How author Meredith Schorr learned to write fiction
And now she's the author of two incredible romcoms with more on the way
Hi everyone! Happy November!
I’ve officially moved the newsletter over to Substack so it looks a bit different. I’ve tried to do this before but ended up going back to Mailchimp for reasons that are now unclear. Never mind, here we are for good.
But let’s get to the main stuff- a wonderful interview with my friend, author Meredith Schorr!
I have wanted to do an interview with author friends for a long time in this newsletter, and Meredith was game. Meredith and I are what we call “agent siblings” - we share the same literary agent. We’re also friends and we talk almost every day. I was delighted to meet her in person in August in Anaheim.
Hi Meredith! Start us off by sharing a little bit about your life and how you came to writing.
Unlike many authors, I didn't grow up knowing I wanted to be a writer. I got my paralegal certification after graduating college and although I enjoyed my day job, it wasn't so much a "passion" as how I earned money to live my life when I wasn't working. It wasn't until my early thirties, when my beloved boss at the time began complimenting my technical writing skills, that my obsession with writing anything and everything started: restaurant reviews on Yelp, book reviews on Amazon, witty poems for birthday cards, and finally blogging my "real life" experiences as a single woman living and dating in New York City. I did this anonymously but I grew a following and loved it. And then one day on my commute to my day job, I started daydreaming about a recent breakup and imagining a different ending, one where we lived happily ever after. In that moment, I decided to combine my love of writing, technical skills, and impressive daydreaming game into my first attempt at writing a novel, obviously a romance. And I never looked back!
It's interesting that your writing skills were evident early on. The organic evolution from your blog to fiction is fascinating--it was a real life Sex and the City, almost. So since the transition to writing novels, what were some of the things you learned about writing fiction that you didn't know before?
Funny you should ask. While writing my first book, I took a writer's workshop through a company called Gotham Writer's Workshop. Although the class was led by a published author, it was basically taught by peer critique. Every week, a portion of the class had fifteen or so pages of their book critiqued out loud. Each student had to say three positive things and three areas needing improvement. For my pages, almost everyone in the class complimented my writing style but they all told me to put what I was saying into a scene. Since I was so used to writing a blog, most of my fifteen pages were narrative where I was telling a story. I hadn't shown anything. It was so obvious, yet I had no idea what I was doing! I rewrote those pages and submitted them for my next turn and everyone LOVED them. I felt like I got my money's worth in that one class!
I love this. It illustrates one of the ways we learn how to structure story. Did you work with a beta reader or critique partner as you wrote more?
Yes! Samantha Bailey has been my critique partner for years. She's a thriller author but she's amazing at pulling more feeling out of me and knowing when I need to raise the stakes or develop my characters more. I also try to have two romance authors beta read for me as well. For ROOMMATING, my 2025 romcom, I asked our agent sibbies Lindsay Hameroff and Margot Ryan to beta read and they were fantastic! They had very similar comments about both my leading man and my third act breakup, which was telling. Feedback from three authors is currently my sweet spot but deadlines often don't allow for it.
Do you think it gets any easier to write a novel at this point?
I do find it easier to write a novel...as in a first draft. I'm a much faster writer now and first drafts flow out of me with much greater ease than they used to. But everything that comes after the first draft, like revisions and the mental toll that comes with the publishing process, is as difficult as ever, even more so. My expectations for myself have increased because I try to learn from mistakes I made in previous books or comments from negative reviews. Whereas in earlier books, I didn't think so hard about whether the characters were developed enough, the stakes high enough, the characters likeable enough etc., I now go into the writing process with the intention to nail these things in the first draft.
Narrator: She never nails them in the first draft.
Thank you so much for talking with me, Meredith!
You can learn more about Meredith and her books here, or say hi on her Instagram.
What I’m reading
I’ve been hard at work revising my current novel, so my reading is slowing down. (Laughable; I’m still going through a book every 2 days or so.)
Right now I’m reading Iron Flame (the Fourth Wing sequel) and I’m fascinated and amazed by how well the author, Rebecca Yarros, knows how to use romantic tropes and “id” to create a compelling story. When we read books, we know that we like something, but we don’t always know why. Yarros knows why.
It is utterly tortuous reading Iron Flame because I want to read it as much as possible but also slow down so I can enjoy it longer. Oh, the pain.
And, since the last newsletter, I’ve read:
A Crown of Gilded Bones (#3 in the series) by Jennifer L Armentrout
The War of Two Queens (#4 in the series and spectacular, easily my favorite) by Jennifer L Armentrout
A Soul of Blood and Ash (#5 in the series) by Jennifer L Armentrout
Gothikana by RuNyx
The Predator by RuNyx (an interesting experiment that I’m not sure I’d repeat, except…)
The Reaper by RuNyx
The Emperor by RuNyx (apparently it took reading 3 books to learn. Don’t judge)
Second Star to the Left by Megan van Dyke (a spectacular read, so fun, so light, and great steam)
The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas
American Queen by Sierra Simone (read on a dare; high, high smut levels)
Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey (horrid title but a very enjoyable romance)
My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine (So cute and fun! Exactly what the title says, but it’s a romance. I adored it)
Priest by Sierra Simone (hands down the smuttiest book in the universe; this is a known fact among people I know)
Seen, heard, blogged
I haven’t watched TV in three months. I’ve been reading and writing!
But the other night I finally watched some TV and it was really nice. We watched Fall of the House of Usher. The first episode was a confusing mess but OMG the mom standing behind the guy in the chair almost made me pause the show it was so scary.
We also watched Beckham, the four episode David Beckham series which is actually fascinating. My husband and I are both soccer fans so it’s great to see interviews with a lot of the players including Diego Simeone, who is now the coach of my team, Atletico Madrid. I got to be in a press room with him and it was quite a moment. He speaks no Engilsh and my Spanish is terrible, so I asked no questions. Also I’m shy. For these reasons, I made a terrible sports journalist even though I did it part time for about 3-4 years, which was great because I got to cover some amazing games (almost all Spanish football).
Buy my books
The Second Chance Hotel
A Very Typical Family