Emily J. Smith: I Allowed the Writing To Be Terrible

Emily J. Smith is a writer and tech professional based in Brooklyn. She has led teams at top tech companies and founded the dating app, Chorus. She holds a B.S in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Cornell, and an M.B.A. from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. Her writing has appeared in Catapult, The Rumpus, Slate, Vice, WashPo, and others. Follow her on X (Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram.

Photo by Sammy Tunis

In this interview, Emily discusses wanting to write a coming-of-age story for women in their 30s with her debut novel, Nothing Serious, how her background in engineering and business helped her map out the writing process, and more.

Name: Emily J. Smith
Literary agent: Aurora Fernandez, Trident Media Group
Book title: Nothing Serious
Publisher: William Morrow (HarperCollins)
Release date: February 18, 2025
Genre/category: Literary fiction
Elevator pitch: A scintillating debut about a disillusioned tech executive who goes into an obsessive spiral when her best friend—and longtime crush—is implicated in a woman’s death.

Bookshop | Amazon
[WD uses affiliate links.]

What prompted you to write this book?

The idea for this book started while I was freezing my eggs, something the main character of Nothing Serious , Edie, also goes through. On the last night of egg freezing, someone else had to administer my final shot. I called one of my best friends, a man I once had a crush on, who I knew I could count on for anything. But as I was showing him the instructional videos, I noticed he was swiping Tinder.

My friend is rich and handsome and, at the time, newly single; he was having a blast on the dating apps, while I was miserable on them. I hated that he took the egg freezing videos so casually while I’d poured over them for weeks. I hated that he had amazing women at his fingertips, while I hadn’t gone on a decent date in months. I hated that I had to freeze my eggs while, as a man, he had nothing but time. But also, I loved this man, he was one of my closest friends. This was the start of the idea for the book, the tension of wanting someone you love to suffer because of inherent, everyday indignities. It is also a scene in the novel.

A few months after that, I heard that a childhood friend I’d since lost touch with committed suicide. She was one of the most talented women I knew, I’d idolized her as a kid. I was so shaken, and I couldn’t stop wondering why and how it could have gotten to that point—something, of course, no one can ever really know. Between those two events, the idea for the book crystalized.

At the time, I was querying my first novel, a highly autobiographical story (like most first novels) about a woman who studied engineering and worked in tech, who embarks on a path of self-discovery in her mid-30s. I poured my heart and soul into this book for five years—there are so few novels written by real women engineers and writing it felt urgent—but it was rejected by every agent for not having enough plot.

Overwhelmed by rejection from my first novel, I was motivated to try something new. I knew my next attempt had to have a propulsive plot, while also integrating themes from my first novel. Between the egg freezing and the suicide, I saw the book play out in my mind from start to end. I was watching shows at the time that incorporated feminism and complex human dynamics with plot-driven, suspense elements, like “Killing Eve” and “Big Little Lies,” and I was inspired to give it a shot.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I’d been rolling the idea around in my head for a while when I broke my foot dancing with my aforementioned friend and was house-ridden for three months (the opening scene of the book is the two main characters dancing). It was in that period that I wrote the first draft. It came like a fever dream and I allowed the writing to be terrible. I wanted to get it all on the page to see how the story worked, to make sure it did work, before improving the writing and adding texture.

After that first draft, I mapped out the story on a spreadsheet. My background is in engineering and business, so spreadsheets are a comfort. On one axis, I had chapters. On the other, I had characters and plot-points. I filled in the giant spreadsheet to make sure that the characters and sub-plots were progressing steadily from chapter to chapter. Then I went back into the manuscript and filled in the gaps.

About six months into working on the book, I got venture funding to launch my own dating app, Chorus. I’d been on dating apps for nearly a decade, writing about the dynamics with some success, and pitching ideas to VCs. Getting investment felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so I stopped working on the book, and shifted to building, launching, and running my own dating app.

Then 2020 hit, my company ran out of money, and I spun into a debilitating depression. I didn’t think about the book, I was embarrassed I had written something so plot-heavy and didn’t plan to go back to it. It wasn’t until three years after putting the book away that I took it back out and thought, Maybe this could be something. I had a few friends read the summary and opening pages as a gut-check and they were encouraging, which allowed me to read it more forgivingly. I gave myself six months to do surgery on the book and get it in good shape before going back to work at a full-time tech job.

I started querying agents in October of 2022 (42 total). I was about ready to give up when my current agent offered me representation in April of 2023. We did a few rounds of edits and went out to publishers in August 2023. I had an offer a few weeks later, and the book will be published on February 18, 2025.

The end-to-end process, for me, was around six and a half years.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

The hardest part in the publishing process, for me, was getting an agent to believe in the book. Many agents responded with positive feedback on the writing and the concept, but wanted me to make it more of a thriller. One agent, specifically, expressed deep enthusiasm but wanted me to change the ending; we even had a phone call where she gave detailed notes.

I spent over a month reworking the second half of the book based on this call, trying to turn it into a thriller with a surprise ending, even though, at its core, it’s a character-driven story and the ambiguity in the ending felt critical. I could feel, in my bones, that I was making the book worse, but I gave it my best shot. When I sent her the updated manuscript, she didn’t reply. Months later I followed up and she sent me a one-sentence rejection.

Through all of this, I learned how important it is to trust your gut. I think taking feedback is crucial, but don’t try and make your book something you know it isn’t. Sometimes you have to write yourself through to figure it out, and that’s OK.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I was surprised by how much fun I had creating a plot. I’m generally not very interested in plot; my favorite books focus more on a character’s internal landscape than external action. But I had fun mapping out the story and adding elements of suspense and mystery to the book.

It was also surprising to write a book where I knew what would happen from start to end. My first novel was a collection of scenes that I retroactively wove into a loose story. I never imagined I could write a book based on an outline, it felt too structured and forced. But now, I can’t imagine not having the full vision upfront, to know what I’m working toward. It was so valuable to get the bones of the story down first, then add narrative layers and subplots over time.

Speaking of time, the three-years I spent away from the novel was invaluable. I’d written the first draft in a fit of rage and bitterness, which fueled my ability to write a full first draft in three months. But coming back to it years later, I saw the main character from a more distanced perspective, which allowed me to add critical layers of self-awareness and humor into the narrative.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

My hope is to convey a coming-of-age story for women in their 30s. Stories of self-discovery are often centered on young adulthood, but most of the women I know, especially those of us who were heads down climbing various corporate ladders in our 20s, only began to really understand ourselves in our 30s. Thirty-five, specifically, is the age at which women are told fertility drops, forcing many of us to reckon with who we are and what we want in earnest for the first time, outside of external expectations.

I also wanted to portray a woman who had been immersed in the masculine culture of engineering for most of her adulthood, and the intense internalized misogyny that can shape one’s identity when that’s all you’ve known. After studying computer engineering and working in tech myself, it took me a long time to untangle from needing men’s approval, to value the feminine. I haven’t seen that journey represented well in culture.

I also wanted to show a character whose life was distorted by financial insecurity. It is almost impossible, if you have no safety net and a bone-deep fear of being poor, to pursue writing, which is why I didn’t consider it until I had worked for over a decade in tech. We see a lot of broke characters in modern literature, because writing doesn’t pay, but we don’t see many characters in contemporary novels who couldn’t even consider the arts because, above all, they have to support themselves.

Edie is misguided, but she’s not hapless. In many ways, she’s very accomplished, but her sense of self is shaky. I wanted to create empathy for a character who is stuck and stunted because her definition of success was distorted by patriarchy and capitalism. In our culture, being in touch with the true self as a woman can sometimes feel like self-destruction, especially in male-dominated fields and heterosexual relationships.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Figure out what you need to keep going and stay with it. For me, this was often finding a friend who was willing to read and give feedback on my manuscript because I felt stuck or unmotivated. Being open to feedback and how your story is received is critical, but don’t try to please everyone. Find the people you trust and don’t compromise the heart of the book. Most of the time, the path to publishing a novel is long and winding and the most important thing is to keep trying.