#13: 5 Things That Kill Narrative Drive (and How to Fix it)

Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice

Savannah Gilbo

Education, Writing Advice, Plotting A Novel, Editing A Novel, Character Arcs, Fiction Writing Mistakes To Avoid, Story Development, Fiction Writing Tips, How To Outline A Novel, Character Development, Story Structure, Books, World Building, Arts, Writing Stronger Scenes, How To, Fiction

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 June 2020

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today's episode, I'm continuing last week's discussion on narrative drive or that "thing" that hooks a reader's interest and pulls them through the story. Here's a preview of what's included: [01:10] What is narrative drive? Why should writers care? (Check out last week's episode for some tips on creating narrative drive in your story). [01:20] A story with "broken" narrative drive feels like it's going nowhere. [02:00 ] Mistake #1: Putting in too much exposition or backstory or worldbu...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, Savannah here. Before we get into today's episode, I wanted to share our next book
0:05.0	pick with you because I'm super excited to dig into this book and see how and why it works.
0:10.0	Our next meeting is coming up on November 16th at 4 p.m. Pacific, 7 p.m. Eastern, and we're going to be
0:16.0	digging into the fourth wing by Rebecca Yarrows.
0:19.1	Abigail and I are so excited to deconstruct this book and these meetings are always so much fun.
0:24.1	They're interactive so in addition to our presentation on why we think this story works
0:28.8	and why we think it resonates with readers, there are also polls and lots of opportunities to chat with other
0:34.4	writers and ask us questions and you know just participate in a group discussion
0:38.8	about a really awesome book. As always our aim is to analyze a novel and translate our learnings into
0:44.8	actionable tips, tools, and strategies that you can take and implement in your own
0:48.8	writing right away. So if you want to join us or if you want to learn more about how the book club works, go to
0:54.4	Savannah Gilboe.com forward slash book.
0:57.7	One more time, that's Savannah Gilboe.com forward slash book
1:01.1	dash club. Hope to see you there. So when you have a long passage of
1:05.0	backstory or exposition in a scene or chapter, it reveals too much information at once in a
1:11.2	way that's going to repel readers rather than intrigue them.
1:15.0	So the best way to make sure you're not doing this is to sprinkle in backstory or exposition
1:20.0	where it's relevant to whatever's happening in the scene.
1:24.0	Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast.
1:27.0	My name is Savannah Gilboe and I'm here to help you write a story that works.
1:31.0	I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to
1:34.2	be overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple,
	...

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