How Casey McQuiston Sits Down & Writes
Casey McQuiston's sophomore novel 'One Last Stop' is the subway-set, time-travel romance you never knew you needed.
For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist, and the only smart way to go through life is alone. She can’t imagine how waiting tables at a 24-hour pancake diner and moving in with too many weird roommates could possibly change that. And there’s certainly no chance of her subway commute being anything more than a daily trudge through boredom and electrical failures.
But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.
Jane. Dazzling, charming, mysterious, impossible Jane. Jane with her rough edges and swoopy hair and soft smile, showing up in a leather jacket to save August’s day when she needed it most. August’s subway crush becomes the best part of her day, but pretty soon, she discovers there’s one big problem: Jane doesn’t just look like an old school punk rocker. She’s literally displaced in time from the 1970s, and August is going to have to use everything she tried to leave in her own past to help her. Maybe it’s time to start believing in some things, after all.
One Last Stop is perfect for fans of Kate & Leopold and When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri.
We spoke with Casey McQuiston about creating believable love interests, concocting delicious sandwich recipes, and how writing a sophomore novel differs from a debut.
Q: Where and when do you like to write the most?
To be 100% honest, most of my first two books were written wherever I could find the time and space to write them. In bed, on the couch, at my desk at my old day job, on my phone while traveling, at breweries and bars and coffee shops. But in the past year of staying at home 24/7, I had to develop a much more structured writing routine before I totally lost my grip on reality. I moved into an apartment with room for an actual home office, and I set a rule that I only work at my desk. I’ve spent a lot of time setting up my office as a colorful, inspiring, warm, sunny space that feels good spending hours at a time in.
My typical routine is: get up in the morning, walk my dog, make my coffee and refill my giant water bottle, sit down at my desk to answer emails, and then write. I’m only allowed to write on the couch or in bed now when I’m really, really on a roll and don’t want to stop in the late afternoon like I usually do. If I’m on a good creative roll, all the rules go out the window until it’s done.
Q: Are you more of a plotter or pantser?
Definitely a plotter. I have ADHD, so if I don’t have a solid plan going into the first draft, it’s going to end up being a bunch of stream of consciousness chaos. I usually start off with an overall plot outline, and then break that down chapter by chapter. Sometimes, if I’m really stuck or need some more clarity, I’ll even break a chapter down scene by scene and the scenes down beat by beat. I’ll even open up a notebook before tackling a particular scene and write out what the scene needs to accomplish or what needs to be communicated between the characters, where each character starts and ends the scene emotionally, what information each character is holding back or expressing, etc. Sometimes I’m able to fully let go and let things flow, but I really need to know where things are flowing from and toward.
Q: Stephen King has a great line in On Writing that says “the scariest moment is always right before you start. After that, things can only get better.” That scary pre-start moment often inspires procrastination in writers. Suddenly, you have to clean your entire house, do the laundry and play Candy Crush for an hour before you can actually start writing. Is there anything you need to do before you can actually sit down and work?
Oh man, feeling called out by Stephen King right now. I definitely have to get my internal and external settings right before I can work. That usually means having a coffee and a big bottle of water on hand, and clearing any extra clutter or mess off my desk. I’m super sensitive to my environment, so if the conditions are out of whack or there’s too much going on around me, it can be hard for me to feel energized and focused enough to do work. I also do a lot of decompressing little activities in between writing sessions to clear my mind and give my brain a break—which, yes, does often include cleaning my apartment or going grocery shopping, but sometimes it also means taking a walk to get a snack or buy a plant or just listen to music. Brain breaks are important! And as long as you’re still ruminating on your project, that totally counts as writing.
Q: Do you listen to music while you write? If so, what music? Is your choice of music inspired by the project you’re working on?
I do! But the kind of music I listen to depends on where I am in the creative process. At the very beginning of the outlining and character sketching process, I’ll make and listen to atmospheric playlists of songs that have the vibe of the project to help me get into the right headspace. When I start to get a handle on the characters, then I’ll start building a personalized playlist for the mains to help me get to know them better—sometimes, the lyrics of those songs will end up giving me ideas for directions to move a character’s arc, like how a verse in “A Case of You” inspired me to write the conversation between Alex and Bea toward the end of [Red White & Royal Blue].
During drafting and revising, though, I really need to be totally locked in to be able to focus. That means no noise, not even instrumental music. But once that’s done and I’m doing more reading and editing, I’ll bring back my playlists so I can really feel in tune with my characters while I’m nailing down those smaller characterizations and the rhythm of emotional beats. Even though I can’t use it for all of the process, music is a huge, huge part of how I connect with my work emotionally.
Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give a writer just starting out on their first draft?
Sometimes, the point of a first draft is just to figure out what story you’re telling. You have to tell that story to yourself before you tell it to anyone else, so it’s not important for your first draft to be good. It just has to be a complete story.
Q: One Last Stop is your sophomore novel. Did you find that your writing process changed at all between your debut and One Last Stop?
Yes! My first book had a much more straightforward, linear plot, so I think the plotting and outlining was easier. It was a lot of point A to point B to point C, whereas OLS is like point D to point A to point H to point B, et cetera. The plot of RWRB did shift and change as I worked on it, but it was much easier to manage. I felt like I had to build out a lot more scaffolding to make OLS happen on the page. That meant much more extensive outlining and storyboarding, more trial and error, and more revisions. I had to let go of some of my perfectionist urges to get everything perfect on the first try and learn to trust the process.
Q: Much of One Last Stop is set on the New York City subway—the Q train, in particular. Most people want to forget their subway rides as soon they exit the train, but you managed to make the Q feel like the most romantic setting in the world. What drew you to the subway as the setting of your romance novel?
I was on a trip to New York (before I moved here) and the image that really sparked the idea was that sort of strobing, fleeting glimpse you get into another train when yours passes it on the tracks. I’m not from a part of the country that has a lot of high-speed public transit, so that sight kind of floored me. It felt almost surreal, like the closest thing you can get to slipping in and out of reality. That was hugely inspirational for me, as someone who’s always been drawn to fantastical, against-all-odds, magical love stories. My first book was very much a love story between two people who were able to jet-set all over the world to be together, so I thought it would be fun to challenge myself to write a story just as romantic that mostly takes place in a single location that’s not always thought of as sexy. And it certainly was a challenge, so every time someone tells me that paid off, it makes me so happy.
Q: Jane and August have chemistry that crackles off the page. How do you go about creating characters that feel so fully alive and so fully right for each other?
For me, character creation seems to usually start with finding particular tropes or archetypes I want to explore, and then reverse engineering a backstory to understand what made that person the way that they are. Then you get to do all the fun parts: filling in details and quirks, determining their astrological chart, moodboarding their personal style and aesthetic, making playlists. The most crucial part of character creation, for me, is when you know enough about a character to determine two things: their big want and their big flaw. From there, I usually let that inform how the plot will move to interact with those parts of their character and get them from start to finish on their arc. And similarly, I let all of these character details inform the type of relationship that will both complement and challenge them most, and sort of prune both of the mains into characters that match.
The most important part of writing romance is knowing exactly what two characters see in each other. If you don’t know why two characters would fall in love, the reader can tell. It’s not enough to just create two characters you like and then decide they should end up together. The whole book rests on the believability of that dynamic, so the reader has to be fully sold on it, which means it’s the thing you should devote the biggest amount of time and care to as an author.
Q: One Last Stop is bursting with fun subplots. Without giving too much away, there's a psychic character, a heist, a pancake joint on the verge of closing, and a murder mystery—to name a few. Was there any particular corner of One Last Stop that you enjoyed creating the most?
Oh wow, I had a blast developing all of these pieces. There’s definitely a special place in my heart for Pancake Billy’s House of Pancakes, the dingy 24-hour diner where August works, which turns out to be key to the big mystery of the book. Diners like that are so special, and I drew a lot of inspiration from diners and greasy spoons I’ve known and loved. I really had fun building that out.
Q: There's a signature sandwich in the novel called the Su Special, which consists of bacon, maple syrup, hot sauce, and a runny fried egg on two pieces of texas toast. Is this an original recipe or did you find inspiration for it in real life somewhere?
The Su Special is something I invented for this book! In my early twenties, I waited tables at a poboy restaurant, so I did a lot of ordering off-menu creations and I remember there being one or two of those invented by some random employee years ago that had become a go-to for the staff. It sort of captures the vibe of a greasy spoon that’s been around for a long time and the way that each one has its own lore and traditions. Personally, I love any sandwich on Texas toast, and I also thought something both spicy and sugary would be exactly the kind of thing Jane would create, as an adventurous person with a huge sweet tooth. I made it a couple times to make sure it actually tastes good before I put it in (and to make sure I could accurately describe it) and I think it’s one of my favorite sandwiches ever.
Q: What's the last book the kept you reading past bedtime?
I’ve already read it in print, but recently I’ve been listening to the audiobook of Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas before bed. I love the voice actor on that one—it’s like getting to experience the book for the first time all over again.
Grab your copy of One Last Stop from bookshop.org, Barnes & Noble, or IndieBound. Enjoy!
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