Author Meghan Quinn Reveals What She’s Reading and How She Writes 5,000 Words a Day (Exclusive)
Discover her ‘sprints’ strategy that helps her write a book a month
Key Takeaways
- Meghan Quinn can write about 5,000 words a day using timed sprints.
- The betselling author took three months off to grieve her mom and recharge.
- ‘Christmas Staycation’ is the final book in her 'Kringletown Christmas' series.
Bestselling romance author Meghan Quinn is opening up about what really goes on behind the scenes when writing a novel. In a recent conversation with Woman’s World to promote her new Christmas book, Christmas Staycation, the Colorado-based author revealed how she manages to write so many books in so little time (she writes at least two books a year!). She also shared what books she’s currently reading and loving, all of which are perfect for the holiday season! Read on for more.
Meghan Quinn opens up about her writing process
Over the course of her career, Quinn has published more than 75 swoon-worthy, spicy and laugh-out-loud funny novels. And while that may seem like a lot, Quinn has her writing process down to a science.
“I can write about 5,000 words a day, and that’s from me doing sprints. So I’ll do 20 minutes on, 10 minutes off, and I find that’s the best way for me to get the book out, because for 20 minutes I just sit down and focus.With that kind of schedule, I can get a book done in about a month,” she explains. “I started training myself in 2016, when we adopted my son, because I only had these short periods of time in between feedings and him sleeping for me to write. And that’s when I became a full-time author. I was fired from my job, and we were in the middle of adoption, so I decided to do the author thing full-time.”
With all of those sprints comes a feeling of burnout, which Quinn said she experienced earlier this year.
“I lost my mom in May, and I felt a little bit of the burnout there because I was doing a lot of stuff before she passed. It was almost like she always wanted me to take a break. She was like, ‘Meghan, just chill out for a second.’ And so after she passed, I felt that burnout, and I felt that I needed to just sit in my grief and be able to think about everything and take that break and do puzzles and spend time with my kids, which I do anyways, but I just needed to sit in my feelings,” the author explains. “So I took three months off, which is the most I’ve ever taken off in the last 13 years and getting back into writing was pretty hard.”
Even so, Quinn did get back into it and even offered up a tease as to what fans can expect from her next book.
“I was at a signing in Boston during my tour for Christmas Staycation. And I was taking pictures with readers, and this person walked up with a shirt. I won’t tell you what it is, but I looked at the shirt, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, I have an idea.’ And my brain just started firing off. I feel so bad for that girl and her group, because I think I was checked out as my brain was just going. And so after they took their picture, we said bye. I stopped everybody—and I have a stress fracture right now, so I’m wearing a boot—and I hobbled up to my publicist, and she’s like, ‘Oh my God, is everything okay?’ Because I never leave like this. And I whispered in her ear, and I was like, ‘I have the best idea for my book that’s coming out next year.’ And I told her, and I was like, ‘Write this down,’ and she was writing it down,” the author teased. “And not only did I have the idea from that shirt, but I also came up with an entire marketing plan for it. So I’m whispering it into her ear. I would say get ready for September next year—I’m super excited, I keep thinking about it.”
But she has another book she has to write before that one. “It’s the third and final book in my Bay Area Players series,” she says. “It’s a book that people have been wanting for like two years, so I’m finally gonna deliver it for them.”
Meghan Quinn talks about her latest Christmas rom-com
Quinn’s new book, which was published on October 20, 2026 date is the final installment in her bestselling Kringletown Christmas series. It follows baseball player Nolan, who can’t stand Taran, his brother’s ex. On paper, the two are polar opposites, but when Nolan’s brother agrees to fake an engagement with Taran to keep her family’s holiday from imploding, things take a turn Nolan never saw coming. Now, Taran is struggling to keep up appearances in her fake relationship, and Nolan is struggling to keep his true feelings about the situation to himself.
“I wasn’t expecting to write three books in this series,” says Quinn. “When my publisher came to me, they were like, ‘We want the next latest and greatest Christmas book, and we want you to write it.’ And I was like, ‘Okay, no big deal.’ And I was talking to my mom at the time, and I was telling her about this Christmas book I had to write. And I was like, ‘I don’t know what I should do.’ And then I was like, ‘What if I did a take on a classic Christmas movie?’ And she was offering, like, It’s a Wonderful Life, and I was like, ‘No.’ And then I was like, ‘The Grinch,’ and she was like, ‘How are you going to turn The Grinch—into a rom-com?’ And I was like, ‘Watch this.’
“So I kind of went for it. I had no intentions of it becoming a series—it was just going to be a standalone, and that was it,” Quinn says. “And that’s why I gave the side characters their happily ever afters, because I was like, there’s no reason for them to ask for their own story. But then it kind of went viral and blew up and hit the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks. And I was like, ‘Wow.’ And my publisher was like, ‘Hey, wanna write a sequel?’ And then it turned into three.”
“I always had the dream that maybe one day I could hit the New York Times, but it was just that—it was like a very distant dream. And as an indie author at the time, I was very much like, it’s never going to happen, it’s never going to happen. And then I matched up with Bloom [her publisher]… I was like, ‘Well, maybe there’s a chance,'” the author explains. “For the list, you find out on Wednesday after release, and that day I was beside myself because I knew how many sales I had. I went to go get a pedicure because I was like, maybe if I get a pedicure that’ll distract me. Then I tried to do a puzzle, and I’m rocking back and forth, and I’m just hoping and waiting for a phone call, any phone call. And I had my iPad set up because I was like, if they do call, I could record it and it’d be so cute. And then they called, and I was just like—I don’t know, I cried. I called everybody—my parents, and then my team.”
Adds Quinn, “One of the things that was most important to me is that going into this and doing all my manifestations and stuff, I wrote out a list of people that if I hit the New York Times, I would send individual thank-yous to. And it was a long list, because I’ve always been taught that it’s not me who accomplishes the goal—it’s the people around me who help lift me up and help me accomplish that goal. So it was like a list of 25 people that I emailed individually and thanked them for being a part of my journey and getting me to where I am. That was really, really important to me.”
Meghan Quinn reveals what’s on her bookshelf
Despite writing Christmas romances, Quinn says, “I don’t read other Christmas rom-coms, just because I don’t want to subconsciously consume something and then repeat it on the keyboard. So if I’m writing something that’s in that genre, I try to stay away, because I don’t want to be accused of anything.”
Despite that, she does have a few that she’s excited for.
“Lucy Score has one coming out [The Heist Before Christmas], and she’s a dear friend. Claire Kingsley also has a good one coming out [Sleigh Bells and Snowstorms]. There’s one that I want to read [Christmas in Austenland] because I saw it in the store the other day, and I was like, ‘Hmm, that tickles my fancy.’ I was like, that’s something I’m gonna wanna read.”
Be sure to pick up Christmas Staycation now, wherever books are sold.
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