If your first draft feels like it’s wandering — like you’re generating pages but not quite writing a story — this episode is for you.
After coaching and editing hundreds of first-time novelists and memoir writers, I keep seeing the same three mistakes show up in draft after draft. Not because these writers aren’t talented. But because first drafts are hard, and most of us don’t know what we don’t know until someone points it out.
The frustrating thing about these mistakes? They’re invisible from the inside. The draft looks like it’s working. Pages are accumulating. But something feels off, and you can’t put your finger on it.
In this episode, I’m naming all three — and telling you exactly what to do instead.
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Episode At A Glance
[02:34]Your Main Character’s Want Is Vague
Whenever I’m working with a new client, one of the first questions I ask is, “What does your character want?” The answers I get are often vague. She wants to be happy. He wants to carve out his own identity. She wants to survive the grief of losing her mother. She wants to feel loved.
But without something concrete to aim for in the world of the real, these stories have no target for the reader to track.
The feeling is important. But until that feeling manifests in something specific or concrete, it’s just a vague want that’s hard to translate into action.
The concrete want is the manifestation of the deeper desire. It’s what your character believes the concrete goal will give him or her internally.
[07:31] Obstacle Stacking
Because character desire is often murky, the obstacles stack, but don’t truly test the character. There’s one calamity after another, but they’re resolved and then we move onto the next obstacle.
In story, the obstacles should build, raising the stakes and interfering with the main story goal. It should complicate the character’s quest, not just pile one obstacle after another.
Each obstacle is getting your main character further away from the one thing he wants. And it’s dismantling the faulty belief that’s truly getting in your character’s way.
[11:00] Event Stacking
This is where things happen, but they’re just a pile of anecdotes that don’t feel related. There’s no cause and effect.
Often, this is a direct result of mistake 1 – where the character’s main goal is murky. Each scene should be building toward the final showdown where your main character makes a final bid to get what he or she wants. And it’s there to dismantle the faulty belief that’s been stopping your character from overcoming the obstacles.
Links Mentioned In This Episode
Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
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