Antagonist First, Story Clicks

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The first thing that Savannah said was, okay, let's work on the antagonist. Ah man, I had zero antagonist. I was ready to work on something that I was already a portion of the way through. And so I gave in and I started building an antagonist. All of a sudden it was coming into play. She had wants and needs and goals and motivations and significance. And once I got her in place, that started making my protagonist come to life. And now I'm on a path to getting this thing written.

Welcome And What You’ll Hear

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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, you're going to hear from five writers who've been through my notes to novel course. And like the writers I featured in the past student spotlight episodes, each of these writers came in stuck in a different way. But they all found their breakthrough forward, and that's what you're going to hear about today. You're going to hear from a longtime pantzer who finally gave herself permission to plan, a left-brained pediatrician who used to think plotting and creativity couldn't coexist, an engineer-turned novelist who learned to embrace the messy first draft, a writer who had to develop and redevelop her antagonist three times before finally getting them to work, and a writer who realized his breakthrough wasn't about craft at all. It was about reconnecting with the reason he wanted to write this story in the first place. Now, what I love about these stories is that they are all different, but the through line is the same. For these writers, progress wasn't about working harder or being more talented. It was about having the right process, the right framework, and the right kind of support to bring their stories to life. So whatever's keeping you stuck right now, whether that's outlining, characters, mindset, or something else that you can't quite name yet, I think you're going to hear from someone today who's been exactly where you are, and hopefully hearing their story will give you that little push of inspiration to keep going.

Notes To Novel Wait List

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Now, before we dive into the first clip, I want to let you know that the wait list for the next round of Notes to Novel is officially open. Notes to Novel is my signature program designed to take you from scattered ideas to a completed first draft using the exact framework you're about to hear these writers talk about. Doors are going to be opening very soon, and the wait list is where you'll get first access to enrollment plus any early bird bonuses that we decide to offer. We only open the doors a few times a year, so getting on the list is the best way to make sure you don't miss it. To grab your spot on the wait list, head over to Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash wait list. We will also put that link in the show notes, but one more time, it's Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash waitlist. All right, now without further ado, let's dive into our very first clip from Sheila Ortigo.

Sheila Finds Freedom Through Planning

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Hi, this is Sheila Ortigo, and I really enjoyed taking the notes to novel program with Savannah Gilbo. And I wanted to um talk about what I learned that was most important. I've always been a pantser and enjoy sitting down to write just to freeform, but I've also been w working at writing uh women's fiction for a very long time, many years, and I finally realized that I am not very productive because I don't do just a little bit of planning up front that would be so helpful. I think part of that is because I didn't really know how to do that planning, but Savannah takes you through it step by step from the very beginning, uh, without overwhelming you. So what she helped me to do was to create an outline with all of the essential elements for the book. Kind of like creating a skeleton for the book that I can pull up and then start to put all the flesh onto it later, uh, without really ever getting lost or exasperated by not knowing where I'm going next or or understanding where I've been before. So it's it's all the best advice in the industry for being aware of all the essential components of every single scene, in addition to plot points, um general plot information, characterization, and how to set up your book so that it is intriguing and what's uh makes the reader want to keep reading. Uh so I just found the program enormously successful and was very happy to have a finished outline that I will be using to begin to rewrite a book that I previously wrote and really got off track with. So I'm I believe that with the tools I now have, I'll be able to start from the beginning and work my way through, not worry too much about editing, but I'll have a book that hangs together and makes sense and is cohesive and enjoyable. So I really appreciate the program and I highly recommend it.

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What

Outlining As A Story Skeleton

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I love most about Sheila's story is how she described her outline as a skeleton that she can pull up and then put all the flesh onto later. I know that might sound a little gross, but it's definitely an image that's going to stick with me because I think it captures something that so many writers misunderstand about outlining. A lot of panters tend to resist outlining because they think it means killing the magic of discovery writing. And they usually picture this kind of rigid blueprint with every detail nailed down before they even open their document. But that's not really what I mean when I talk about outlining, and it's not what Sheila was talking about either. So I love that she compared her outline to a skeleton because the skeleton's job is to make sure that your story can stand up, right? That it has the structural integrity to hold the weight of everything you want to put on it, just like our own skeletons do for our bodies. And the flesh of your story, you know, things like the voice, the surprising character choices, the lines or the events that you just didn't see coming, all of that still gets to happen when you sit down to draft. So having this kind of skeleton or an outline, it doesn't delete or get rid of your creativity. It's really there to just make sure your story doesn't collapse under its own weight halfway through. The other thing I want to point out is that Sheila said she'd been writing for many years before finally realizing that a little planning up front would make her so much more productive. So if you're someone listening to this and you've been panting for a long time and you're starting to wonder if there's a better way forward, I just want you to hear that you're not abandoning your creative instincts by adding some structure to your process. The way that I like to think about it is structure actually helps you protect those creative instincts and be more creative and have more fun with it. So just my two cents on that. And thank you so much, Sheila, for sharing your experience with us. All right, now next up we're gonna hear from Liz Ahrens. So

Liz Learns Plotting Plus Placeholders

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let's dive right into Liz's clip.

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Hi, my name is Liz Ahrens, and I'm so excited to be a part of this. A little bit about me. I've been reading since forever and writing for about 10 years, mostly in the women's fiction genre. In my day job, I'm a pediatrician. So typically I'm a pretty organized, sort of left-brained person. And over the years, I'd heard of pants versus plotters, but I thought that pantsing was really where the magic was. I described to my pediatric friends that it really was possible to sit down and start writing and have no idea where the scene was going to go. I tell them that there was this idea that maybe I was more of a reporter than a creator. Of course, they all thought that was madness, and maybe they're right. But the truth is that even though I'm a person who works with algorithms and graphs on a pretty regular basis, I really couldn't understand how plotting was supposed to work. After taking Savannah's notes to novel course, it feels like a light bulb has lit up. I really do understand the value of plotting, the layers of structure that it requires, and why doing this up front will save so much time on the back end. I understand now how plotting my way through a complete outline is really a first draft. And spoiler, I've started writing that second draft, and there's still a whole lot of pants that still happens. There's still creativity, there's still a bunch of unexpected moments. Throughout Savannah's course, I kept feeling like one of those toddlers who's being held into the air by an adult. One of those toddlers where their feet are just pedaling away at full speed. I kept wanting to write, but would make myself wait until the course was complete because each new lesson had changed my approach to the story. And now that it's done, I've been released onto the ground, and the efficiency with which I can write in limited time is fantastic. The other takeaway that I had was to be able to put a pen in those items that need some research. Over the years, I would realize that I needed to know a little bit more about X. So I would, you know, pause my writing and spend the next hour or so reading and learning about X so that my writing could come alive or perhaps be more accurate. More times than I care to think about, that entire scene might have later been cut or changed in such a way that X was no longer relevant. It's hard to do, but I just put pins in this types of writing and research, and it's already paying off. I had a scene where one of my characters was going to be baking one of her mom's favorite Italian desserts, and I started to Google easiest Italian desserts to bake. But I stopped myself. Instead, I put a pin in it, and lo and behold, I think I'm gonna cut that entire idea. This is a smaller time save than, you know, the idea of outlining an entire novel, but multiplied by the thousand times that you stop to do this type of thing during writing a novel, and it really does add up. I'm so grateful that I decided to take this leap and enroll in the notes to novel course. It's absolutely going to take my writing to the next level, and I'm confident I can finish the first draft and have a working document that I am proud of. I know my chances of landing an agent and getting a novel published is higher now because I've taken this course. I strongly recommend anyone who's on the fence about this course to just go ahead and take the leap and sign up. It's a game changer, and I'm so excited for that opportunity.

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I love what

Put A Pin In Research

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Liz said about the toddler being held in the air with their feet pedaling image, because I think that's one of the most accurate descriptions of what it feels like when you're learning a new framework and you just want to go, go, go. But what I actually want to focus on here is something else that Liz said that I think is going to be a game changer for a lot of you listening. And that is the put a pin in it practice. Because how often have you done exactly what Liz described? You're writing a scene, you realize you need something specific, you know, what kind of car would you drive in 1987, or what an Italian dessert is made of, or how a particular medical procedure actually works, you know, whatever it is. And then you stop writing to go research it. And an hour or two later, you've just completely fallen down a rabbit hole, you have 15 browser tabs open, and the scene you were writing has gone completely cold. And then as Liz pointed out, half the time that scene ends up getting cut or rewritten anyway, and all of that research ends up being for nothing. So if you can relate and if you take nothing else away from this episode, please let it be this. When you hit a moment in your draft where you need more information, just put a pin in it, put a placeholder there. Use something like brackets, research archaic swords later, or use TK to signal that your details are to come later, or whatever kind of word or symbol works for you, put a placeholder or put a pin in it, and then just keep writing. You can always go back and research something later once you know the scene is actually going to make it in your final draft. All right, so thank you so much, Liz, for sharing your experience and for highlighting the fact that we can use placeholders and keep moving our drafts forward. All right, now let's move on to our next clip, and this one is from Hannah Girling.

Hannah Embraces The Messy Draft

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So let's dive in and see what Hannah had to say.

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Hi, I'm Hannah Girling, a sweet living in the UK, and I'm writing a crime fiction with thriller elements in it. And to first share a little bit about my biggest aha moment for attending the Notes to Novel program was probably shifting my mindset around to accepting when I'm first writing my first draft to be a messy draft. So I had the full story when I started writing, but I I started to realize it was a little bit harder to know when to give away clues and and what to put in where. And it made me think a lot when I was writing. So now when I changed my mindset to really focus on getting my story down to paper, it has really, really helped. Because then I can go back and see how it fits all together and and whether I need to move things around or not. So accepting that I'm starting with a messy draft have been super, super helpful. Another element has been the scene structure. So I don't necessarily follow the kind of 40 scenes exactly, but what's been really, really helpful is answering the questions so that I know that the scenes are kind of including all the right elements. So looking at the point of view's person's goal, that conflict, all of those kind of questions had been really, really helpful. I also had quite a lot of uh information on my characters, the backstory. They were all fully fully developed. But what I really have enjoyed as well is thinking about their distinct voices, which I think I didn't necessarily do before. So really making sure that when I'm writing from their point of view, that their voice um can come across and really show the the character, their traits, and everything like that. And also a little bit on how that is evolving. So I think those are probably the the three biggest uh takeaways. So then to just answer the question of what I was struggling before, to be honest, I don't really felt I was struggling, but I was completely, completely new to writing. Uh like to the extent where I have a degree in engineering and I work now as a leadership consultant. So writing is not part of my uh daily element, but I had a story to tell. Um but what I realized is really um I probably would get stuck. I had written about 10,000 words when I joined the program, and also I probably would have missed some of these really important elements. So my story would never have been anywhere near as strong as I think it will be after attending this program. So things that have changed for me, and like I said, I do know that my story will be so much better. Um I also think this having all these elements and um tactics and questions will probably help me not to get stuck. Uh I haven't yet uh gone far enough to be stuck, and even if I do get stuck, I'm sure this will help me uh to not stay stuck. So I think that's um really positive. It's also nice to come back and and think about questions in in a different way. So I think I have a lot more depth to my writing now. And um how has this made my writing easier or uh more enjoyable? And I I don't always follow the structure exactly because I kind of like to take things my own way. I jump back, I jump forward. Um, but I I feel confident now that I'm not missing out on these uh significant parts that really help build the story and and can really get to um the depth of it, I guess. So uh I have really enjoyed it and I think it's one of those kind of courses or programs where I'll be coming back to different parts over and over again. Or I have already revisited some because when I go in and to a new scene and it's like, am I really doing this? It's so helpful to have it to check back to.

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I love

Frameworks As Checkpoints Not Cages

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that Hannah came into Notes to Novel saying she didn't really feel like she was struggling. She just had a story that she really wanted to tell. Because I think that's such an important reminder that this framework isn't only for writers who are stuck. It's also for writers who want to make sure they don't get stuck in the first place. And so Hannah came in with 10,000 words written and a full story idea, but she also had the self-awareness to know that without the right tools, she was probably going to hit a wall somewhere because that's what you read online, right? You read the experience of other writers that talk about getting stuck in that messy middle or running out of steam in your draft. And as Hannah said, even if she does get stuck, she now has a way to get unstuck, which is a really powerful position to write from. The other thing I want to highlight is what Hannah said about scene structure, because she mentioned that she doesn't necessarily follow what I lay out in the course exactly, but she does use the scene structure questions that I give in the course as a way to check her scenes to see if they're doing what they need to do or not. And I want everyone to hear that because the frameworks that I provide, whether it's on the podcast or in the course or something that you find from another writing teacher, I think we should all be using frameworks as a way to serve us, serve our process, serve our story, and not the other way around. So again, whether it's my framework or process or someone else's, just know that you don't always have to follow something perfectly for it to work. You can jump around, you can take things your own way, you can go in your own order, whatever you want to do. But like Hannah said, having that framework to come back to means you'll never write a scene or a story that's missing the key elements that a scene or a story needs in order to work. So thank you, Hannah, for sharing that. I love that you're using the framework as a checkpoint rather than a cage or something that feels really constricting. I love that you've kind of taken it and run with it and made it work for your process. All right, now next up we're gonna hear from Nikki Peterson.

Nikki Rebuilds Her Antagonist

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So let's dive right into what Nikki had to say.

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And what I was struggling with was a protagonist that just sucked. It was a weak protagonist. I could not settle on a good goal or strengthen any of the motivations, none of that. And uh I put it away for a while. And then when I came back to it, after it sat dormant for a long, long time, I came back to it with some fresh eyes and realized that the protagonists need to just be dumped. And I made the antagonist the protagonist, and then the story started to come together, started to come alive a little bit, but now I was left with no antagonist. About this time, uh a new cohort was opening up for Notes to Novel, and I thought it would be perfect timing because here I am playing three-card money with my characters, and I just needed help to get back on track. You know, it sat for a while, but I wanted to get this moving. And I am so glad that things that I was so resistant to, I had a breakthrough that came through kind of earlier in the session. And I got through developing the theme and genre, which were still a little iffy, but they didn't keep me from moving forward. But then when we got to the characters part, I was so excited because I'm like, all right, I'm gonna take this protagonist and I am going to just build this thing into something just gorgeous. But I was in a mood, I would say, when the first thing that Savannah said was, okay, let's work on the antagonist. Aw man, I I had zero antagonist. I was ready to work on something that I was already uh a a portion of the way through. So I I was fussy in my own little space. Uh, but I knew, all right, I have read this before. People have said work on your antagonist, build that. Uh, but it just never clicked with me. And I think it had to do with the way that information was delivered. And so the way that it was laid out with the workbook and with the instruction and with the coaching from Savannah, it made sense. And so I gave in and I started building an antagonist. I dumped that one, had to build another one, and then I dumped that one, and then I was on my third antagonist, which all of a sudden it was coming into play. She had wants and needs and goals and motivations and significance. And I was very excited to write this one, which then, once I got her in place, that started making my protagonist come to life. And everything they say that will happen once you get your antagonist going, it happened. Um, but I just I just needed to be in notes. A novel to get this going. And now I'm on a path to getting this thing written. I'm I'm working through a first draft and that first protagonist, my very original one, she comes back as a um secondary character, but with some significance. So when I kill her off, and it's very dramatic and it's and it's violent and it's beautiful and it's heartbreaking, I kill her off, and it's all because of what the antagonist her role in this story and what happens between her and the protagonist. And I just I am so glad. I'm so glad I went with this because it is working, and I am excited every day to just keep writing this because now ideas are coming and and it's it's been the best thing for this.

Why Antagonists Define Protagonists

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The most important thing Nikki said, and I want everyone to really hear this, is that the minute her antagonist came to life, her protagonist did too. So not before, not while she was spending all of this time developing her protagonist. It was only after her antagonist came to life that she could see her protagonist clearly. And this is something I see all the time with writers who feel like their main character is a little bit flat or a little bit weak. And what they tend to do is they go back and they rework the backstory, they add new wants and needs, they layer in more wounds and motivations, and the protagonist still doesn't quite work. And if you think about it, it's because any good protagonist is shaped by what they're up against. So without a strong, specific, intentional antagonist and the conflict that that antagonist creates, then your protagonist is going to have nothing real to push against, and they're going to feel flat or weak no matter how much time you spend on them. So I'm so glad Nikki shared this. The other thing I want to celebrate is that Nikki was willing to build, dump, and rebuild her antagonist three times. That kind of iteration is really uncomfortable, but it's exactly what separates writers who finish from the ones who stay stuck. So I want to highlight that because I know that is not a small task and it's not fun, but sometimes it really is the key to cracking open your story. So, Nikki, thank you so much for sharing your experience, and I can't wait to see how your book shapes up. All right, now our last clip comes from Brady Gwynne. So let's go

Brady On Imposter Syndrome And Why

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ahead and dive right into Brady's clip.

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Hi, my name is Brady Gwynne, and I write upmarket historical fantasy. Finishing Notes to Novel has been a genuinely meaningful experience, and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to any of you estimated 6.63 billion people on this planet who would like to write a book. Many students have talked about how the course changed the relationship with outlines, and I want to add my enthusiastic agreement. Before this course, I had tried outlines multiple times, and I had always ended up feeling like they were fundamentally just incompatible with my writing style. But the alternative meant that I was spending every waking moment spinning my story in the back of my head just to keep from losing the thread. My family can confirm, I may have been physically present, but I was mentally in medieval Europe. Having progressed through the modules that Savannah Masterfully has put together, I have developed an outline that feels organic, one that enables me to discover the logic of my world and characters rather than fighting against it. I also now know the key scenes and conventions my genre's readers expect so that I can be intentional about meeting or subverting those. And most importantly, I can be present with the people in my life again. But here's what I really want to talk about. The thing that surprised me the most, and I think gets talked about the least, imposter syndrome. Before Notes to Novel, I was approaching writing almost entirely through the lens of craft, structure, dialogue, scene construction, and those things do matter. And you know Savannah delivers on all of that. But underneath all that work, I was missing something, and I didn't even have a name for it yet. My writing journey has itself been a romantic one, romantic in the tragic sense. The way we can walk right past sign after sign of true love while sprinting towards something that seems right, but will ultimately fall short of that earth-shattering feeling of real connection. My first full manuscript was called The Heart Behind the Armor. I love that story so much. The characters, the world, the events. Beta readers were enthusiastic, and my editor was effusive. And yet I knew something was off. So I shelved it, moved on, then moved on again. When I started Notes to Novel, I was deep into one of those other stories. But then Savannah asked a question that broke everything open. Why do you want to tell this particular story at this particular time? She asked. I'm not even joking. The dramatic movie trailer music swelled, the camera zoomed in, and everything else just fell away. Because I hadn't answered that question, not really. And without realizing it, I had taken the story in my heart and I had armored it, packaged it into something I thought would be more acceptable. I'd minimized my main character whom I love, and brought in two others who felt safer somehow. The title was more autobiographical than I knew. It was my heart that was behind the armor. That's why it didn't feel right. I have felt like an imposter for a lot of my writing life, working hard on the mechanics, but without a strong enough connection to myself. And without that, it was too easy to second guess everything. Easy to try to sound like some other popular author. Easy to wonder whether I had anything meaningful to say at all. But sitting with Savannah's question helped me understand that I do. The stories I'm drawn to write are connected to the way that I move through the world. You see, I'm a deeply feeling person, and growing up, that wasn't affirmed. The messages that I absorbed, often from people who meant well, were that feelings were unreliable, weak, something to override in order to be strong, efficient, or even likable. So I learned to distrust my instincts to do what was expected rather than what felt right. What makes notes to novel powerful is that it brings together both the mechanics of great storytelling and the deeper questions that connect those mechanics to the why behind the work, the reason a story needs to exist in the world at all. That combination gave me something I had wanted without knowing how to find it. Confidence. Not the confidence that says my writing is perfect. I'm still a work in progress too, but the confidence that my writing is true, that it isn't filtered through the fun house mirror of perceived expectation. I know why I'm telling this story. I know why it matters, and because of that, I can weather the hard parts. I can receive feedback without flinching and stay in the work even when it's uncomfortable. Yes, the course gave me tools and structure. Yes, it showed me that outlining can be part of the discovery process rather than the enemy of it. But more than anything, it helped me connect to the reason I'm telling the story now. So a heartfelt thank you, Savannah, for helping me think more clearly about craft and for helping me uncover the deeper reason I'm here writing it all.

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Now,

The Heart Behind The Work

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I saved Brady's clip for last because I think what he shared is one of the most important conversations we don't have enough in the writing world. And that's the conversation about imposter syndrome and the heart behind the work. Because as Brady said, he was already a craft-focused writer. He'd written a full manuscript that beta readers loved and his editor was really happy about. And by every external measure, he was doing the work, and yet something felt off, right? And this is why I wanted to save Brady's clip for last, because the particular question that really kind of opened the floodgate for him was why do you want to tell this particular story at this particular time? It's one of the very first exercises we do in Notes to Novel. And the question seems really simple, right? But it can also feel like a little bit disarming or a little bit strange because most of us, when we sit down to write, we've never actually thought about things like that, or we've never actually answered that question. We've thought about our premise, we've thought about our audience, our genre, market, structure, we know, whatever. We've researched a ton. But most writers never really ask themselves what this specific story they want to tell has to do with who they are right now and why they feel called or compelled to tell it. And like Brady put so beautifully, when you don't answer that question, you end up packaging your story into something that you think is acceptable or more acceptable, I should say, instead of writing what's actually trying to come through you and what you actually want to write about. So I just loved that Brady said that. And if you can relate to what Brady shared, if you've been working really hard on getting better at the craft and, you know, making sure your scene has structure and your characters have a wound and all the things, and you still feel like an imposter or like something's missing, or you know, there's something kind of lingering that you just can't define, I want you to sit with this question that Brady highlighted, which is why do you want to write this particular story? Why do you want to write it right now, not 10 years from now, or not after you finish another story? And really just kind of why does this idea and this story and these characters mean so much to you right now? And you'll probably be really surprised by what comes out of you. The answer might not come to you right away, but once it does, you might be really surprised, and you'll be additionally surprised at how much easier everything gets after. That voice of doubt will quiet down, the feedback you get stops feeling so personal and jarring, and you stop trying to sound like someone else, whether that's on purpose or on accident, because you finally trust that what you have to say is coming from somewhere real and it's something worth saying. So, Brady, thank you so much for sharing your experience and for sharing with so much vulnerability and grace. I think that is the perfect clip to end

Reach Out, Join Wait List, Goodbye

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on. And for anyone listening, if any of the clips today or the stories resonated with you, whether it was Sheila finding the courage to plan, Liz learning to put a pin in research, Hannah trusting the frameworks as a checkpoint rather than a guiding tool, Nikki rebuilding her antagonist three times, or Brady connecting to the heart behind his story, I just want you to know that you're not alone in what you're working through. And I would bet money that the writer whose clip connected with you the most would love to hear from you. So we are going to put the links to where you can find each one of these writers in the show notes. Go say hi and let them know which part of their story or their clip today resonated with you the most. And if you're sitting here thinking, okay, these breakthroughs are awesome. I want my own breakthrough, then I have one more reminder for you before I let you go. And that is that the wait list for the next round of notes to novel is open right now at savannagilbo.com forward slash wait list. We will be officially opening doors to the course soon. And the wait list is where you'll get first access plus any early bird bonuses that we decide to offer. Now we only open enrollment a few times a year. So if you've been waiting for the right time to finally get serious or to finally get unstuck or to finally get started, then this is your window. So head over to Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash wait list to put your name on the wait list. We will also leave that link for you in the show notes. One more time, it's savanna gilbo.com forward slash waitlist. All right, so that is all I have for you today. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope your writing is going well, and I will be back next week with another new episode.