#202. Student Spotlight: How Kara Kentley Turned a Messy Draft Into a Published Romance (and How You Can Too)

Fiction Writing Made Easy

Savannah Gilbo

Education, Fiction, Writing Tips, Arts, Bestseller, Writing, How To, Author, Writing Community, Books, Novel, How To Write Fiction, Writing Fiction, Writer, How To Write A Book

4.9 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After years of rewriting the same sagging middle and juggling two confusing timelines, Kara Kentley discovered the romance structure secrets that transformed her messy draft into a published novel that sells daily. Today I'm chatting with Kara Kentley, contemporary romance author of Another Summer and a Notes to Novel graduate, about how learning genre expectations finally helped her finish the book she'd been struggling with for years. In this episode, you'll hear us talk about things like: ...

Transcript

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0:00.0	Let me ask you a question. How long have you been working on your novel? If you just
0:03.9	winced a little, then you need to hear this. I've identified the five roadblocks that keep
0:08.6	97% of writers from finishing their novels, like waiting for the perfect time to write,
0:13.9	feeling like you're not good enough, or getting stuck rewriting chapter one for the millionth time.
0:19.0	Sound familiar? I've put together a free guide that shows you exactly what's stopping you and what to do about it.
0:24.5	Grab it at savannahgilbo.com forward slash roadblocks.
0:27.9	One more time, that's savannahgilbo.com forward slash roadblocks.
0:32.5	So what happened at the Writers Conference was that there was an agents panel where you could submit
0:38.8	your first page and they would critique it. And I get to the thing and they're critiquing other
0:46.2	people's first pages and they spend like five minutes on them. And they get to mine and it sort of
0:53.1	starts out like everybody else's. But then very quickly,
0:56.5	one of the agents says, to the moderator, this is a good place to stop and talk about how not
1:04.1	to start a book. And it was so awful. And so I sat there for 17 minutes. They had been five minutes on everybody else,
1:13.3	but they really picked apart the first page that I had sent in and why it was just bad and not the way to start a book.
1:21.8	And that was really, really hard. Yeah. And it affected me for several months. It really like took away
1:31.8	my confidence. Should I still be writing? Is this worth it? Like if this is what it's going to be like,
1:38.8	do I want to do this? Yeah. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilbo and I'm here to help
1:48.4	you write a story that works. I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be
1:52.9	overwhelming. So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with simple, actionable, and
1:58.1	step-by-step strategies that you can implement in your writing right away.
2:02.2	So whether you're brand new to writing or more of a seasoned author looking to improve your craft,
2:06.4	this podcast is for you. So pick up a pen and let's get started.
	...

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