You’ve finished the first draft of your thriller, and it has plenty of action. But when you read it back, it’s not as gripping as you’d hoped, and it’s hard to say why. Usually, the problem isn’t a lack of danger or objectively high stakes. It’s often a mistake (or two) that drains the suspense, and those are really hard to spot from inside your own draft.

In this episode, I’m going to walk you through the five most common thriller mistakes I’ve seen in first drafts, why each one weakens suspense, and a question you can ask to spot each mistake in your own pages.

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In This Episode:

[02:50] What makes a thriller feel flat, even when it’s packed with action

[07:05] Why high stakes don’t always make readers care (and what’s usually missing)

[10:00] How to tell if your protagonist is too reactive (and why this matters)

[13:30] What happens when the danger doesn't grow, complicate, and escalate

[18:35] Why withholding information from readers can backfire and weaken suspense

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Links Mentioned:

Get The Revision Accelerator
How to Write a Novel That Hooks Readers Through Curiosity (Not Confusion)

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Other Episodes You’ll Love:

The 6 Scenes Every Thriller Novel Needs
Red Herrings: How to Mislead & Surprise Readers
5 Questions To Develop Better Antagonists

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 Send Savannah Your Question

Support the show

👋 FREE TRAINING: Why You Keep Getting Stuck & How to Finally Finish Your Novel - Give me 60 minutes and I'll show you how to turn your ideas into a complete first draft—without getting stuck in the middle, constantly second-guessing, or spending years rewriting instead of finishing. Click here to save your seat!

How do you fix a plot hole in your novel? What if your beta readers figure out your big plot twist too early? And how are you supposed to find time to write when life keeps getting in the way?

In today's episode, I'm doing something a little different! Five listeners sent in questions about challenges they're facing with their novels, and I'm answering each one as if we were working together in a coaching session.

Here's what we cover:

[02:07] How to fix plot holes in your novel by getting clear on your story's foundation, identifying what's causing the gap in logic, and addressing the underlying problem.

[05:41] How to know if you've written too much or too little in a scene or chapter, why I recommend writing in scenes instead of chapters, and how to decide which details your readers actually need.

[11:12] What to do when beta readers guess your mystery novel's killer too early—and how to use red herrings, suspect motives, and reader attention to keep your plot twists surprising without hiding important clues.

[13:38] How to balance an action-packed plot with your protagonist's internal character arc so you can explore their emotions, grief, and moral struggles without slowing down your story's pacing.

[18:37] How to make time for writing when life gets busy, why knowing exactly what to work on matters, and how to break the novel-writing process into manageable steps so you can make progress in smaller pockets of time.

Whether you're outlining, drafting, or revising your novel, there's something in this episode for you!

🔗 Links mentioned in this episode:

• FREE TRAINING: Why You Keep Getting Stuck & How to Finally Finish Your Novel
• Ep. #235 - Scene Structure Made Easy: The 5 Essential Elements Every Scene Needs
• Send Savannah Your Question

⭐ Follow & Review

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to follow the show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your review will help other writers find this podcast and get the insights they need to finish their books. Thanks for tuning in to The Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast! See you next week!

 Send Savannah Your Question

FREE QUIZ: Take this 30-second quiz to get a custom action plan that'll help you move from stuck writer to published author!

Support the show

👋 FREE TRAINING: Why You Keep Getting Stuck & How to Finally Finish Your Novel - Give me 60 minutes and I'll show you how to turn your ideas into a complete first draft—without getting stuck in the middle, constantly second-guessing, or spending years rewriting instead of finishing. Click here to save your seat!

If you’ve stepped away from your novel for a few weeks, or even a few months, getting back into writing can feel a lot harder than it should.

Maybe you open your draft, scroll through a few pages, and wonder where you were even going with the story. Maybe you feel like you need to reread your entire manuscript before you can write a single new word. Or maybe you keep doing the math on all the writing time you missed, and now you feel pressured to catch up.

Here’s what I want you to know: you don’t need to make up for lost time or remember every detail of your story before you start writing again. You just need to make your return feel manageable.

In this episode, I’m walking you through five steps to help you get back into writing your novel after a break, from the moment you open your draft again to the next time life pulls you away.

This is what I talk about:

[02:47] Why catch-up plans (like a 10,000-word weekend sprint) usually backfire, and why asking “where did I leave off?” works better than asking “how far behind am I?”

[05:26] How to reconnect with your story without rereading every page, so you can pick up where you left off without getting pulled into editing.

[07:02] Why your first session back should have one small, specific job, and how a quick note can keep you from staring at the blinking cursor.

[10:00] How to stack short writing sessions to rebuild your writing momentum, even if you only have 20 minutes at a time.

[12:30] How to plan ahead for the next break so your next return to the page is easier than this one.

If you’ve been away from your writing for a while, go easy on yourself. Your story is still there, and getting back to it can start with one small, doable step.

🔗 Links mentioned in this episode:

• FREE TRAINING: Why You Keep Getting Stuck & How to Finally Finish Your Novel
• Get on the Notes to Novel waitlist

⭐ Follow & Review

If you loved this episode, please take a moment to follow the show and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your review will help other writers find this podcast and get the insights they need to finish their books. Thanks for tuning in to The Fiction Writing Made Easy Podcast! See you next week!

 Send Savannah Your Question

FREE QUIZ: Take this 30-second quiz to get a custom action plan that'll help you move from stuck writer to published author!

Support the show

👋 FREE TRAINING: Why You Keep Getting Stuck & How to Finally Finish Your Novel - Give me 60 minutes and I'll show you how to turn your ideas into a complete first draft—without getting stuck in the middle, constantly second-guessing, or spending years rewriting instead of finishing. Click here to save your seat!