When there's no narrative question driving your story, reading becomes passive, and a passive

reading experience is one that's really easy to walk away from.

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, I'm sharing 10 writing mistakes that will make readers put down your novel

and how to fix each one if you realize you've made it in your draft. Now, before we dive in,

let me clarify something. This episode isn't about using too many adjectives, avoiding adverbs,

or fixing things at the sentence level. The mistakes we're going to talk about today are bigger

picture story issues that can quietly undermine your entire manuscript. Because if these problems

aren't addressed, then you can end up with a story that just doesn't work. But the good news is

that once you know what to look for, these problems are surprisingly fixable. And if you can catch them

while you're outlining, drafting, or revising your messy first draft, then not only does everything

downstream get easier, but you're also far more likely to end up with a story that actually works as well.

So whether you're starting a brand new draft, already deep in revisions, or trying to figure out

why your story still isn't landing the way you hoped, then this episode is for you. So let's go ahead and

dive in, starting with mistake number one. Mistake number one is starting the story

too early. When a story starts too early, readers will spend the opening pages waiting for the

real story to begin. And if they have to wait too long, they're probably going to stop waiting

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