The Gap Between Head And Page

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you are trying to write because you like writing, then it's a very different thing from, oh, I want to write a book because I want to be a bestselling author and go to my book club and show, oh, I wrote this book. It is a very different extrinsic motivation versus the intrinsic motivation. And if you know what is important to you and if you're writing because you love writing, then it is easier to, for me, make the hard choices because then you start deciding this is going to be my priority then. And if writing is my priority, then I need to find time for writing.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

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. I want you to close your eyes for a second and picture this. You sit down to write, you finish a chapter, you read it back, and there's this moment, maybe small, maybe gut punching, where you realize the words on the page don't match the story in your head, and that the book you're capable of imagining and the book you're currently capable of writing are not the same book. If you've ever felt that way, you are not the only one. There's actually a name for it, and there's a reason it shows up most strongly in writers who are also serious, lifelong readers, which if you're listening to this podcast, I'm assuming you are. Now that gap is actually what we're going to talk about today. So in today's episode, I'm joined by the wonderful Gala Russ. Gala is a book coach and a publishing strategist who's written 15 novels and self-published, nine of them under her pen name Willa Drew. She works with writers both on the craft side, so diagnosing what's working and what's not working in their manuscripts, as well as on the strategy side, helping writers figure out which publishing path is right for them. In this conversation, we're going to get into what first drafts actually look like behind the scenes, and spoiler alert, they are not very pretty. We're also going to talk about why comparing yourself to other writers is a trap that's keeping you stuck, when to keep working on your book versus when it's time to let an idea go, and what to do when you've been studying writing for years and still haven't finished a draft. No matter where you're at on your writing journey, I think you're going to love this episode. So let's go ahead and dive right in. Hi, Gala. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. I'm so happy to have you here today.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

Hi, hi Savannah. I'm so happy to be here today as well. It's so exciting to talk to you about a lot of things.

SPEAKER_01 2:43

A lot of things. Yeah, we're gonna dive off the deep end today. But before we get into that, can you, in your own words, introduce yourself to my audience and let us know who you are, what you do, and things like that.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

I am a book coach and a publishing strategist. As a book coach, I tend to be a diagnostician. So a lot of times I look at people's work and or their partial manuscripts, and I can see what are the craft things that they don't necessarily understand. Thus, what they're writing is not coming across as they want it to come. And then I usually, as a teacher, try to help them figure

Meet Gala Russ And Her Work

SPEAKER_00 3:20

out all of those craft uh pieces. So what they put on the page matches what is in the imaginations. And as a publishing strategist, I a lot of time have conversations with people about whether they want to do traditional publishing or self-publishing, and depending on where they go, I usually help mostly self-publishing authors because I've myself published nine books, I think, at this point, as Willa drew my pen name, and explain what it is like to be a self-published author. That is a business, you're an entrepreneur, how much time you're gonna have to spend on actually running the business, how much less time you're gonna have for writing, and all of the complexities. So those are kind of my two lanes that I've been mostly working on recently.

SPEAKER_01 4:05

I love that. And you're you said you're also an author. What kind of books do you write under your pen name?

SPEAKER_00 4:09

I write romance books, and I write romance books all a steam level. When I started, I started in YA and then NA, which is New Adult, and then the late latest release in 2025 was my first adult book.

SPEAKER_01 4:23

It's so cool.

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Which I was interviewed by high schooler a couple of weeks ago. She's writing a project on romance and like people's perception of romance. And she asked me a question that I never thought about has anything changed in you how you write romance since you started writing it years ago and now? And I realize that I started with YA primarily because it kind of felt like when you were young, that's where all of this like huge loves, like the big stories are happening. Yeah. But as I get older and as I get out of the having little children fog, I'm like, adults can have fun too. Why are we not writing more about adults than people in their 30s or 40s? That also totally works. And so I think that I a little bit grew up as my kids grew up, and now I feel more comfortable with doing spicier and more older, like you know, older 30s to 40s characters rather than teens to early 20s.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

That's awesome. So your books and your characters grew up with you. It's so cool. But okay, so as we've both worked with a lot of writers of all skill levels, all genres. And I would say most of the people that probably come to us, they have these really amazing book ideas. They are really motivated to write a novel. And then somewhere along the way, if not at the starting line, they really struggle with this identity of I'm a writer, I'm writing a book. No matter how many pages they produce, how often they show up at their desk or whatever. It's like they're constantly chasing this idea of I will be a real writer when. And then it's like fill in the blank. So when XYZ happens. Why do you think this is and where does this come from?

SPEAKER_00 5:58

I'm gonna refer to Brendan Sanderson on that one. And I don't know if you've heard he's bringing me on university lectures that he did in 2020 and then here we recorded in 2025. Yeah. And one of the examples he gives is he plays pickup basketball with his friends every week. And he says, I go and I play pickup basketball. Nobody comes to me and says, Brendan, when are you going to be hired by NBA? Right? When are you gonna sign your first million-dollar contract as a basketball player? And when you are writing, I feel like the first question that people tend to ask you if you open your mouth and say, Oh, I'm writing a book. It's have you been published? How much money do you earn? Where can I buy your book? And a lot of it is publication focused, and also a lot of times people who are not familiar with self-publishing also really focus on traditional publishing. And I feel like that really messes with the writer's brain. Because I maintain that if you're writing, you are a writer. That is all that is required of you.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

Yeah, I think that's such I was just thinking of sourdough bread for some reason. It's like you could say I bake sourdough bread for a living, and I guess people would ask you, like, where can I buy that? Whatever. But there's a whole process that goes into baking sourdough bread too, and you're still baking it when you get all those ingredients and when you put them together and you wait for the starter to rise or whatever. So yeah, it's very, very similar. And it's so funny that we well, funny and almost sad that we put so much pressure on ourselves when we're doing something creative. And I'd imagine it's similar if you're an artist or a potter or whatever. Like you said, it's all about kind of the result and can you show me the result? And if not, maybe you're an imposter. I also think we've kind of romanticized the idea of like what a writer looks like, you know? And so if we don't fit into that stereotype or that romanticized idea, then surely we are not writers ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Yeah, one of the things that I also keep saying, and not everybody agrees with me, but I believe that everybody can be a writer. And I talked about this with so many people, and there are so many people who disagree with me. I come from being an ESL teacher. So my bachelor's was in linguistics, and then I was an elementary school, high school teacher, and tutor when I taught English as a second language to people who spoke other languages as their first language. And I have met so many people along the way who said, I can never speak English fluently, or I can never learn another language. So they don't even try. And I'm of an opinion that everybody can learn a language. Some people who learn it faster, some people who have better pronunciation, some people will need to put a lot more effort into it, but you can absolutely learn it. And for me, writing is the same way. I don't think that writing is for select few that have something special about them. It's a craft. And I think when we stop idealizing writing

Redefining What Makes A Writer

SPEAKER_00 9:00

and we treat it as a craft, just like when you're crafting a chair, if you've never crafted a chair, it's the first time you're doing it, it's probably gonna be a really misshapen chair.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:10

The first one, right? And if you come to it with skills of, well, maybe you didn't make chairs before, but you made, I do not know, cabinets before. Maybe your chair is gonna be better than my first chair, because I have never done any carpeting. So if you come in into writing with other writing-related skills, you might be starting at a higher level, but still it is a craft, and as you learn the craft, you will get better. And yeah, the whole comparison game is a whole other topic about people comparing their first drafts to finished final books, and like yeah, 20 plus people looked at that thing, maybe a hundred people looked at that thing.

SPEAKER_01 9:44

Like, yeah, which I want to get to in a second, but I love what you're saying because I agree with you, and we've both worked with so many writers where we see the proof every day that it doesn't matter uh what your past job was, your education level, your current lifestyle, whatever, if you want to write a book and you put in the reps and the hours, and I think having an open mind, being willing to learn, being willing to make the mistakes and things like that, there are so many variables that go into it, but we see it every day. Anybody can do this. And like you said, yes, you might bring different things to the table, but that's life. In every scenario, we all bring different things to the table. I think there's this other thing besides like the romanticizing and besides the where's your book published, I can go read it and give you that like validation that you're a capital W real writer, you know? I think it's also there's this thing out there that we imagine the writers who are successful and we think like, okay, well, real writers don't struggle. And if we were meant to be a real writer, we would just sit down and the words would flow. And so then when it's hard, which it almost always is at various points, people will interpret that difficulty as a sign that they're not cut out for it rather than this is normal. This is how it goes.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Yes, I 100% agree. I have a book, I'm not sure if I can find it right now. No, I actually gave it to the high school student. It's called Write Naked by Jennifer Propst. She's a romance author, and part of it is about writing romance, but part of it is about her journey where she had an overnight success. And then afterwards, things didn't necessarily get easier. There are a lot of different pressures that happen to you when you are successful. And one of the things that when you write is that yes, your craft goes, but you also your expectation of yourself grows. The more popular you are, the public's expectation of you grows. So you now are not writing as much for yourself as for the public, and that is trepidatious. And then life happens. You might have written this book in the circumstances where that year or that month was, you know, normal, nothing particularly horrible. And then, like last month, both of my kids had pneumonia, and it was a very difficult month for writing. Like every writing was hard because there was so much other emotional pressure, and some stories are different than others because some stories I say, like, oh, they kind of download, you sort of like know what's going on. And some stories you may be getting a what if or a character or one particular plot line, and then you have to work to create the rest of the story around it. And all of those ways of writing a story are valid. There is no, like, you cannot expect the download to happen with every single book. I would say that's probably less likely than more likely, and I value those moments, but I still will sit down, have my timer, and write for whatever amount of time that I promise myself that I'm writing, even if I don't have the ah moment going on.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Yeah, and I totally agree that those are kind of the rare unicorn moments that we all wish we had, but they're not very common. So I think I love all that you said, and I love just this idea too that you know, writers will say to me, they'll be like, Well, you must work with series authors who write multiple books. I'm like, Yes, I do. And guess what? Book two, book three, they're not easier than book one. You know more about the process, and it is easier in some ways. Like, for example, you know what it takes to turn an idea into a full story, but now maybe you realize your dialogue needs work, or like you said, life is lifing. And so it's gonna be harder in that way or whatever. So in my course, we always talk about when you hit a new level, there's a new devil. And this is exactly what I mean. Like it's, you know, it's gonna be easier in some ways, but harder in other ways. And I think the theme of the day is there's so many variables with everything. And so we're gonna talk about kind of how to deal with that in a second. But earlier you mentioned this idea of like when we compare our books to or works in progress to published books, we feel like we don't come up or we come up short to that. Talk about that a little more.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Yeah, I always wish that there were places where you could see the original first draft of a published novel. Brendan Sanderson actually does that, not to hype him up. He did, in some of his lectures, share some of the earlier drafts of his novel so people could see it. And way when Colleen Hoover was just like a not a household name in the like, I don't know, 2012 something. I actually she was publishing a novella that was a side story to her first three books that she published, and she was writing it on Wattpad. And that was actually the first time I ever went on Wattpad because I wanted to read it as she wrote it, and that was an also eye-opening experience because we saw what does a first draft look like? It is nowhere near as polished as what the final draft is, and we're not talking just, I think there are so many different levels of polish also. If I were to show you my draft, my first draft, you are going to see a lot of what I call white room, blank room dialogue, where I just have a dialogue, it has no dialogue beats, no descriptions, nothing. Because a lot of times I just write the dialogue first and then I come up with something. You're gonna have a lot of square parentheses where I'm writing, and he's feeling anxious here. So, like, show it in gestures and then square parentheses closes, and then I keep going, or I needed to research rowing teams in Germany. Like, I'm not gonna stop right now and research your rowing team in the German. It's like research rowing teams in Germany in square parentheses, and then afterwards, I'm gonna go and my first draft, that's what it looks like. It looks like a hodgepodge, it's not gonna have a lot of introductory sentences at the beginning to set up the scene. It might not have any punchy closing lines either. It's just kind of like, okay, this I'm telling the story to myself. Somebody said that first draft is you telling yourself a story, yeah, and then when I go after, I'm gonna not fill all of that out right away. I probably would look at the structural stuff, and then I'm gonna move things around because I don't want to fill everything out if that part is gonna disappear completely because I cut a lot of things, so I'm gonna leave it personally in that weird state, and then I will, and some chapters will be really fully nicely written because that just happened that way. Then I rearrange everything and make sure that structurally everything is sound, and then I'm going through and filling out all of those things and making sure that beginning, middle, and end everything is described. Then I usually go through and I do an emotions read where I read and I underline, oh, you kind of need to bump up your emotions here, and then I bump up that. Then afterwards, I'm gonna go through and I'm gonna read the entire story and sound it out and make sure that the prose looks sounds

What First Drafts Really Look Like

SPEAKER_00 16:30

good. Then I'm gonna give it to my beta readers and they're gonna read it and they're gonna give me feedback. Then I'm gonna give it to my developmental editor, then I'm gonna give it to my line and copy editor. Like the first draft as it is, finishing that first draft, if it looks like a you know, scrappy little homeless dog, it's probably right on like right on the money. That's probably what it should look like.

unknown 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

So that was a very long explanation of how I do it, but it gives you, I think, the arc of the first draft is you telling yourself a story, just finishing it is the goal.

SPEAKER_01 17:05

Well, and you're so right. There's so many layers to that too, because I've even seen first drafts where it's like the love interest is a little bit cliche, or his actions are very surface level, or whatever, and there's the parentheses, and there's the bullet points and whatever just to get through that draft. Or there's like a villain that reminds you a little bit of Voldemort, and you're kind of like, okay, well, it's that's a placeholder for right now. I know he's gonna be kind of like this, but I need to shape it in draft two and three and make him more uniquely my own or whatever. So there's all kinds of versions of what a first draft could look like. And I love that you said you go through for like an emotional pass, a white room fixing pass, because I have writers who fall on all ends of the spectrum. They'll start with dialogue and it's like really heavy dialogue. Others start with kind of like the moving people around the setting. And so it's more like action-oriented, and then they fill in things. Others start with kind of the emotional beats, and then they they have to just fill in whatever doesn't come naturally to them. And that's going to be different too in every scene. So I like talking about how the process is actually pretty messy, and A, because it's real life, and I think more people need to discuss that and hear about it, but also because when you write a draft like Gal is talking about, where there's parentheses and whatever, that does not mean that your story doesn't work and it's broken. That just is a first draft.

unknown 18:25

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 18:26

And so I know that you talk about this, and I think there's like a famous Ira Glass quote about this, where it's like the we have as readers and writers, we come to the table with we know what good is. We read books and we're like, oh, that emotionally moved me. And then we look at our first drafts and we're like, this isn't moving anything. This is the worst thing I've ever read. So we measure ourselves against that, and like you're saying, it's really unfair because there's so much more that goes into it than we think.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

Yeah. And the article by Iraglass, I think you can find it. I forget now what it's called. It's something about taste, I believe. But if you put famous irreglass article, that's probably gonna be the one that comes up.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

But the main thing is a link to it in the show notes.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Perfect, thank you. But the main thing is that I talk to people who say, Well, I'm an avid reader, I've been reading all my life, I know what a good book is. Why isn't my book good?

SPEAKER_01 19:20

Right.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

And to me, that is that taste gap because you know what a good book is, but let's go back to my chair example. I might know what a good chair looks like. It doesn't mean that I can make that chair on my first try, right? Or on my second or on my tenth. I don't know. Depending on what chair are you trying to create, how many tries and how many months or years of working on creating crappier chairs is it gonna take for you to get to the point where, oh yeah, I can now create a chair that I enjoy, you know, sitting on, and I'm gonna put it in my own office or room. Yeah. Writing is the same way. You have to be patient with yourself. And a lot of times I made that mistake. And I'm not gonna say that's a mistake. I did that when I wrote my first book. Because I wrote it, I thought that everybody is going to love it because I loved it. I was so attached to it. I spent eight months writing it, three months editing it, and I thought everybody's gonna fall in love with my characters. And I at that point I was writing for Wattpad and I submitted it to their competition, which was called The Waddies, and I didn't even place in the long list. I was nowhere near, and I'm like, oh my god, my story, it's the best story ever. What is wrong with those people? Why can't they see the my genius? Because this is the best thing ever. And now when I go and read that story, I'm gonna tell you so many things why that story didn't hit the long list. There are so many things that I didn't know as the first time writer, but I finished a story. Right. I edited a story, I worked with a developmental and with line editor, I took classes, I learned stuff, I wrote another book and I did better, and I wrote another book and I did better, and then I published a book, and then I published another book. And it is a cumulative thing. You will get better if you continue working on your craft.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Yes, and I think it's really important to highlight what you're saying because not making the long list doesn't necessarily mean anything about you or your idea or the draft. It just means that it wasn't there yet, right? Or it it didn't mean anything about the quality of Gala, the writer, didn't mean anything about the quality of the idea. It just meant the execution wasn't quite what they were looking for yet. And, you know, a lot of people will take that to mean something bad. And really it's just a fact. And so what do we do with this, right? We can, like you said, put in the Steps, do the work, study, get feedback. And that's, I think it's just so important to highlight that that's what it's going to take. And it's not like you're saying, I just didn't have the natural born talent. And so I gave up and I became, you know, this profession instead. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:15

And for me, one thing I want to say is several years later, WattPet actually hired me and I became a writer where for two years or so I actually was writing and they were paying me for it.

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Have fun.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

Because I got to that level where they were like, Yeah, now we want you, now we want to work with you, because I got to that point. It just took some time. Yeah. And then the other thing is it's not a sign that something is wrong with you or your idea. The fact that right now, if I came and took that same story, I would be able to write it in a lot better craft-wise format. And I have this conversation with some of my clients where they say, Well, I have three books that I've written. Should I go back and rewrite them or should I write a new book? And I would almost always advise writing new book. And a lot of times when people come and they are stuck on that draft where they are revising and revising and revising and revising and revising the same book, sometimes it's just okay that that is not the book that you're going to get your agent with. Right. And like they will revise it and they will send it to new agents. And then I spent years on that. I think to me, there are people who are a one book writer where they saying, This is the book of my heart. This is the only book that I ever want to write. And that's it. I don't actually really care about writing apart from this book. In this case, sure, keep working on this book, keep perfecting it because that's the only thing that you want to do. But if you want to be a career writer, I think learning to let go of some books is just as important. Because as a career writer, focusing on your next book, focusing on your next book is what I would usually advise people. Again, there are different circumstances, but mostly if you want to be a career writer, if you want to be known for writing multiple books and one book didn't work out, just put it in the in the drawer and move on to whatever new ideas, because most writers have so many ideas that we won't be able to write them and finish them in our entire life. Yeah. But like it's not killing your darlings, it's a different thing, but like letting go of one book and stopping the revisions and writing a new book is uh also a thing.

unknown 24:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:31

I'm not sure if that answers the original question, but that's whatever.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

That's a good thing to say because a lot of times I think we fall in love with the idea that that book represents or that time period or that emotion that we want to convey. And like sometimes maybe you just need to put it down for a year and then you can come back if you want to. Other times it's like, I feel like I have to finish it because I put so much time into it. And then you just kind of get stuck in this repetitive cycle, like you're saying, where sometimes it's just really hard to see something we've worked on so long with fresh eyes. And so we get stuck there. So it just depends. Again, like there's so many variables to what we could say and do. But I think it's almost like you are giving permission if we're not feeling aligned with something anymore and it's not working, it is okay to put it down. So I do.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Yeah, and it's hard to know which one is which. I've read a book several years ago called Quit. I do not remember the author, not very good of me. And it talks about sunk cost fallacy, where we spend so much time and so much money on something, it feels like we have to continue because if I already spent a thousand dollars on editors and coaching and a year on writing, I need to keep going with it. And it is a hard decision, and it is hard to figure out where it is. No, you need to stop and start something new, versus, oh, you're giving up right before the finish line. And I always go back to kind of I like working with like with the mind-body connection and somatics, and there's a lot of stuff that we're trying to logic out with our brain that we a lot of times actually can feel in our body when this is eh, you pushing, you're forcing yourself to do it versus no, no, no, you just really need to keep going. This is just a hard patch. And sometimes we just need to talk to somebody. Yes, because a lot of times you lose perspective in talking to somebody, they can give you a different perspective on what you're going through, especially if they have experience and they have, you know, gone through similar things and they can look back and tell you, oh, you know, these are the possibilities. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

And that's exactly what I was gonna say. Because I was like, what if I'm a writer listening and I'm like, I'm on that fine line, then get outside feedback from someone who has experience in it, and you know, they'll give you the reasons why they have a certain opinion and you can move forward from there. But I wanted to ask you, so we both deal with a lot of writers who they like to learn about the craft and they like to study all the books and go to all the conferences. And what I talk about on this podcast is that is great. I'm a lifelong learner as well. I love learning, but there's a certain point where that's not going to help anymore. And so, like, you can literally read every single craft book out there, but until you start

When To Revise Or Let Go

SPEAKER_01 27:10

doing the work and getting messy and making the mistakes and writing the drafts that don't work and getting feedback, you're not going to move forward. What do you have to say about that?

SPEAKER_00 27:19

I agree. And I'm going to go back to my chair example. You can read all the books on how to make a chair, but until you start making that chair, you don't know how, you know, do your hands shake when you are doing certain things, or there are certain things that come easily right away. You read about, oh, you, you know, slice it this way and you go and you slice it this way, and it turns out perfect. Great. Like it means that you can implement that particular skill right away. But there are going to be other skills where you're going to be redoing and redoing and redoing and redoing before you get there, and you can't really know. And I also, as a teacher, believe that, and again, it comes from my language teaching. You need to practice the language to be able to speak it. Can you learn how to read a language without ever speaking it? Absolutely. But to speak the language, you need to speak the language, you need to make a mistake. And a lot of beginner language learners say, like, I don't want to sound like I am making mistakes all the time. And I always encourage, please do. The goal of it is communication, is getting your idea out. And the same is with the book. You're trying to get your idea out, and then the second pass is going to get easier and it's going to get easier. And it is also a cyclical, just like the spiral. If you ever studied education, and gonna have a degree in education, if you ever studied education, most education is a very spiral process. So you begin at the beginning, and if you want to be up on top, it's not a straight line. You don't just go there, it's circles. And a lot of times you learn something, for example, Brandon Sanderson 2020 lectures, and when I listen to them for the first time, I'm like, well, I sort of get everything. And then I several years later, I listened to them for another time, and I'm like, oh, now I get what he was talking about there and there and there, because I've actually done those things and they actually make sense to me. And then when I recently re-listened uh last year, here is 2025, which is a slightly different version, but still similar, I was doing it and was like, oh, I'm teaching this and I am teaching this and I'm teaching this, and it was validating because I went through all of those spirals and how I knew what a filler word was when I was a beginner, how I knew it when I was an intermediate person, and how I know and can explain it now, spot it in other words, and make sure that they themselves can understand and change it is a different skill level, and it came with years of practicing. Yeah, that's it. I have tapped the same topics multiple, multiple times on my climb. If you learn something once, most likely you just learned a portion of it and you're gonna have to return to the topic over time as your craft improves, which also reminds me, my very first developmental editor, Kia Thomas, she was amazing. When I came with her to her with my first book, and she edited maybe five of my books total. She said, I'm going to give you things that are most important to fix. Because if I give you everything, it's gonna feel discouraging.

SPEAKER_01 30:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

And then on my next book, she said, Oh, so from what we learned last time, what I told you last time, you now did this and this and this and this. Well, great job. This, this, and this still needs some work, but now I'm also gonna introduce this new concepts to you that I feel like you're ready to correct and understand. And with every book, working with the same editor was amazing. And she was just a very good teacher, also, because she was leveling me up. She could see my progress because we were together for so many years for so many books. She was leveling me up and she was giving me harder and harder and more complicated craft concepts so that I could learn and apply them.

SPEAKER_01 30:51

Yeah, and I think like that's a whole other can of worms that like I want to go into, but we're not going to, is that just want to say, like a PSA for the writers out there is if you're getting edit notes where they're listing everything in the kitchen sink and it's like 50 pages long, sometimes that's not a good sign, you know, because it is really overwhelming. And kind of like Gala was saying, if her editor had given her those like fifth book notes on book one, she wouldn't have even known what does this mean? What do I do with it? And as you were saying all that, I kept thinking back to like, I learned how to play golf years and years ago. And there's a certain point that you know you're swinging well because you feel it, you know, or I grew up playing softball and you could just kind of feel when you're doing something right. You can learn about what that could be like when you're writing, like, what does it mean to write a good line of dialogue? You can kind of learn and know what that means in theory, but until you do it, you're not gonna feel whether it's good or not. And then also I was thinking, because my mom used to bake cakes professionally, and baking cakes is hard. Like I couldn't just show up to my stove and bake the perfect cake. So why do we expect to sit down and write the perfect book? And it's so interesting too. Like we could go off on a tangent on if we wanted to learn how to play golf or become a really good pastry chef, we would hire someone to help us learn how to do it, you know? It's just so interesting to me that we put such harsh expectations on ourselves.

SPEAKER_00 32:13

Yeah. And I think now with YouTube and with everything else, people are saying, Oh, I can learn everything by myself. And I think that some people can. Yeah, but they are the minority. It's the same thing with some people can learn how to renovate their entire house based on renovation shows or YouTube, but they are in the minority. And there is a trade-off of time versus money because yes, you can, but it probably will take you a lot longer. And if you have somebody who instead of like you going zigzagging, like I learned this, then that, then this, I didn't understand how to apply this, then I understood, then I had to go back, then I had to relearn it. It is very chaotic when you have somebody who gives you a roadmap and says you do this, then you do this, then you do this, and it is saving you time. In the end, it's saving you time, and they can, of course, correct you too if you're going somewhere where you don't need to go, because a lot of times also people who are beginners are trying to learn a craft that is too high. And I'm like, you don't need that. I don't care about where your commas are in your first draft whatsoever.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Or if you have commas.

SPEAKER_00 33:16

Don't care what's like just the last thing you need to be. Where do the quotation marks go on the first draft? Also, don't care. Will I teach you where they go when we get to the line edits? Sure, but not right now. Just write the book.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

And that's exactly what we're talking about today, which is like, how do we get in our own way? How do we think that we're kind of doing the right thing? And then it turns out we're not actually doing the right thing. And I like what you said about the spiral of, you know, we come back around, we come back around. That's exactly how drafts work. I talk about on this podcast, stories are built in layers. And your first layer is going to be exactly like that draft you described earlier, where there's bullet points, brackets, whatever. And also our learning is built in layers and in that spiral too. And I think people don't talk about that enough, you know? And we talk about the end result, and no wonder we all feel like we have to be perfectionists.

SPEAKER_00 34:05

And people underestimate how long it takes because I've been reading some books that were like YouTube shows, and the author, especially some India authors, say, Well, yeah, I write my book in six weeks, and I'm like, Oh my god, I suck. I like spend three months at least to write my first draft. How you also don't know their circumstances.

SPEAKER_01 34:25

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 34:26

Because I have a full household, I have kids, I have pets, I have a lot of volunteer responsibilities, and the amount of time that I can dedicate to my writing is limited. Although I consider myself a full-time writer, my full time is not 40 hours a week. So you also cannot compare yourself without knowing how much time they have and what is their schedule like and what their support system like, because a lot of more advanced authors also have a much bigger support system when they would have assistance, where they would have people who run their business and website, and they have more time to dedicate to actual writing, which is great, which is what you want to do. You know, you want to write the next book and the next book. But if you're at the beginning and you're publishing your very first book and you are the business owner and you do not have the money to hire anybody, you're gonna spend a lot of time on being an entrepreneur, and there's gonna be only so much time left for writing. What are you gonna do? Not sleep ever? That's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

I think even people hearing you say,

Study Versus Practice And The Spiral

SPEAKER_01 35:30

like, my first drafts take three months, they're gonna be like, oh my gosh, that's so fast, you know? So it's again, there's variables to everything. And I worked with a writer recently who she was like, I'm in a season where I want to finish this book. So for the next six months, I am focused on my book and that's it. My kids are doing their thing. My husband's good, like I am focused on this. That is a very intentional decision that comes with sacrifices in other places. Like she pulled back from hobbies and other things because it was a season. And so she got it done. And then in the next couple of months or seasons, whatever, maybe it was going to be like a marketing focus. Maybe it was a break and she did nothing writing related, you know? So there's so many things that we can all play with. And I think if I were to like sum up the theme of today's episode, it's like don't compare yourself to others because you don't know the full scope of like what they're working with, who they're working with, what they're dealing with on a day-to-day basis. And don't compare your messy draft to a finished, published book because it's just not a fair comparison. And yeah, be open to learning. Speaking of learning, what could someone do today? Like, let's put ourselves in the listener's shoes. What could someone do today to like put this into practice?

SPEAKER_00 36:41

In my experience, a lot of people who come to me who are stuck, who are stuck at the very beginning, like I have an idea, but I don't know where to how to implement it, or I've like written three, five chapters, but I don't really know if they're good, if I should continue. They are focused on, I want for somebody to tell me if this is good. And I think that you need to focus inward and understand what is it that you're trying to achieve here. Because if you are trying to write because you like writing, then it's a very different thing from, oh, I want to write a book because I want to be a best selling author and go to my book club and show, oh, I wrote this book. It is a very different extrinsic motivation versus the intrinsic motivation. And if you know what is important to you, and if you're writing because you love writing, then it is easier to, for me, make the hard choices because then you start deciding this is going to be my priority then. And if writing is my priority, then I need to find time for writing because, like, I have a writing novel checklist, and I ask, so what prevents you from it? Is it because you feel like you don't know how to structure a novel, or is it because you don't know when to write because you're so busy, or is it because yes, you dedicated a slot for writing, but when it comes time to writing, you just sit down and scroll through internet or do something else and not writing, identifying what is it that is actually blocking you, and then working on that will move you forward in the end. If you just have this idea, oh, I want to be a writer and it will just magically happen on its own if I'm meant to be a writer, it probably won't. Yeah, you have to take very conscious actions, you have to make tough decisions, you have to prioritize writing time, you have to talk to your family members and say, Hey, yes, I know you always come to me for this and this, but between this and that time, I'm not available or go to a library. I write in the car a lot of times. Like I go grocery shopping, and before I get in the store, I write for half an hour in my car. I have like a battery and everything, and then I go grocery shopping because nobody's there, nobody's asking for me. And again, I live in a very busy household where I'm a caregiver, so I constantly get like pinged. Yeah, it's a decision that you need to make a decision, and if you make a decision, then you can get through those blocks. One thing I wanted to tell you about the three months period, like it takes me three months to write a first draft. I've written 15 books at this point. And to me, it's like by this time it should take me less. But I've written 15 books, right? And it is just the first draft that takes me this long. And then, you know, editing also usually takes another couple of months.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Yeah. Well, a few things I want to say about that. A, I love your creativity about writing before you go in the market. I feel like there are so many people listening, they're like, I'm gonna steal that, or like before you go pick up the kids, whatever it is. And then also I love the lens of like get clear in what you're trying to do. Because if again, hopefully through hearing us talk about this today, you're like, okay, my first draft just needs to be a first draft. That takes some of the pressure off. Or, you know, maybe you realize you're you're listening and you realize, yeah, I am kind of worried about other people reading this. That's why I want to make it perfect. Sometimes just hearing those thoughts will unlock something. The other thing you said is like sitting down at your desk and you waste time scrolling. I find that a lot with people. And it's because they don't know what to do. They're overwhelmed with the process or what to do first, second, and third. And that's where, you know, if you have the funds, the time, you can get a coach, you can take a course that'll walk you through that. But also if you don't have the funds or the time, start small, right? Start with, like, you know, I say start small, and then I want to talk about the big picture, but start with the things that matter most, your characters, your plot, what genre you're writing in, the conflict, and worry about the things like Gala said earlier, the commas and the grabbing the thesaurus to find the perfect word. That comes later. So I love all that. I feel like I'm feeling like when someone listens to this, they're gonna be like, okay, I got this. I can sit down and focus on like what's next in front of me. But yeah, anything else to add on that, Gala?

SPEAKER_00 40:57

There's certain tips and tricks that I like. And one of the things that I found that helps me is accountability. And if you don't have the budget to have a coach for accountability, you could have a critique group. Or there are a lot of places where you can go, and they're like writing sprints that are free that you can just go online and join them. And that also, to me, creates boundaries. But some people are different. Some people say, like, oh, that's too much pressure. I don't like this. So pick and choose and always try. Like a lot of times, people say, Oh, I don't want to do it. I use my timer, Pomodoro timer, and I put 45 minutes usually, and I write for 45 minutes. And I've had so many people say, Oh, this is not gonna ever work for me. This is too restraining. And then once they start doing it, they get into it. Like I listen to Bineural Beats, and they're like, Oh, this is weird whale music. Why are you listening to it? I'm just gonna, and then they start listening to it. I was like, Oh my god, I am a lot more focused. So don't discard the advice. It doesn't mean that all of the advice will work for you, but I always try things and then make a decision. Oh, yeah, that actually worked. That weird advice that I thought will absolutely be not good for me actually worked. And some things that are, oh, this is very logical, it will work for me. It did not. So try things out, try things out.

SPEAKER_01 42:07

The weird whale music. I'm glad he brought that up because I listen to ASMR stuff when I'm focusing and it really helps. And people that are like my partner, Nathan, he'll come in and he'll be like, What are you listening to? And it's like a woman cosplaying an apothecary owner, and she's like clinking bottles, you know. But it works for me. So yeah, and I would have never known that had I not tried it. So I love that advice. Well, Gala, where can people go to find you on the internet? And I think you have a free gift for people today. Do you want to talk about that?

SPEAKER_00 42:36

Yes, thank you. My website is gala rasauthor.com, and I primarily a social media hang out on my Instagram, which is at Gala Ross Author. You can find me on TikTok and Facebook and YouTube. I also repost things, but if you want to chat, I'm on Instagram primarily. And the Write Your Novel Check-in is a little workbook that I created for my husband and my daughter, who are both trying to write their first novels and have a different set of reasons why they are not progressing as much as they would like to. So kind of to diagnose them, because as I said, I love diagnosing books, I love diagnosing what is and isn't working in the writing process. I created that and they found it very illuminating. So I hope that if you are a writer who is just at the beginning of writing your

Practical Tools For Real Writing Time

SPEAKER_00 43:30

novel or started writing a novel some time ago and now are thinking to come back to it, it will reorient and both inspire and bring you back to your story and remind you why you love it and also really truly see, help you see why you aren't you making as much progress as you would like to.

SPEAKER_01 43:47

Awesome. So we will link to all of that in the show notes. Any last parting words of wisdom, Gala?

SPEAKER_00 43:53

I think that writing is a combination of joy and hard work. And you You cannot do it without both. If writing is only hard work, you probably need to re-examine something. If writing is only joy, I've never experienced that. Tell me how are you doing that thing? I would love to know. You can sell that secret to everybody. So accept the fact that hard work is part of a writer's journey and find all of the joy that you can find in writing and just keep writing.

SPEAKER_01 44:29

I love that point. And it reminds me of what you said earlier that I wanted to add on to, which is when you make the tough decisions, when you put in the hard work, I find that that's when it becomes really fun and really joyful because you're seeing the progress, you're, you know, finishing the chapters, whatever. And you get that writing life that you wanted by, you know, putting in the hard work and making those tough decisions. So again, it's all cyclical. But anyway, thank you so much for joining me today, Gala. And again, we will link to where to find you around the internet in the show notes. But thank you so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01 45:02

All

Three Takeaways And Next Steps

SPEAKER_01 45:03

right. Now, before we wrap up, I want to leave you with three things from today's episode that I want you to sit with. The first key thing I want to leave you with is that the taste skill gap is real and it's normal. The fact that you can read a great book and feel moved by it and then look at your own draft and feel like it's not measuring up, that is not a sign you're not meant to be a writer. It's a sign that you have the taste of a serious reader and your craft just hasn't caught up yet. And what I hope you'll take away from today's episode is that the gap closes with reps, not another craft book. Second key point I want to leave you with is that first drafts are supposed to look like a mess. You've heard me talk about this a lot on the podcast. Think of things like white room dialogue, brackets where description should go, notes to yourself that says things like, research rowing terms in Germany. Most first drafts look like that. And if your first draft looks like that, you're not doing it wrong or failing at writing. You're just doing the actual job of a first draft, which is to tell yourself the story. All right, now the third key thing I want to leave you with is the advice to stop comparing. Stop comparing your messy in progress draft to a polished, edited, and professionally designed published book. And stop comparing your writing timeline to other writers' timelines because you have no idea what their support system looks like, what season of life they're in, or how many books they've already written before this one. Alright, so just a little reminder to keep in your back pocket. Now, if you got value from today's episode, the single best thing you can do for the show is leave a rating and review wherever you listen. It takes about 30 seconds and it genuinely helps the show reach more writers like you. And if you're not sure what to focus on next in your writing journey, I have a free quiz that'll point you in the right direction. I will link to the free quiz in the show notes along with everything Gala mentioned today, including her free write your novel check in workbook. Alright, so that's it for today's episode. Remember Gala's parting words writing is a combination of joy and hard work, and you need both. Find the joy where you can, do the hard work when you have to, and keep writing. And I'll be back with another new episode next week.