You're just building on something solid that already works. Which sounds pretty good, right? So why doesn't everybody do this? Well, most writers just don't know any better and they skip straight to drafting. And I get it because that is the exciting part. That feels like you're a real writer who's sitting down to write a real book. But what happens when you skip that development work that we just talked about, or when you rush through it, every other part of the process that follows becomes harder than it needs to be. You can't draft with confidence if you don't know where your story's going, and you can't revise effectively if you're still figuring out the fundamentals of your plot, characters, theme, and so on. So the symptoms or those five signs we talk through, those things show up later in the drafting sessions, in the revision cycles, in the manuscripts that you eventually abandon, but the breakdown actually happens earlier when the foundation isn't properly built. So the good news here is that when you focus on building out a strong foundation, that's how you actually fix the process. And the problems that we talk through today, they don't just become easier to handle. Most of them stop happening or appearing altogether. Okay, so I want to paint a picture for you because I think it helps to see what's possible when you put this into practice. And I kind of hinted at this earlier, but when you build a solid foundation for your story before you draft, everything really does change. Instead of staring at a blank page wondering what to write, you open your document and know exactly what scene comes next. You're not guessing, you're not hoping inspiration strikes, you're executing a plan, and that feels completely different. Instead of writing chapter one for the tenth time, you trust your story's direction and you keep moving forward. And you know that you can refine things in revision because you're confident that the bones of your story are solid. Instead of writing yourself into corners, you see potential plot problems coming before you even get there. And because you understand how the pieces of your story connect, you can course correct early before you've written 30,000 words in the wrong direction. Instead of abandoning your story when it gets hard and it will get hard, that's just part of the process. You'll have a roadmap that shows you where you're headed, even when the writing feels uncertain. And instead of wondering how your story ends, you'll know and you'll be building towards something specific. Every single scene will have a purpose because you understand how it fits into the bigger picture. So that is the difference between a broken process and one that works and actually gets you to the end. All right, now if you recognized yourself in any one of the signs we talked about today, and if you're being honest with yourself, I'm guessing at least one or two hit home, then here is what I want you to do. First, I want you to stop blaming yourself. Because again, this isn't a talent problem. It's not a motivation problem, it is a process problem. And process problems are fixable. So step one, stop blaming yourself. And then step two, start looking at your foundation. So ask yourself honestly, do I have a solid foundation for my story? Do I know what my protagonist wants and needs? Do I know how they're going to change throughout the story? Do I know the key scenes of my story or those major turning points, including how it ends? Or am I trying to draft my way to clarity, hoping the story will reveal itself as I write? Do I know what kind of key takeaway or theme I want to leave readers with, or am I just hoping that'll come out through the drafting process? Can I clearly articulate my story's central conflict and the major dramatic question that I want readers to be wondering as they read through my draft? And if the answer is that you don't have a strong foundation or if you feel like it's a shaky foundation, then that's your fix. It's not about having more willpower or scheduling more writing sprints. It's not about changing to a different story idea or researching another plotting method or anything like that. You need to develop the foundational elements of your story first. And remember, we want to do that so that drafting becomes more focused instead of super chaotic feeling. All right, and if you want my help doing that, my notes to novel course is opening for enrollment very soon. And this is my course that will walk you step by step through this entire process. So developing your idea, building your cast of characters, fleshing out your plot, getting clear on your theme, and creating a roadmap for your entire novel. All so that you can draft with confidence instead of confusion. Doors are opening again very soon, and you can get on the wait list right now at savanna gilbo.com forward slash waitlist. We'll put that link in the show notes, but one more time, that's Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash wait list. Alright, so that's it for this episode of the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. Head over to Savannah Gilbo.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.