Why “Just Start Writing” Spreads

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There's one piece of writing advice that gets thrown around more than just about any other piece of advice, and that is to just start writing. If you're stuck and not sure what to do first, that's okay, just start writing. If you're overthinking your plot and going around in circles, that's okay, just start writing. If you're not really sure who your protagonist and antagonist are, no worries, just start writing. You've probably heard the advice before. And here's the strange thing about this advice. It can literally be the best thing a writer ever hears, or the reason they never finish their draft. It all comes down to how much clarity you have about your story before you sit down to write. And the tricky part is most new writers can't tell whether they have that clarity or not. So today I'm gonna walk you through what the advice to just start writing gets right, where it quietly trips up a brand new writer, and how to know when you're actually ready to start writing. 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. Alright,

What Drafting Teaches Fast

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so let's dig in, and I want to start by being fair to this advice, because there is a real reason why the advice to just start writing is everywhere. And that is that you learn to write by actually writing, not by reading about writing. You can do all the prep in the world and still not really understand your story until you put words on the page. And at some point, you're not going to learn anything by prepping or planning. Some answers just aren't going to come from thinking harder. They're only going to come to you from actually writing. And that's exactly what drafting gives you, right? It shows you where your idea is thin, where your character's choices don't hold up yet, where you might have plot holes, and where the story in general needs more development than you realized. So that part is completely true, and I think this is what the advice is based on. The problem is that people hand out that advice like a universal cure to every writer at every stage, as if when you act on the advice doesn't matter, and it does. So let me paint you two completely different pictures of how this tends to play out in real life.

Scenario One Starting Too Soon

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Because in both of these scenarios, the writer ends up stuck for reasons they don't fully understand. So, scenario one, I want you to imagine a new writer who takes this advice to just start writing completely at face value. They sit down, they open their document, and they literally just start writing. They don't have any kind of real sense of what their story is yet. Maybe they have a few characters in mind, a handful of scenes, and maybe a vague idea of the ending, and also a lot of enthusiasm. And so at first, this probably feels really magical, right? The first chapter just pours out of them, they're discovering their characters, exploring their story world, and just falling in love with the whole thing. But then a few chapters in, things start to get a little bit wobbly. The plot wanders somewhere they didn't intend, the protagonist feels really inconsistent, their scenes start feeling repetitive or thin or just straight up boring, and that ending that they could picture so clearly at the start, well now they have no idea how to get there. So what usually happens? Well, they go back to chapter one and they think maybe if I just get this opening right, the rest of my book will click into place. Then six months later, they've rewritten that first chapter 17 times and they're no closer to the end than the day they started. And sometimes this means they stop writing. Maybe that's altogether, or maybe this story just joins the folder of other almost novels. But either way, they've stopped. Now here's what I want you to notice about the writer in this scenario. The advice itself isn't what made this writer stall out. What made this writer stall out is that they're trying to draft a whole novel without enough clarity around the story's biggest questions. And that's what made them stall out. All right, so what do I mean by that? Well, they had no idea who their story was really about. They didn't know what that person wanted, why they wanted it, what was standing in their way, the type of conflict they were going to face in the middle of the story, and they didn't know what was going to change from beginning to end. And so without this kind of clarity, what happened is that every time they sat down to write, they had all of these decisions in front of them, right? And every decision was literally a guess. What happens when we guess all the time? Well, we get exhausted, right? Guessing gets exhausting after a while. And that's why the writer in this scenario tends to run out of steam.

Scenario Two Planning As Avoidance

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All right, now let's talk about scenario number two because there is another way that this advice can backfire, and it's almost in the opposite direction. Because some writers never run into the problem that we just talked about. And that is for the simple reason that they never actually start writing. So they hear the advice to just start writing and they nod and they're thinking, okay, I agree with that in theory, and then they get freaked out because they don't feel ready to start. So they immediately go looking for one more thing that will make starting feel safer. So they redo their outline, they read one more craft book, they try one more plotting method to see if this is the one that's going to stick. They watch 10 more YouTube videos and they tell themselves that they're being responsible. And sometimes they are. Because thinking through your story before you draft is genuinely a good thing. But at some point, all of that preparation is just fear wearing a productive looking costume. And what I mean by this is that planning feels safe and starting feels vulnerable. So for this writer, as long as the story stays in their head or in their notebook or in their color-coded outline, then everything still feels possible. And everything still feels like it could turn out really good, right? But the moment they start writing, it becomes real. And once it's real, it's messy. It can be disappointing, it can show them exactly where their story still needs work, and it can just be really uncomfortable, right? So the writer in this scenario stays stuck too, not because they started too soon, but because they keep waiting to feel safe to start.

When You Are Ready To Draft

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So the question was never whether to start, because yes, eventually we all need to start writing if we want to actually produce a book, right? The better question is when. So when should you actually start writing and what do you need to have in place first so that you can start writing with confidence? And my answer to this question is that you start when you have clarity on your story's foundational elements. So you don't need a perfect outline, you don't need a hundred-page document mapping out every detail, you don't need every scene planned before you write a word, you just need enough clarity to understand what you're writing and where things are headed so that when you sit down to draft, you're not inventing the whole book from scratch every single

Five Foundation Questions To Answer

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time. Now, at minimum, this means knowing a handful of things. Number one, the genre that you're writing and the kind of experience readers of that genre are expecting. So what is your genre and what do readers expect from a book like yours? Number two, who is your protagonist? What do they want and why does that matter to them? So you do want to flesh out your protagonist, make sure you know what they want and why they want it. Number three, what is standing in your protagonist's way and what's at stake if they fail? So what is the central conflict that's getting in their way and what is at stake? Number four, you want to have some kind of idea of what the major turning points are in your story that force your protagonist to make harder and harder choices and grow and change, right? So what are those key turning points? And then lastly, number five, what is the theme of your story or what is your story really about underneath the plot? All right, so I highly recommend answering these five questions. And this is the work of story development. And it's what will give you the level of clarity that you're hoping for. So you'll have enough clarity to move forward with direction, even if you end up taking a few detours along the way. All right, now what you do with this kind of clarity is up to you. So some writers will take those five questions and they'll use that information to map out every scene in a detailed outline. That's totally fine. Others will just jot down a few signposts or a few key points on like one piece of paper, and they'll figure out the rest as they draft. That is totally fine as well. Either way, though, I really do recommend trying to flesh out your answers to these five questions, whether you identify as someone who likes to plot your whole novel or outline the whole thing, whether you're a pantser who likes to discover as you write, or whether you fall somewhere in between those two extremes. All right, so again, any approach will work, but I do recommend starting with your story's foundational elements. And the reason this is so important is because when your foundational elements are solid and they're connected and they're working together, then no matter how you approach the page, whether you like to outline or whether you like to just start drafting, whatever you want to do next, it's going to start feeling less like guesswork and a lot more like execution. And what I mean by that is that you'll have enough clarity on what your story is really about, again, those foundational elements, that you can show up to the page and actually execute that story and have fun with it rather than losing all of your really precious writing time to thinking about these elements and rethinking about these elements when you're in chapter three, chapter five, or chapter 11, right? So it becomes a lot more about execution than guesswork. All

Outlining Without Getting Stuck

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right, now I do want to speak to the plotters a little bit because, like I said earlier, I think outlining is great. I do highly recommend creating some kind of outline, but there is a danger to that as well because you can get stuck in the outlining phase, right? So if you're one of those people and you're still telling yourself that you are getting ready, then the question I want you to think about is are you still discovering something useful about your story? Or are you just polishing what you already know? Okay, so are you still discovering something useful about your story with all this planning and preparation work you're doing, or are you just polishing what you already know? And if you're still fleshing out the basic shape of your story or the foundational elements like we just talked about, then keep going because that is real work. But if you're mostly just rearranging notes or refining the same ideas or hunting for one more resource to make you feel ready, then take this podcast episode as your sign. You have enough and it's probably time to start writing. And here's the part that takes the pressure off of that idea. Because once you start, you don't have to stop planning. Your outline, your notes, your ideas, they're all allowed to keep changing and growing and sharpening as your story comes into focus. So as you draft, just fold whatever you discover back into your plan so it grows right alongside your pages. Okay, that's how drafting and planning can actually work really well together. The plan gives your draft direction and the draft helps you deepen the plan. All right, so just a little tough love for all the plotters out there.

Real Writers Real Draft Results

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Now let's go back to this idea of having a solid enough foundation to draft with direction. I want to quickly tell you about three writers who did this kind of foundational work up front and had really amazing results. So, Pornika, she is a self-proclaimed perfectionist and she finished her first draft, which was just over 100,000 words in 88 days while working full time. Then there's Maddie, a diehard pancer, who finished her first draft in about six months in early morning writing sessions while raising her four young kids. And lastly, there's Jackie, a lifelong reader, books to grammar, brand new to writing, who finished her first draft in eight months, writing in little pockets of time. A few sentences in the drive-thru, a paragraph here and there at swim lessons, right? So three different writers, three different lives, three different processes, but all of them had the same starting point. And that starting point is a strong enough foundation to draft from with direction. And that's what's possible for you as well when you have a strong foundation for your story.

Three Takeaways And A Challenge

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Now, before I let you go, let me pull everything together. Because if you take three things away from today, make it these three things. First, the advice to just start writing is not bad advice. I just think it's incomplete. It works for some writers and it backfires for others. And which one you are depends on whether you've figured out your story yet. The second takeaway is that you do not need a perfect outline with every plot thread figured out. You just need enough clarity on your story's foundation to get going. So remember that's who your protagonist is, what they want, what's standing in their way, your genre, your major turning points, and what your story is really about underneath the surface. And then lastly, remember that ready is a decision, not a feeling. So the next time you catch yourself preparing instead of writing, I want you to be honest with yourself. Are you still actually learning something new about your story or are you just stalling because you're scared? And if you're stalling because you're scared, then my challenge to you this week is to just start writing. Remember that just because you start writing doesn't mean that you stop planning. So let that be your safety net and take this as your friendly challenge to start getting words on the page.

Ratings Reviews And Notes To Novel

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Now, if this episode resonated with you, I would so appreciate it if you would scroll down and tap the five stars on Apple or Spotify. Bonus points if you leave a written review on Apple as well, because what that does is it tells other writers that this show is going to be worth their time too. It's a small thing and it genuinely helps the show more than you know. And if after listening to this episode and if you want results like Pornika, Jackie, and Maddie, if you have a story idea but you're not sure how to turn it into a novel, or if you keep starting strong, getting lost in the middle, and quietly wondering whether the problem is you or your story, then that is exactly what I help writers solve inside notes to novel. This is my signature program where I will help you build the foundation that makes drafting feel like execution instead of guesswork. Using the same step-by-step process, I've now walked more than a thousand writers through. Enrollment's opening again very soon, so if you want to be the first to know when doors open, head to the link in the show notes and add your name to the wait list. Now before you go, I want to tell you about what's coming up next. Because

Next Episode Where Stuck Means Something

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once you actually start drafting, there's a good chance you're going to get stuck somewhere. Everybody gets stuck from time to time. But what most writers don't realize is that where you get stuck is actually telling you something specific about what your story is missing. So in the next episode, I'm going to walk you through the most common places writers stall out and what each one is quietly revealing about your story. After more than a decade of coaching writers and editing manuscripts, I can usually guess what a writer skipped just by hearing where they got stuck. I'll tell you more about that in the next episode, so you're not going to want to miss that one. Alright, so that's it for today's episode. As always, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope your writing is going well, and I will talk to you next week.