Q&A with E.M. Wilson: A Chat With The Writer Behind Viral Book ‘Situationship’

During this year’s San Diego Comic-Con, Den of Geek co-hosted a writing event alongside original fiction platform Wattpad. Bestselling romance author E.M. Wilson, who got her start on Wattpad, sat down to talk about her unconventional path to finding her voice and reflecting on the way the platform changed the trajectory of her career. Known for her 2025 breakout novel Situationship and the publication of her most recent novel Breakup for Two, Wilson’s journey is only beginning, especially with Situationship’s recent adaptation in a webtoon comic series.

From architect to author, E.M. Wilson is now a part of the newest generation of storytellers to design an era of impactful literature via a platform that has redefined fiction and fandoms for years to come.

Den of Geek: Where did your career as a writer start? 

E.M. Wilson: That’s my favorite question, honestly. My degree is actually in architecture, so all through school, all I read was textbooks. When I got out, I was like, ‘You need some fiction.’ I need some downtime, at least. So I started reading a bunch of romance. And then had this sense that I could probably tell a story like that too. I started writing to see where it went. It seemed like it wasn’t gonna go anywhere at first, and then I joined Wattpad and found out that it had some potential.

Do you think that architecture has structured your writing process?

In a strange way, yes, because I see the formula of romance as very specific, actually. There’s a very specific structure that you follow, especially when it comes to reaching that happily ever after. For me, I see that in math. Everything is a three-part formula because you have a beginning, middle, and end for everything – from the whole book itself to every chapter as well. In that way, I’m like, ‘let’s math it out. Let me see if my pieces are correct. Let me see if that’s the right answer.’

How did you get started on Wattpad? 

I originally started off-platform, by which I was writing for myself and submitting to some agents. Then I finally got someone to get back to me on something, and they reamed me [laughs]. It was meant to be helpful, but they basically told me to give up. They were like, ‘Hey, you know, not everybody has the strength of writing. You don’t really have an author voice that’s discernible. So maybe take a step back and see if this is something you really want to pursue.’ And I was like, ‘OK, well, I guess I’ll pack it up.’ 

Then Wattpad was very much a place where, at the time that I joined, people were starting there, finishing a draft, getting feedback from people, and then pitching it. So I was like ‘At least I can have somebody tell me how to get better in some way,’ rather than ‘You suck, move on,’ right? So that’s how I joined that. 

A few books later, I was picked up for publishing, and under the umbrella that is Wattpad/WEBTOON. Everything’s kind of gone hand in hand, especially in traditional publishing: the book itself, audiobook, international deals, and now the webcomic. It’s just one big happy [family] for me. 

How does it feel to have loyal fans and an actual “fandom?”

It’s crazy, honestly, because most of the time I’m just at home writing in a dark corner of my house, you know? People are enjoying this? Why? I think there’s definitely a different culture on all the apps too. On Wattpad, especially when I started, it was very intimate. Like I knew everybody that was following me at first. I started with zero, and then I exploded to 30,000 pretty quickly. 

I still maintain that inner circle because we have a certain number of followers of people who read, and then there’s only a certain number of people who like it. Only a certain amount, like about one-to-five percent of people actually comment. So I’m having actual conversations with those people about my work in the comments and it’s just irreplaceable feedback. Of course, we bond over the parts that I put in the book that meant a lot to me, and they see themselves in it too. You build little relationships, and I have people, my OGs, who I’m still in contact with. They DM me all the time, so it’s nice. It’s lovely.

I also think that’s such a unique situation for an author too. Like you can’t say Stephen King, James Patterson, or even like Maya Angelou had that. That generation of authors didn’t have rapid feedback from their audience. 

It would usually come from critics, agents, publishers, all of that. When you’re on Wattpad, people are just enjoying the story and talking about it. So you’re seeing how they’re reacting to the good parts of it, rather than looking at the words for words’ sake – not really seeing the forest for the trees that they’re looking at. You get a lot of passes for bad grammar, punctuation, spelling. People go in knowing it’s a draft, and so it really is like a plot level type of interaction with people, which is beautiful.

Do you prefer actual critic feedback or fan feedback?

Fan, 100 percent. Especially once you are published. Once it’s out there, I can’t do anything about it. You know, at least on Wattpad, I can edit it six million times and it’s perfectly fine. Somebody says, ‘Hey, I don’t like this word anymore.’ It’s like, ‘Oh, it’s gone.’ But once it’s out in the world, it’s out and it’s no longer mine. I’ve written it. I’m in love with it. I want to keep it out there, but it’s my gift to the world. So anything you have to say about it, feel free. But for me, my job’s done. There’s nothing I can do. 

At that point, there’s no such thing as constructive criticism, because at that point, I can’t do anything about it. There’s no way I can reconstruct any part of it. So at that point, all of it is criticism, which I just can’t do anything with. That has its place, but having that before is when I can do something.

Have you encountered any really impactful fan testimonies, or just people who have really connected to your stories in emotional ways? 

Oh yeah, absolutely. I’ve cried with people before. Yes, I have since the book has come out, initially with a new audience. I think a lot of people connect with Teagan and her experience either being an eldest daughter themselves, or being an international adoptee, being raised as your only Black friend, or having white parents without that identity yourself. 

There are multiple facets to her that I think a lot of people see themselves in, and knowing that she’s somewhat based on me loosely, I can relate in a lot of those ways as well. But I’ve had people DM me. Someone-  not only did she grow up the same way my main character did— where she was a prep school kid; she went to Columbia; she was studying law— but she looks exactly like the cover too. 

So she sent me a picture of her in the store buying it, and she’s posing next to it. Looks exactly like Teagan. And then she had gone to some formal event with her parents, and she had almost the same outfit she wears on the cover. And I was like, ‘Cool, I’m gonna cry now. Oh, that’s amazing.’ She said, ‘Thank you for writing something that I could relate to; I’d never see myself in books.’ I’m like, ‘I’m sobbing.’”

I appreciate women of color in writing so much, especially in recent years. I feel like we’ve seen so much of us. 

It’s so beautiful because there’s such a zest to stories when you’re not going just for the commercial aspects of it being kind of like a basic love story. You’re getting into the social topics. As well as the difficulties of existing, but then also when you avoid some of those things, it’s like being loved out loud and being able to enjoy life in the face of all of this. I just find so much reward from i t- not just seeing yourself in a story, but also just having that other side of humanity that you get to experience in literature too. I just… I love it.

Situationship and Breakup for Two are now available on Amazon. You can read the Situationship comic for free on Webtoon.