Most writers think they're stuck because something's wrong with their story. But what I found for myself and with the writers I work with is that it's almost always a visibility problem. And that story mapping process brings momentum to writers with writing their drafts and gives them greater confidence because they've worked out a lot of their story already up on the wall.

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, Danielle Nicole is here to talk about story mapping. If you've ever felt

like your story is living in a fog, like you can sense it's there, but you can't quite see it

clearly enough to write it, then you're going to love this episode. My guest, Danielle, is a

notes-to-novel graduate and the founder of Map Your Story Studios. And when I say she is the

queen of story mapping, I mean it. Danielle's going to get into a lot more details about what

story mapping is, but essentially think about it like this. Instead of outlining in a document

or a spreadsheet, Danielle takes her entire story and puts it on the wall. Like literally on the wall,

she gets butcher paper, color-coded sticky notes, sharpies, you name it, and she maps the

whole story out on her wall. And what Danielle has found both in her own writing and with the work

she does with other writers, is that a lot of what feels like being stuck isn't actually an idea or a story

problem. It's a visibility problem. Because think about it, when you're writing in Scrivener or a

Google Doc or whatever it is, it can be really hard to see your story clearly enough to move forward.

So if you can relate to this, or if you have an idea that you're sitting on and you've struggled

to get it off the ground, or if you just need a way to get what's in your head out into something you can actually work with, then story mapping might be exactly the thing you didn't know you were missing. So without further ado, let's dive right into my conversation with Danielle Nicole. Welcome to the Fiction Writing Made Easy podcast. Hi, Savannah. Thanks for having me. I'm so

excited to talk with you today. Tell my listeners a little bit about who you are, what you do,

and things like that. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm a writer working on my first commercial fiction novel,

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