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

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 story's 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.

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