Show Notes
Screenwriter and thriller author Thomas Dean Donnelly joins the SPA Girls Podcast to explain Superdraft, his evidence-based approach to the writing process. Learn how to separate your Creator voice from your Critic voice, beat writer’s block and imposter syndrome, use flow states to write faster, and apply the 1-3-2 drafting method to fix a sagging second act. Essential listening for indie authors and self-published writers who struggle to finish a first draft.
In this episode we discuss:
Why the 2023 Hollywood writers’ strike pushed a 30-year screenwriter into self-publishing
What screenwriters get wrong when they first write novels (hello, head hopping)
Why there are hundreds of books on writing craft and almost none on writing process
The marathon comparison: 70% of marathon trainees finish, but only 11-12% of NaNoWriMo starters finish a novel
The Creator and the Critic — the two voices in every writer’s head, and why they’re mutually exclusive
Why you have to write the bad words before you can write the good words
Iteration versus inspiration, and why you need both but never at the same time
Which stage of writing belongs to which voice: brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing
Critic Trick #1: research — plus the IOUZ placeholder system and timed research sprints
Critic Trick #2: rereading yesterday’s pages — and the voice memo workaround
Critic Trick #3: the Big Idea that wants you to go back and start over
Manufacturing flow: walking habits, green spaces, blue spaces and the shower effect
The 1-3-2 method — write your first act, then your third act, then your second
Tom’s Malcolm Chaucer spy thriller series and the cozy mysteries he’s writing as a palate cleanser
About Thomas Dean Donnelly
Thomas Dean Donnelly was born in New Jersey but has been living and writing in Los Angeles as a screenwriter for more than 30 years. In that time he has written on projects that have grossed over a billion dollars worldwide. He has adapted the classic works of writers such as Ray Bradbury, Clive Cussler, Stan Lee and Robert E. Howard, and worked on franchises from Voltron to Uncharted, and from Marvel’s Doctor Strange to The Walking Dead. His feature credits include Sahara starring Matthew McConaughey, and Conan the Barbarian.
In 2023 he turned his hand to writing thriller novels, and now has three books in the Malcolm Chaucer series under the pen name T.D. Donnelly, with a fourth arriving in November. His book on the writing process, Superdraft, releases in September 2026.
You can find him early mornings walking the beaches of Southern California, and spending time with his wife, two mostly grown children, and two very demanding guinea pigs.
Find Tom at tddonnelly.com
Resources mentioned
SPS Live London — where Tom has delivered the Superdraft talk
Superdraft: The Art and Science of Better, Faster Writing — releasing September 2026
Year of the Sheep — free prequel novella when you join Tom’s reader group
Christopher Vogler, The Writer’s Journey — Tom worked with Vogler early in his Hollywood career
NaNoWriMo / National Novel Writing Month completion statistics
20Books Vegas / Author Nation — where Tom was first told to write novels
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