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 · #257. Stuck in Chapter One or the Messy Middle? What Your Stuck Point Reveals · 21 Jul 2026 podcast

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 moves or close off your protagonist options to get something.

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