#21: Progressive Complications: How to Write Better Conflict in Your Novel

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

🗓️ 25 August 2020

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today's episode, we're going to talk about writing better conflict in your novel using "progressive complications." Here's a preview of what's included: [01:20] Progressive complications are moments of conflict that get more and more challenging to deal with over time. These complications can be people, places, things, or events, and they can be negative or positive. [02:10] Stories exist because of conflict. If there was no conflict, you'd have nothing to write about. [02:30] Progr...

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.
1:03.0	So either way you want the complications in your story to escalate to this point of no return.
1:08.5	The point where your character's original plan is not going to work anymore and they have to decide on a new way forward.
1:15.2	And this can apply whether you're looking at one of your scenes or your global overarching story.
1:20.8	So in each of your scenes you need to have conflict that builds up to a
1:23.8	turning point and in your global overarching story you need to have conflict that
1:28.3	builds to a turning point. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. My name is Savannah Gilboe and I'm here to help you write a story that works.
1:38.0	I want to prove to you that writing a novel doesn't have to be overwhelming.
1:42.0	So each week I'll bring you a brand new episode with
	...

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