Savannah Gilbo

speaker

3,356 appearances 13 recordings 1 series first heard May 2026 last heard 18 Aug

Savannah Gilbo’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 13 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 5.

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Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice · #261. 5 Mistakes Writers Make Using the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet · 18 Aug 2026 podcast

two. podcast-host

What are they trying to accomplish? podcast-host

What gets in their way? podcast-host

And how do their attempts create the progress and complications that carry them forward through Act Two, eventually towards that midpoint, and then later on towards that all is lost. podcast-host

Alright, so that is mistake number four: writing a fun and game section with no conflict. podcast-host

Now, mistake number five is making the bad guys close in entirely external. podcast-host

So this is the backhand. podcast-host

Half of Act Two, and typically what writers do is they take this part very literally. podcast-host

So it's called the bad guys close in and they make the antagonist more aggressive. podcast-host

The police get closer, the monster attacks again, the deadline approaches, the rival interferes, or maybe there's now three rivals, and the protagonist's plan starts to fall apart. podcast-host

Now, all of those things might genuinely belong in this section, because after the midpoint, the external pressure podcast-host

Should naturally increase, and the forces that are opposing your protagonist should become harder and harder to manage. podcast-host

But the external bad guys are only part of what should be closing in. podcast-host

We also want the protagonist's unresolved internal struggle to intensify under that pressure too. podcast-host

So, for example, imagine you have a protagonist who believes that trusting other people is dangerous, and maybe they've spent the whole story. podcast-host

protecting themselves by refusing help, withholding information, and pushing people away. podcast-host

Now, as the external situation becomes more threatening, or as those external bad guys close in, they might cling even harder to those same behaviors. podcast-host

So they might reject an ally's help when they desperately need it, they might keep important information to themselves, and they might push away the person best positioned to support them through this really hard time. podcast-host

And now what you have is external pressure or those external bad guys closing in. podcast-host

And it's not just making life harder for the protagonist. podcast-host

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