Why You’re Stuck Matters

SPEAKER_00 0:00

If you've been working on your novel for a while, you've probably hit a point where you just kind of stall out, where you open the document, stare at the screen, and have no idea what's supposed to happen next. If you can relate, then I want you to know that where you're stuck isn't random. It's actually a clue. And by the end of this episode, you'll know exactly what your stuck point is trying to tell you, as well as exactly what to do about it so you can start moving forward again. 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. 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.

Getting Stuck Isn’t About Talent

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Almost every writer who stalls out while outlining or drafting their novel assumes the same thing: that getting stuck means you're not cut out to write a book, or that you don't have the discipline to finish one, or that you're just missing some magical writer gene that everybody else happened to get. And yes, these are reasonable things to assume, but they are also wrong. Because getting stuck usually isn't about you at all. It's about your story, and more specifically, a piece of your story you haven't defined clearly enough yet. And that's genuinely good news because something like this is fixable. Now, I do want to be fair and say that sometimes writers stop writing or outlining for reasons that have nothing to do with their craft. Life gets full, your energy gets low, a hard season just doesn't leave room for writing. All of that is, of course, real and that's okay. But when you keep stalling in the same part of the outlining or drafting process, outline after outline or draft after draft, then that pattern is worth paying attention to, because usually it's showing you exactly where your story needs more support. And after more than a decade of coaching fiction writers and editing manuscripts, I can tell you that those stalls tend to land in the same three places again and again, either in chapter one or right before starting chapter one, somewhere around 20 to 30,000 words, and or somewhere deep in the messy middle. And each one of those spots is pointing straight at a specific piece of your story that isn't quite developed yet. So today we're gonna walk through all three, including what each one might be telling you about your story, as well as what you can focus on strengthening so you can start moving

Stuck At Chapter One

SPEAKER_00 2:26

forward again. Alright, so let's dive right in starting with chapter one. Now, if you're stuck in chapter one or right before chapter one, here's what that tends to look like. You have the idea, maybe even a whole folder full of notes, but every time you sit down to write your opening, nothing feels right enough to commit to, so you don't commit. Or maybe you've started writing about 10, 15 times. So you write chapter one, you hate it, you delete it, and you start over again. And now you've polished that opening until it gleams and you still can't make yourself move on to chapter two. If you can relate, I just want you to know that none of that means you lack discipline or anything like that. The real issue is that you're probably still working with a situation rather than a fully developed story. In other words, you have an intriguing premise, but you haven't decided what kind of story is going to grow out of it yet. So what central problem the situation creates, what it forces your protagonist to do, and where that conflict is ultimately heading. So let me show you what I mean. Let's pretend we're working with a premise like a woman discovers her husband has been living a double life. That does sound pretty interesting, right? But what is actually going to happen because of that discovery? Who is this woman and why does the truth threaten the life she's built? Is she going to start investigating her husband? Is she going to work to expose him? Is she trying to escape him or trying to protect someone from him, right? Like what is actually happening? And then what kind of conflict is that going to pull her into, right? So essentially, we would need to take this idea and develop it a little bit more. Because right now, what it is is it's an interesting premise and kind of like a collection of exciting possibilities, but there's no real story there yet. We don't really know what's coming or what's going to happen. And that is okay. A lot of writers have not been taught how to develop their ideas into something that can support a full-length novel. But this is also exactly why chapter one either won't come or it never feels solid enough for you to move past. Because if you think about it, an opening's whole job is to set up the story that follows. So if you haven't chosen what that story is yet, or if you don't really know what's coming, then your opening just has too many possible jobs to do, and none of them are gonna feel definitively right. So the fix here is not a better first sentence or to keep polishing your first chapter. Instead, it's to step back from your opening and develop your ideas into something that can support a full-length novel. So this means you'll want to dig into who your protagonist is, what they want and why, what conflict they're gonna face in the story, how they're gonna change as a result of that conflict, and things like that. Once you do that, chapter one stops being a guessing game and it becomes more of an informed decision. All right, so if you're stuck in chapter one or right before chapter one, that is probably what's going on, and you just need to develop the foundational elements of your story a little bit better before you start writing.

The 20,000 Word Wall

SPEAKER_00 5:16

Now the second common stuck point happens right around 20,000 words. And here's what this stuck point feels like. Maybe for you the first stretch of your story flew by. So whether you were outlining or drafting, either way, you were excited, the words and ideas came and you thought maybe this is the draft I'm finally going to finish. And then somewhere around 20 to 30,000 words, often right near the end of your first act, you open your document and you realize you have no idea what's supposed to happen next. And typically what I see is that writers will tell themselves that they've just lost inspiration or that maybe their idea wasn't as strong as they thought. But what may have actually happened is that your whole first act was running on setup. So introducing the characters, establishing the world, and revealing the problem that's about to disrupt your protagonist's life. And yes, that gives you plenty to write at first, but eventually the setup is going to run out. And when it does, the only thing that can carry your story into the next act is a protagonist who has decided what they want and who has set out to get it. So to clarify, if you're stuck here, you might need to do a little bit more work developing your protagonist's goal. And for your protagonist to actually drive your story forward in pursuit of this goal, it needs to be something specific. So what I mean by that is it's not really enough for your protagonist to want something broad like happiness or freedom or safety or love. Those big desires definitely matter, but something like happiness looks differently for everybody, right? How are we going to know if your particular character achieves happiness by the end of the story or not? Those big desires matter, but they're not exactly helpful in terms of telling you what should happen next in your story. So your protagonist needs a specific result they're going after. Maybe they want to solve the murder, maybe they're looking to win a competition or rescue a missing child, maybe they're trying to escape their marriage, or maybe they want to expose a conspiracy. Whatever it is, you want a clear and specific goal. Because once your protagonist commits to a goal like that, their decisions and their actions are going to start generating your plot in act two. So they're going to try something, they're going to hit a consequence, they're going to adjust their plan. They're going to try something else, hit a consequence, adjust their plan, right? And it keeps going over and over. One action will create the need for the next. But without a goal that is specific, your protagonist will spend the first act of your story probably reacting to things that are happening, you know, reacting to new information or to whatever's happening around them. And then once all of that has been introduced, there's nothing pulling them forward and nothing helping you go into the next part of the book. So again, the fix is just to make sure that by the end of your first act, your protagonist has landed on and committed to that goal. And that is something specific to go after, achieve, accomplish, get, whatever, once the central conflict can't be ignored anymore. So ask yourself, what exactly are they trying to achieve? Why does it matter enough to keep going when things get hard? And what could happen if they fail? And then once you answer those questions, you'll have more to work with, you'll have more than just an interesting setup, and you'll have the direction you need to carry your story into the middle past that 20 or 30,000 word mark. All right, so that is what to do if you are stuck somewhere around 20 to 30,000 words.

Fixing The Messy Middle

SPEAKER_00 8:32

Now, stuck point three is the big one. This is the messy middle. This is the one we all dread, right? And when you're stuck in the messy middle, it does not feel good. You made it through the first act, your protagonist probably has a concrete goal they're chasing, but then you just hit the middle and your scenes start to feel aimless. People are talking, things are happening, your protagonist keeps trying to achieve their goal, but you just kind of run out of steam. So this one kind of feels like wading through wet cement because technically your story is still moving, but every scene is just feeling harder and harder to write. And eventually you run out of steam because you can't quite see what needs to happen next. Now, a lot of writers talk about getting stuck in the messy middle or the sagging middle, and they usually talk about it with like a big sigh, like it's this unavoidable tax that you have to pay in order to write a novel. And there is some truth to that, but there is actually a real reason why a lot of writers get stuck in the middle. It's not because the middle is long, it's usually because your conflict isn't strong enough to support the middle. So think about it this way: a goal gives your story direction and it gives it somewhere to go. But on its own, that's not going to be enough to carry a whole novel, right? What you actually need to give your story that momentum throughout the whole middle is something pushing back against that goal, blocking the obvious path forward, creating consequences, and forcing your protagonist into more difficult choices. And that opposing force is your antagonist and the central conflict they create. Now, the conflict in your story can take various forms, right? You'll have your main antagonist, who might be a person, a group, a system, whatever. You might have an environment that's causing conflict or even some kind of situation in the middle that is actively working against your protagonist and preventing them from getting what they want. But whatever form it takes, that resistance or that force of opposition can't stay the same from scene to scene. Because if your protagonist keeps trying similar things and running into similar problems, then your middle is going to really start feeling flat and repetitive. So this means the pressure and the conflict in the middle of your story has to build. If you have a human antagonist, they might adjust their plan or counter your protagonist's moves or close off your protagonist's options to get something. If your protagonist is up against a system, they might start handing down harsher and harsher consequences. If they're operating within a dangerous environment, it might just get harder and harder to survive, right? And then we have internal fears and misbeliefs and wounds on top of that, right? So you have a lot of things you can play with, and the specific form of conflict can change from scene to scene, but the effect should be the same. Each new obstacle your character faces makes their goal harder to reach and forces your character to respond in a new way. That's what's going to give the middle of your story its momentum. Your protagonist makes a move, the opposition answers, the situation shifts, and the next choice is harder than the last one. Alright, so if you are stuck somewhere deep in the messy middle, the fix is to look past what your protagonist is doing and develop what's actively pushing back against them. So dig into your antagonist a bit more. What do they want, or what are they naturally creating just by existing? How does your antagonist respond when your protagonist makes progress? What new problem does each attempt create? And how can it close off the easy options and force the harder choices? Because when your protagonist's goal runs into opposition that keeps escalating, the middle is going to stop feeling like a string of scenes that you just have to fill with random stuff. The conflict's going to keep changing, keep escalating, and that's going to create the next set of actions that need to happen. All right, so that is my suggestion if you are stuck in the messy

The Three-Layer Story Foundation

SPEAKER_00 12:13

middle. Now let's step back and put all this together. Because what I want you to notice is that these aren't necessarily three unrelated problems. They're really three layers of what I call your story's foundation. First, you need an actual story, not just an interesting situation. Then you need a protagonist with a concrete goal that can drive the story forward. And finally, you need a strong enough opposition to keep that conflict escalating through the middle. And all of this leads me to what I most want you to take away from this episode, which is the fact that getting stuck doesn't mean you failed or that you're not cut out to be a writer or that your idea isn't good enough. It usually just means that you've reached a part of your story that needs more development. If you're getting stuck in chapter one, you might need to step back and decide what story is actually going to grow out of your idea. If you run out of steam somewhere around 20 to 30,000 words, your protagonist might just need a more concrete goal, so something specific that they're going to pursue that's going to help you generate their next actions. And if the middle feels aimless or flat or repetitive, then look at the opposition. Your antagonist or central conflict may just need to push back a little more actively and escalate as your protagonist makes progress. Now I know that going back to strengthen any one of those pieces can feel like losing ground, especially when you're already deep in an outline or a draft. But the way I like to think about it is that if something is preventing you from moving forward, then strengthening that piece isn't starting over. It's how you're going to fix the situation and start to make progress again. And to leave you with a little hope, I just want you to know I've watched this happen with writers again and again. I immediately think of Gina who kept writing four, five, or six chapters, hitting a wall, and starting over again and again. But once she went back and developed her ideas into a story that could support a full-length novel, she wrote and published the first two books in her Bonded in Blood series. I also think of Stephanie who came to me with a 40,000-word draft that just wasn't working. She had to pause and strengthen her stories foundation. She had to rebuild her scene-by-scene outline, and she was able to finish a brand new draft in just about four months. And because of all this work, she was able to publish her debut novel Into the Fire in 2024. And then lastly, I think about Cheryl, who had a finished draft but knew it could be better. She went back, developed her stories foundation with special attention to her antagonist, and then threaded that force of opposition all the way through her story. She has now published that novel, Touch of the Allegrian, at 72, and it has become a two-time Claymore Award finalist. Alright, so I tell you this because none of them needed to become a different writer or throw their ideas out. They just needed to identify what their story was missing, what was keeping them stuck, and then strengthen that part of their story before moving forward. And the same is true for you. Now,

Notes To Novel Invitation

SPEAKER_00 14:59

if you'd rather not figure all of this out on your own, if you're tired of stitching together random advice every time you hit a wall or get stuck, that's exactly what I built my notes to novel program for, and I would love to have you come check it out. Inside the course, I'll walk you through a clear step-by-step process for turning your idea into a story that can support a full-length novel. We'll go through fleshing out your central conflict, clarifying what your protagonist will pursue, developing meaningful opposition, and mapping your entire story scene by scene so you know how to move forward. Doors are opening again very soon, and if you want to be the first to know when they open, go to the link in the show notes and put your name on the wait list. I would love to see you inside the course. And make sure to tune in next week because I'm going to walk you through five common myths that can cause writers to misread why they're stuck and what's actually true instead. Because most of the time, getting stuck isn't a talent problem or proof that your idea stinks. It's usually a process problem, and process problems are fixable. We'll talk about all of that on the next episode. Alright,

Next Week And Closing

SPEAKER_00 15:59

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.