TGON Interviews Wattpad Author, E.M. Wilson at SDCC 2026

In late July, I attended San Diego Comic-Con, one of my all-time favorite yearly highlights. With its diverse programming, panels, and expert panelists, Comic-Con delivered incredible talent to San Diego once again. Among the panels I enjoyed most this year was “The Love in Every Universe: The Great Romance Trope Debate,” which delved into several romance tropes and offered a fun, chaotic environment for friendly debate between panelists and the audience.

One of the enlisted panelists offering her opinion was architect and bestselling contemporary romance author E.M. Wilson, best known for her 2025 breakout novel, Situationship. With scheduled “no-strings attached” hookups, spice, and drama, Situationship is an adult (18+) contemporary romance that follows childhood friends Teagan Hargrove and Heath Reynolds. What starts as a simple “arrangement” between adults turns complicated when feelings come into play. With heated chemistry and clever banter, lovers of the friends-with-benefits trope will love E.M. Wilson’s Situationship!

Originally published online in 2022 on the social storytelling platform Wattpad, Situationship gained quite the audience before it was picked up for print and hit store shelves. Now it can be bought from major book retailers, and, as of May 2026, Situationship launched as an adult (18+) webcomic on the digital publishing platform WEBTOON. With an alluring art style and 8.5M views on WEBTOON, the webcomic version of Situationship is wonderful for readers looking to re-experience the viral romance between Teagan and Heath!

Already read Situationship, loved it, and want more? E.M. Wilson released her latest romance novel, Breakup for Two, in late July and it is also available for purchase from major book retailers. Breakup for Two follows strangers Liem and Bri unexpectedly finding themselves newly single in New York. Broken up with publicly and painfully by their respective partners at the same restaurant, Liem and Bri move in together to survive The City That Never Sleeps. What starts as a convenient way to pay rent and heal from their simultaneous and public breakups turns into a genuine bond, morphing from friendship to love. Fans of chaotic meet-cutes, fresh starts, and the strangers-to-friends-to-lovers trope will love E.M. Wilson’s rom-com Breakup for Two!

While attending San Diego Comic-Con 2026, I had the pleasure of interviewing E.M. after the “The Love in Every Universe” panel. During the interview, we delved into her start with Wattpad, her novels, and what she loves about romance as a genre. Keep reading to learn how Situationship went from Wattpad to WEBTOON and bookstore shelves.

E.M., tell us your story. What led you to writing, and what eventually brought you to publish with Wattpad?

I started writing right after college because I was in architectural school, so I had no time to read anything fictional — it was all textbooks. After I graduated, all I did was read romance books, and at some point I thought, I think I can do this too. I wrote something that will never see the light of day again and sent it off to agents. It did not go well — I got a lot of feedback, and it was horrible. They said not just that my writing needed a lot of work, but that I had no author voice, that I didn’t understand the craft at all. So I thought, okay, maybe I should just stop. I didn’t know what to do with it at the time, so a quick Google search took me to Wattpad — a place for people to put their craft out there, get feedback from other writers and readers, build a voice and an audience, and get opinions on where you’re at and how to improve. So that’s what I did. I think I improved over the years. My earliest work is still up there, unedited — I’ve never changed it. It has about 23 million views; I regret every one of them, but I did learn a lot. A few books later, here I am, published on shelves everywhere. It’s been a very worthwhile journey. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

How would you describe your writing routine, or response to writer’s block?

Chaos. Probably crying, honestly. I’m probably the worst person to give advice — I logic things too much, and that gets me out of the creative space. When I get writer’s block, what truly helps is switching to a different story. This is not working: is it my creativity, my brain, or just this particular thing? Switching tracks — either switching media, reading a comic, watching a TV show adapted from a book — helps.

What would you recommend to up-and-coming writers and aspiring authors — something you’d have loved to hear when you were starting out?

My biggest advice: not only keep writing, as everybody says, but also ignore the rules. Whenever you’re truest to yourself and your own voice is when a real story comes out of you. If that doesn’t end up being commercially sellable to agents, so be it — at least you’re creating something you love, and that’s ultimately the goal. Maybe the goal is to make money for some people, but if you’re making money off something you hated the whole time, it will eat at your soul, whereas writing should feed it.

What do you love most about writing — and reading — romance?

I stick to the advice: write what you want to read. When I started, I was reading so much and felt like there was a story missing that I could tell.

What can you tell us about your contemporary romance, Situationship, its characters, and the tropes readers can expect?

I like to describe it as frenemies-to-lovers — a nice blend of enemies-to-lovers and friends-to-lovers, where even though they say they want to kill each other, they can’t, because they’re trying to graduate college and it’d be a waste of time to go to prison. It’s a nice exploration because they’ve known each other since they were kids, so they know everything about each other. Their friend group is awful, and they all know everything from their past. We go through the book not knowing why they hate each other, just that they really do — and there’s a twist at the end revealing why. Other tropes that readers can expect are black cat/golden retriever, and forced proximity — they’re stuck together all summer for their best friend’s wedding.

Situationship launched as an Original series with WEBTOON earlier this year. What was the process of adapting your novel into a webcomic, and was anything significant changed to fit the format?

WEBTOON’s team — I’m technically signed with them — took the project into their own hands and ran with it, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I’m obsessed with it, but I get to consume it with everyone else. Even though I have access to upcoming chapters, I sit back and wait for it to post, then read it along with everyone else, and read the comments. It’s so much fun.

I think it’s true of all adaptations, especially from novels to screen, that you communicate things differently. When it’s in written format, you have all the internal monologue and explanations of motivations, whereas with visual media you just have to show it — “show, don’t tell.” With Situationship‘s multiple layers involving the friend group and two background characters that have a lot going on that they need to address, some plot points are gonna end up in the comic version. But for the most part it holds true, especially to the characters and their backgrounds. They’re gorgeous — they’re like my babies, but damn, why do they gotta make them so hot?

As the original author, how do you feel about seeing Situationship adapted into an adult webcomic and introduced to an entirely new audience?

It’s been a great experience so far. I’m obsessed with the artwork and what they’ve done with it. Getting to experience it like a fan too — I’m sitting there cackling like, I wrote this, why am I laughing at my own jokes? It’s a great time. 

There’s definitely a different crowd for each medium — the Wattpad version is the original, unedited, straight from my brain; then the published version, which the webcomic is based on. There’s also different accessibility between different mediums. Not everyone has money for physical books, and books are typically only released in certain countries as well, so this allows a greater audience to experience my work and it’s a dream come true.

What can you tell us about your newest novel, Breakup for Two? What characters, tropes, and spicy moments can readers expect?

It’s in the same universe as Situationship but with different characters, so it’s a standalone — they do overlap in a couple of scenes as Easter eggs for Situationship readers. The two main characters meet when they’re both broken up with at the same restaurant, next to each other, and leave together to drown their sorrows, then have to figure out how to get through being stranded in New York — and then love ensues. 

The tropes are friends-to-lovers more than anything. I’d describe it as soft love in a hard world. Rather than making their own problems, they’re dealing with problems life hands them and trying to roll with the punches. One of them very much wants to find a way for them to be together; the other maybe isn’t as into it. Other tropes would be temporary roommates — they live together for a bit while trying to survive in New York. Like all my books, I include clear representation. This cast is fully POC, and the main character, Bri, has endometriosis, like I do — going through the struggle of your body not cooperating with you, but still being deserving of love in all its forms, emotional and physical. There’s a lot of me in that one.

If given the opportunity, would you want to see Breakup for Two also adapted into a webcomic or other format?

Yes — why would I not? I like having access to all those different groups of people, and being able to share it in all the formats is just dreams coming true. I’m happy for anything.

How would you rate the spice levels of Situationship versus Breakup for Two?

I know the spice scale varies by person, but I’d put Situationship at a four out of five — they get smashing in chapter six, given all their background, why wait? For Breakup for Two, I’d say a three — there are quite detailed scenes throughout, but we start a little later since the friendship has to build. No lack of detail on either one.

Lastly, what are you reading right now, and what do you love about it?

I just finished Time Loops and Meet Cutes by Jackie Lau — it’s a time loop story with a little bit of amnesia, a beautiful blend of Groundhog Day and 50 First Dates. The main character gets stuck in a time loop, repeating the same day over and over, and falls in love with a guy who won’t remember her when the day restarts — she’s trying to figure out how to get out of the loop while also getting him to fall in love with her, since maybe that’s the way out of the loop. 

I can’t read one thing at a time — I usually have about five books going at once. I’m starting The Missed Connection by Tia Williams. I’m really excited about that one because it’s a forced-proximity situation that also blends in a bit of a thriller and mystery within the romance, and Tia is one of the most beautiful writers in the world. I’m also starting Die For Me by Shirlene Obuobi — she’s the author of two of my favorite books of all time and is so inspiring as a human. She’s a physician, a cardiologist of some sort, and writes books on the side. 

That concludes my interview with author E.M. Wilson! If you want to support E.M. after reading this, remember that you can buy paperback copies of Situationship and Breakup for Two from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other major book retailers! You can also read the digital comic adaptation of Situationship on WEBTOON, access its original 40-chapter web version on Wattpad, and follow @emwilsonauthor on Instagram and Threads!