First Draft Episode #237: Rebecca Serle

Rebecca Serle is a television writer, producer, and New York Times bestselling author of six books, including When You Were Mine , The Edge of Falling, The Dinner List, and her newest, In Five Years, out now. She co-developed the hit TV adaptation of her YA series, Famous in Love.

Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode

• Marianne Wiggins, author of National Book Award finalist Evidence of Things Unseen and The Shadow Catcher, and a professor of creative writing at USC

• Sigrid Nunez, author of National Book Award-winning The Friend, was Rebecca’s thesis advisor at The New School’s MFA program

• While Rebecca was getting her MFA, she was an intern and then an assistant at Foundry Literary and Media

• Mollie Glick, previously of Foundry Literary and currently with CAA, represented Rebecca for her first book, When You Were Mine

• Lauren Oliver, author of Delirium and Before I Fall, gave Rebecca great advice: “Time is going to pass anyway,” meaning you might as well get to work.

• I plug my BestSelf Journal, which is helping me be more productive

• Kristin Stewart as Bella in Twilight movies; Shailene Woodly as Tris in the Divergent films; and Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss in The Hunger Games films

• Joshua Jackson and Katie Holmes dated in real life while filming Dawson’s Creek

• Dan Farrah, Rebecca’s manager

• Rebecca studied the pilots for Gossip Girl and The O.C. to prepare to write the pilot for Famous in Love

• Erin Malone at WME is Rebecca’s agent

• I. Marlene King, creator of Pretty Little Liars came on as a producer of Famous in Love

• ABC Signature Studios has acquired the television rights to Rebecca’s pilot adaptation of the bestselling book series Jessica Darling by Megan McCafferty (whose newest book, The Mall, is out in 2020)

• One Day in December by Josie Silver

• In Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear, Elizabeth Gilbert discusses the concept that ideas are out in the atmosphere and can pass from person to person

I want to hear from you!

Have a question about writing or creativity for Sarah Enni or her guests to answer? To leave a voicemail, call (818) 533-1998.

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Every Tuesday, I speak to storytellers like Veronica Roth, author of Divergent; Linda Holmes, author and host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast; Jonny Sun, internet superstar, illustrator of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Gmorning, Gnight! and author and illustrator of Everyone’s an Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too;  Michael Dante  DiMartino, co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender; John August, screenwriter of Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; or Rhett Miller, musician and frontman for The Old 97s. Together, we take deep dives on their careers and creative works.

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