#224. The Truth About Writing Faster: It's Not What You Think

Unlock the clarity you need to write smoothly, avoid constant restarts, and finish a stronger first draft in less time.

If you've ever tried to draft quickly and ended up with pages that feel unsalvageable, this episode will help you understand why that happens and what to do instead. 

You'll learn what makes fast drafting possible, how clarity speeds up your process, and why a little prep work often saves months of rewriting. You'll also hear how my writing students used this approach to finish their drafts with a lot less overwhelm. 

This is what I talk about:

[02:25] Why following common first-draft advice leads to writing that feels impossible to fix, and how this one shift saves months of frustration.

[03:50] The deeper reason you feel slow and stuck while drafting, even when you're writing regularly, and why fixing it builds intentional forward momentum.

[06:45] The story foundations most writers skip and how having them in place keeps you from second-guessing or rewriting the same chapters.

[08:50] How a simple, flexible roadmap gives you clarity, confidence, and momentum so you stop wandering through your first draft and start moving forward.

[09:25] What writing feels like when you’re no longer guessing and how this clarity helps you finish a stronger first draft.

Fast and good don't have to compete. With the proper prep work, you can draft briskly and end up with a story that works from beginning to end.

🔗 Links mentioned in this episode:

• Get on the Notes to Novel waitlist!
• Take The Author Success Blueprint Quiz 
• 5 Writing Roadblocks Keeping You Stuck & How to Break Through

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Chapters

• 0:00 Drafting With Clarity
• 3:09 Fast Does Not Mean Bad
• 3:47 The Burnout Cycle Of Messy Drafts
• 5:36 Clarity Makes Speed Possible
• 7:24 Planning Beats Endless Restarts
• 8:48 The Five Story Foundations
• 12:03 A Student’s 90-Day Breakthrough
• 13:40 Key Takeaways And Next Steps
• 15:50 Course Details And Resources

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:20

And then once she did this kind of foundational work we just talked about, she wrote a 100,000-word first draft in under 90 days. And for the first time she actually enjoyed the process. Not because she'd suddenly become more disciplined, but mainly because she wasn't fighting her own uncertainty anymore. She knew where her story was going and she could trust that foundation that she'd built. So this is what drafting with clarity feels like. You sit down at your desk already knowing what your scenes need to accomplish and why they matter. And in most cases, you're not sitting down asking what should happen in this next scene. Instead, you're asking more productive questions like, how can I bring this idea I had for a scene to life? 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, we're tackling one of the most common pieces of writing advice out there. The idea that you should just write fast, let it be messy, and fix it later. Now, if you're like most of the writers I talk to, this advice probably makes you a little nervous. Because write fast sounds a lot like write badly. And why would you waste weeks or months of your life producing something you'll just have to throw away? But what if fast drafting didn't have to mean bad drafting? Well, that is exactly what we're going to dig into in today's episode. So if you've ever hesitated to just get your story down on paper because you don't want to waste your time, then this episode is for you. But before we dive into the details, I have something super exciting to share. My notes to novel course is opening for enrollment very soon. This is my signature eight-week program designed to help you confidently write a story you're proud of without the self-doubt, frustration, or overwhelm that stops most writers in their tracks. So if you've been wanting to work with me on your novel and follow a step-by-step framework to turn your ideas into a finished draft, then this is your chance. I'll be sharing more details soon, but if you want to be the first to know when doors open and snag a few extra goodies in the meantime, make sure you're on the wait list at savannagilbo.com forward slash waitlist. So let's start by talking about what you probably picture when you hear fast drafting. You probably imagine sitting down with a vague idea and just starting to write. No plan, no structure, no clear sense of where the story's going. You've been told to silence your inner editor, to embrace the mess and figure it out later, so that's what you do. And then thousands of words later, you have a draft, but it's not really a draft. It's more like a pile of disconnected scenes. The plot wanders all over the place, the characters do things for no clear reason, and by the time you're finished, you're not even sure what the story is about anymore. Then to make matters worse, you know the next step is revision, but you look at your pile of pages and you're like, how am I supposed to revise this? At this point, it would be easier just to start over. And so maybe that's what you do. You start over with a completely new idea, or you start writing that same draft from scratch, and then you get to the same kind of result. So the process essentially repeats itself. Now, if this is what fast drafting meant, I wouldn't teach it or encourage writers to do it either. Because what I just described is not a writing strategy. It's more like a recipe for abandoned manuscripts and creative burnout. So let me be crystal clear about what I mean when I talk about writing your first draft quickly. Because fast drafting isn't about sacrificing quality for speed. It's about having enough clarity that speed becomes possible. Okay, so here is something I've learned after years of helping writers finish their novels. The quality of your first draft is not determined by how slowly and carefully you write each sentence or each scene. It's actually determined by how well you understand your story before you even start writing. And the writers who produce solid first drafts or drafts that actually feel like stories, they're not writing slower, they're just preparing smarter. So they know what kind of story they're telling and what readers expect from a story in that genre. They understand who their protagonist is at the beginning and how that person needs to change. They can see the major turning points that will carry the story from beginning to end, and they've thought through the central plot problem and what it will take to resolve it. And this is all before writing a single word. Now, when you have that kind of clarity, drafting doesn't feel like fumbling around in the dark hoping that you stumble onto something good. It's more like following a roadmap. You can still make creative choices along the way, there's still plenty of room for discovery and surprise, but you know where your story's headed. And when you know where your story's headed, you can move through the drafting process faster. Not because you're rushing, but because you're not stopping every few paragraphs to wonder if the story is working. And that's the key. Clarity is what makes speed possible. Without clarity, writing fast just gets you lost faster. So again, the key thing here is that clarity is what makes speed possible. Now you might be thinking, okay, but won't all that planning work you just described take forever? What if I spend weeks preparing and then the draft I write still doesn't work? Well, something I want you to consider is how much time have you already spent on drafts that didn't work? If you're like most of the writers I work with, the answer is probably a lot. Maybe you've started the same novel three or four times, maybe you have a folder full of abandoned first chapters, maybe you've written 20,000 words, hit a wall, and walked away, maybe more than once. Whichever one of those scenarios you can relate to, it doesn't boil down to a planning problem. I would argue that it's a lack of planning problem. And that's because when you start drafting without a clear sense of your story's foundation, like we just talked about, you're essentially hoping that everything will come together somehow. And sometimes it does, but more often you're going to hit the middle of your book and realize that something isn't working. And then you won't know how to fix it because you were never quite sure what you were building in the first place. So what usually happens after that is you stop, you step away, and then eventually you start something new and you hope that this time will be different. But that is the real time waster, not the prep work we just talked about. The real time waster is that endless cycle of stopping and starting over and stopping and starting over. And like I mentioned earlier, the writers who finish their novels, they're not the ones who skip planning to save time. They're the ones who invest their time up front so they don't have to keep starting from scratch. Now let's go back to this idea of prep work and dig into that a little more because when I talk about doing this foundational work before you draft, I'm not necessarily talking about outlining every scene or knowing every detail in advance. What I'm talking about is understanding the bones of your story. So let me break this down because there are five key areas I want you to think about. Number one, it's knowing your genre. And it's not just knowing that you're writing fantasy or romance or whatever it is. It's knowing what readers of your genre expect. So what is the core experience they're looking for? And what promises does your story need to make and then keep, right? So it's more than knowing just what category your story fits into. It's about reader expectation. Number two, it's also about understanding your protagonist. So who are they at the start of your story? What do they want? What's the internal struggle that's going to drive their arc forward? And then how will they be different by the end, right? So you want to do that character up front because that is going to influence every single scene in your story. Number three, it's about seeing the shape of your plot. So again, not every scene, but the major turning points, the key moments in your plot that shift everything and the peaks and the valleys that give your story momentum. And so even if you have just a rough idea of what's going to happen in your beginning, middle, and end, or a rough idea of what your inciting incident, maybe your midpoint, and then your climax looks like. That's what I mean by seeing the shape of your plot. You know where you're headed. All right. And then number four, it's getting clear on your theme. So what is your story really about beneath the surface? What big question are you exploring? And what do you want readers to walk away thinking about? Again, this is one of those questions where your answer is going to influence every single scene in your story. So it's worth thinking about up front. And then lastly, number five, it's getting clear on your central plot problem. So what is the core conflict? What's at stake for your protagonist? And what will the resolution of that plot problem look like? All right, so clarity on your central plot problem. And so once you're done thinking through these five big picture elements, it's not like you're locked into a rigid plan. It's more like you're oriented and you have a destination as well as a general route forward, even if you take some detours along the way. Because spoiler alert, you definitely will. Okay, so the goal is not to lock yourself into a rigid plan, it's just to have a general route forward. And here's what surprises most writers. This work isn't going to take months and months and months. For most of my students, it's a matter of focused work over a few weeks, sometimes less. And it's an investment that's going to pay off so much when you sit down to draft. So to bring this to life, I want to tell you about one of my notes to novel students who told me that she used to dread her writing sessions. She said that every time she sat down, she would feel this sense of anxiety of not knowing if her story was working. So she'd write a few hundred words and then she would stop and just start second guessing everything. And she'd get stuck in the middle of her scenes because she wasn't sure what needed to happen next. And so eventually, as you can probably guess, she would abandon whatever draft she was working on and then tell herself she'd figure it out with the next idea. So she would jump from idea to idea, thinking that her idea was broken. But again, I've worked with hundreds of writers, and in most cases, ideas aren't broken. They just need a little more development. So that's what I told her. And then once she did this kind of foundational work we just talked about, she wrote a 100,000-word first draft in under 90 days. And for the first time, she actually enjoyed the process. Not because she'd suddenly become more disciplined, but mainly because she wasn't fighting her own uncertainty anymore. She knew where her story was going and she could trust that foundation that she'd built. So this is what drafting with clarity feels like. You sit down at your desk already knowing what your scenes need to accomplish and why they matter. And in most cases, you're not sitting down asking what should happen in this next scene. Instead, you're asking more productive questions like, how can I bring this idea I had for a scene to life? So instead of staring at a blank page, paralyzed by infinite possibilities, it's more like you're solving a creative puzzle. And instead of dreading your writing time, you almost become curious about it. And instead of wondering if you're going to have to throw everything away, you start feeling your story come together and that feels good. And so because of that, you write faster. Again, not because you're rushing, but because you're not constantly stopping to figure out where things are headed. So bringing this all together, I just want you to know that you don't have to choose between writing fast and writing well. And with the right preparation, you get both. So here are the key points I want you to take away from this episode. Key point number one is that fast and good aren't opposites, but blind and clear are. The quality of your first draft is not determined by how slowly or carefully you write. It's determined by how well you understand your story before you start. So speed isn't the problem, but writing without direction is. Key point number two is that the real time waster isn't prep work. It's the cycle of starting over and over and over. So if you're worried that planning will take too long, I want you to consider how much time you've already lost to drafts that didn't work. And yes, I know that stings, I'm sorry. But I want you to think about this because the writers who finish aren't the ones who skip that planning to save time. They're the ones who invest that time up front, so they're not constantly starting from scratch. And then lastly, key point number three is that prep work isn't about creating rigid outlines. Although if rigid outlines work for you, then do what works for you. But when I talk about prep work, it's more about understanding your story's bones. So you don't necessarily need to know every scene in advance, but you do need clarity on your genre, your protagonist's arc, your major plot points, your theme, and your central conflict. And when you've done this kind of deep thinking or foundational work up front, remember you're not locked into a plan, you're just oriented with where you want to go. And that clarity and orientation is what makes fast drafting possible. So with all that being said, I guess the other thing I want to leave you with is that even with all this prep work we talked about, your first draft is still not going to be perfect. It will still need revision, but if you do this structural work first, your plot will work for the most part and your characters will grow and change, and your story will exist with a beginning, middle, and end. So remember the goal is not to create a super messy first draft that's unusable. It's to create a story with a solid foundation that is ready for revision, not demolition. And then once you learn how to draft this way, it's a skill that you don't lose. So you're gonna carry it into your next book and the one after that. And you're not just finishing one novel, you're becoming the kind of writer who finishes multiple novels. Now, if you want to learn my process for writing a high-quality first draft, my notes to novel course shows you exactly how to build out your story's foundation, create your roadmap, and draft with the kind of clarity that makes fast drafting actually work. No more wandering around in the dark, no more starting over, just a clear plan and focused intentional writing that gets you all the way to the end. Enrollment opens soon, so go to Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash waitlist to get on the wait list and be the first to know when doors open. One more time, that's Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash waitlist. Alright, so that's it for this episode of the Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast. Head over to Savannah Gilbo.com forward slash podcast for the complete show notes, including the resources I mentioned today, as well as bonus materials to help you implement what you've learned. And if you're ready to get more personalized guidance for your specific writing stage, whether you're just starting out, stuck somewhere in the middle of a draft, drowning in revisions, or getting ready to publish, take my free 30-second quiz at savannagilbo.com forward slash quiz. You'll get a customized podcast playlist that'll meet you right where you're at and help you get to your next big milestone. Last but not least, make sure to follow this podcast in your podcast player of choice because I'll be back next week with another episode full of actionable tips, tools, and strategies to help you become a better writer. Until then, happy writing.