Thankful for Genres (Clip Show #14)

Rosemi Mederos: 00:01

If you have plot bunnies coming out of your plot holes, it’s time for a writing break.

Welcome back, writers, and for any US listeners, happy Thanksgiving.

Whether you’re cooking, cleaning, traveling, or pretending to help while hiding with your earbuds in, I’m thankful you’re here.

This season of Writing Break has been a feast of genres—a literary buffet, if you will—and today, we’re taking a breather to savor what we’ve learned so far.

I hope you enjoy this cozy holiday episode. I wish you a relaxing weekend with great food and no family drama. And please note that if you take a shot every time I say the word genre in this episode, you will need medical attention.

So grab a mug of something spiced, settle into your favorite chair, and let’s give thanks for the stories that feed us and the genres that define them.

The Writing Break café is open, and today it’s just us, the Overthinking Couch, and this season’s best writing insights.

From Episode 127: Writing Mystery: Planting Clues That Keep Readers Guessing

So now that you have your detective figure, it’s time to plant some clues because readers expect the mystery to be solvable and have a satisfying reveal.

When it comes to clues, the challenge is planting clues that are fair, invisible, and satisfying. They should be clues that the readers could spot, although they might not until they read the book a second time. Readers want to play detective alongside the protagonist, so you must leave enough breadcrumbs to follow the trail without making the solution obvious too early in the book.

A clue will be obvious, hidden, or a red herring. Obvious clues reassure readers that they’re on the right path. Hidden clues are hidden in plain sight, often disguised as a background detail. And red herrings are misdirections that keep readers guessing.

Fair play is the name of the game when it comes to clue planting. Your readers should always have a chance to solve the mystery before the detective announces the solution. That doesn’t mean all of your readers will solve it. What it does mean is that the evidence was there all along. When readers flip back through the book, they should see that the answer was hiding in plain sight.

One way to do this is to disguise clues as ordinary details. It could be anything from a certain aroma, a letter, a pair of shoes. These details should be scattered through multiple scenes instead of dropped in all at once. There should be enough distractions that the details blend naturally into the story. This can be done through relationship subplots, humor, action, and more.

A trick mystery writers sometimes employ is writing three similar details, only one of which is important. That avoids your clue being too obvious and keeps your reader engaged.

Now, let’s move on to red herrings.

From Episode 128: Writing Thrillers and Suspense: Raising the Stakes

A thriller can be suspenseful and a suspense can have thriller aspects, which is why they’re usually grouped together, but if you need to categorize or describe your thriller/suspense, remember that thrillers rely on action, pacing, and external threats and suspense leans more on tension, dread, and anticipation.

It’s important to remember that for thriller and suspense, every scene should either increase danger or deepen doubt. The reader should always know more than your protagonist and fear what is not yet known.

So let’s recap. Thrillers thrive when stakes escalate, when pacing balances speed with suspense, and when point of view is used to manage tension. And remember the pitfalls: don’t drown readers in nonstop action, don’t rely on predictable twists, and don’t raise stakes without consequences.

From Episode 129: Writing Romance and 9 Lessons from a Debut Author

Know that regardless of the trope you choose, you’re heading toward a happy ending. If you do not want to write a happily ever after story, then you don’t want to write a romance novel. Your novel can have a love story in it, but if it doesn’t end with happily ever after or happy for now, it is not a romance novel. The ending must be emotionally satisfying. I think this is why people come down hard on romance novels. We already know how it’s going to end, why bother reading it? But the constraint of having to write a happy ending means that romance is harder to write than most other genres because if you’re going to rise to the top of the romance heap, the rest of the story needs to be uniquely memorable and well-written with solid, interesting multi-dimensional characters, and an intriguing plot.

From Episode 130: Writing Fantasy: Building Worlds That Breathe

And finally, keep your characters center-stage. A dazzling world means nothing if readers don’t care about who lives in it.

At its heart, fantasy is about people. No matter how strange the setting, readers connect through human emotions: love, fear, ambition, betrayal. Anchor your magic and your myths to relatable stakes.

Don’t forget, culture is part of the story as well. How do your characters eat, celebrate, and mourn? These small touches turn a map into a living world. Fantasy thrives when its worlds feel alive, not because you gave us a thousand years of backstory but because you showed us how people travel, love, fight, and dream within that world.

So, if you want to write fantasy that feels alive, build your rules, reveal them with care, and ground your work in the emotions we all share. You don’t want your readers to just visit your world. You want them to carry your world with them.

From Episode 131: Writing Science Fiction: The “One Big Leap” and Beyond

So, when you’re writing sci-fi, ask yourself: is this story about the technology or about the person using it? If the tech ages out, will the emotional truth remain?

Anchor your story in human emotions and human relationships, and it will stand the test of time, no matter how outdated the gadgets become.

So, to recap: science fiction thrives on the “one big lie,” it uses science as a lens to ask bigger questions, and it balances ideas with character-driven stories. If you want to learn more or get a refresher on character-driven stories. If you want to learn more or want a refresher on character-driven stories, check out episode 109, called 7 Literary Conflicts Explained. I’ll add a link to it in the show notes. Remember, science fiction isn’t about predicting tomorrow. It’s about interrogating today.

From Episode 132: Writing Historical Fiction: Living in Another Time

Regardless, historical fiction transports us to the past while reminding us that human emotions and struggles are timeless.

A great historical fiction novel gives us immersive detail that makes the world vivid. Historical accuracy aids in creating a feeling of authenticity. As in all books, characters should be relatable. But in historical fiction specifically, writers should be careful to avoid writing one-dimensional characters. It would be a mistake to rely on the details of the era to carry the book.

Research is the foundation of historical fiction, but it should never weigh down the story. This is a struggle for writers in all genres, but I think historical fiction authors suffer a little more because they tend to love history. They think the era they’re writing about is fascinating, so they do as they should and learn what people ate, how they dressed, how their streets smelled, what laws shaped their lives, and more. Sometimes they struggle with moving from researching to writing, and sometimes they struggle with believing that putting in everything they know about this period is not going to make for strong writing. Do your research, and then hide that research under the narrative so readers never feel bored or like they’re being lectured. Ugh, the worst.

The research shapes the world you’re creating, but the story belongs to the characters.

From Episode 133: Writing Gothic Fiction: Where Beauty Meets Terror

By looking at the Gothic globally, we see that it’s not just castles and fog. It’s a universal language of fear and longing, expressed through different landscapes and histories. There is certainly global common ground. Gothic fiction around the world returns to the same contrasts of beauty and terror, secrets and repression, and the past intruding on the present.

So, if you’re making your foray into Gothic fiction, unsettle your readers with the uncanny and the supernatural, and perhaps leave some things ambiguous. Entangle us in romance and ruin. Bind desire and destruction together. Remember the importance of atmosphere, although this is something that should be remembered in any genre. And no matter what subgenre of Gothic fiction you’re attempting, give your readers that sublime mix of beauty, decay, and dread.

From Episode 134: Writing Horror: Fear, Gore, and the Monsters Within

Good horror shows us ourselves at our most terrified, our most desperate, and our most monstrous. Good horror is about the things that scare us most in the daylight. Horror makes us uneasy in a way that lingers, and that is the kind of thing that attracts horror fans.

Horror thrives on tension. Build suspense through your pacing until you take your readers past their breaking point. Even though in horror we know for sure that there is a monster, your story might still benefit from some suggestion of gore rather than detailed gore itself. Your audience might not want a blow by blow of what happened to a victim, so this is where sensory details come in. For example, rather than describing in gory detail what your protagonist sees when they stumble upon one of the monster’s victims, describing the smell of the room can add weight to your suggestions of gore. Maybe the narrator tells us that the victim’s throat was cut, and maybe even that there was blood everywhere, but the protagonist gets weak, stumbles, and even vomits at the sight. This indicates to your reader that they should imagine a super gross throat cut. Consider the audience you’re writing for, and then decide how much gore you’re going to describe in detail. Yes, there’s a place for blood and shock, but if you rely only on gore, readers numb quickly. Tension is the true backbone of horror. Horror lives in the senses, and mystery is your ally here.

From Episode 135: Writing Literary Fiction: Finding Truth in Everyday Life

Readers don’t come to literary fiction for comfort or escape. They come for depth, for challenge, and for artistry. The prose itself matters. Language is often polished, poetic, or experimental. You can play around with stream-of-consciousness narration, nonlinear timelines, shifting points of view, and even blending fiction with memoir, essay, or poetry. Feel free to experiment with form, but experimentation should always serve your work, not your ego. A fragmented timeline isn’t impressive unless it reveals something that a straight chronology couldn’t.

Readers of literary fiction expect rich, layered, and contradictory characters whose flaws feel painfully real.

I hope you enjoyed this bonus episode, and whether you’re spending the day at a crowded table or a quiet desk, please know that I am thankful for you, your imagination, and your commitment to the craft.

We’ll be back next week with more genre exploration and the latest publishing news. Thank you for listening, thank you for writing, and remember, you deserved this break.

If you would like us to visit your favorite independent bookstore, feature your favorite independent author (even if it’s you), or discuss something you’re overthinking about, please email me at podcast@writingbreak.com.

Thank you for making space in your mind for The Muse today.

Writing Break is hosted by America’s Editor and produced by Allon Media with technical direction by Gus Aviles. Visit us at writingbreak.com or contact us at podcast@writingbreak.com.