#240. 10 Writing Mistakes That Make Readers Put Down Your Novel

#240. 10 Writing Mistakes That Make Readers Put Down Your Novel

From Fiction Writing Made Easy with Savannah Gilbo | How to Write a Novel & Writing Advice by Savannah Gilbo

March 24, 2026 · 23 min · Episode 240

About this episode

In this episode, Savannah Gilbo discusses 10 common writing mistakes that can lead readers to abandon a novel and emphasizes the importance of addressing story-level issues rather than just sentence-level problems.

Are you revising the same chapters over and over, but nothing you change is actually fixing the problem? Most writers go straight to the prose when their story isn't working. They tighten sentences, swap out words, and reread the same chapter over and over. And still, something feels off. But most first-draft problems don't occur at the sentence level. They occur at the story level. In this episode, I share the 10 writing mistakes I see most often in manuscripts. Plus, I’ll give you the diagn...

People in this episode

Host: Savannah Gilbo

Topics covered

  • writing mistakes
  • novel revision
  • story structure
  • manuscript problems
  • creative writing tips

Keywords

  • writing mistakes
  • novel writing
  • revision tips
  • manuscript
  • creative writing

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