#258. 5 Myths Keeping You From Finishing Your First Draft
episode
Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice
21 min
1 speaker
2 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why do writers blame time or discipline for never finishing their draft?
If you've been working on the same novel for months or even years, you might have started to wonder whether you need more time, more discipline, or maybe just a better idea or more talent. But what if the real reason you haven't finished is that you've been trying to solve the wrong problem? Well, in today's episode, I'm breaking down five common beliefs that keep writers stuck and what your draft actually needs from you instead.
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.
In today's episode, we're talking about five common beliefs that can quietly keep you from finishing your first draft. Because when you've been working on the same novel for months or maybe even years, it's natural to start looking for an explanation. You might assume you don't have enough time, or maybe that you need to be more disciplined, or that you still have way too much to learn before you're ready to start writing. And then when none of these solutions seem to work, it's easy to start wondering whether the problem is you or whether your story idea simply isn't good enough. But in many cases, writers aren't stuck because they lack talent, commitment, or a good idea. They're stuck because they've mistaken the symptom for the cause.
And what I mean by that is they keep trying to solve problems that aren't actually responsible for them being stuck. So in this episode, we're going to look at five of the most common myths that keep writers stuck, how each one gets in the way, and what's actually true instead, all so that you can make forward progress towards finishing your draft. All right, so let's dive right in, starting with myth number one. And myth number one is, if I had more time or tried harder, then maybe I'd finish my draft. This is probably the most common explanation writers give for why they haven't finished. If I had more time, if I had more discipline, maybe if I had more motivation, I'd finally get the thing done.
Now, of course, finishing a novel does take time and effort. You have to sit down, put words on the page, and keep returning to your draft. But more time only helps when you know how to use it. What I mean by that is you can carve out an entire afternoon and still spend most of it rereading yesterday's pages, tweaking sentences, second-guessing your outline, or staring at the blinking cursor because you're not sure what should happen next. So yes, although you have given your writing more time, very little of it goes to actually moving your draft forward. So what tends to happen is then you assume that the answer is to push yourself harder. You create a stricter schedule, raise your word count goal, or promise yourself that this is the week you'll stop making excuses.
But a stricter schedule or higher word count goal won't answer the questions that are keeping you stuck. This is how writers can end up working on a novel for months or even years without getting much closer to the end. It's not because they're not trying hard enough, it's just that their effort has nowhere clear to go. So before you decide that you need more hours or that you need to become a more disciplined person, I want you to think about what you're expecting your already limited writing time to accomplish. Because many writers start outlining or drafting with an intriguing idea, but very little clarity about what their story is actually about. So they hope that the outline or the draft itself will reveal what happens, where the story is headed, and how everything fits together.
But in reality, spending more time outlining or drafting may not solve the problem.
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Chapters
2 chaptersSpeakers
1 identifiedMore from Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice
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#260. Student Spotlight: From Stuck at 25k Words to a Finished Draft With Lindsay Sfara
#259. How to Finish a Novel With Kids at Home & Limited Writing Time
#257. Stuck in Chapter One or the Messy Middle? What Your Stuck Point Reveals
#256. Why “Just Start Writing” Can Be Terrible Advice for New Writers
#255. Student Spotlight: How Grace Draven Learned to Write Faster (Without Sacrificing Quality)