Listen:
Family loyalty can push ordinary people toward unimaginable choices.
I loved chatting with novelist and memoirist Tova Mirvis about her latest book, We Would Never, a gripping murder mystery inspired by a true crime case. While real events sparked the novel, the plot ultimately emerged from the emotional choices her characters make, with each decision setting off the next.
Tova reveals that the real work happened on the inside, as she burrowed into the emotional lives of her characters: the anger, loyalty, fear, and love that drive people to extremes.
In This Episode
- How a true crime case inspired We Would Never while leaving room for invention
- Crafting morally complex characters readers can still empathize with
- Writing fiction as a mystery the reader wants to solve
- The back-and-forth between character development and plot creation
- Techniques for building suspense and pacing in emotionally charged narratives
- The painstaking revision process and knowing when a novel is truly finished
- Lessons from memoir writing applied to fiction
- Writing dialogue that escalates tension and reveals moral fault lines
- Using empathy to explore difficult or morally ambiguous actions
Watch on YouTube
About Tova
Tova Mirvis is the author, most recently, of the novel We Would Never which was published by Avid Reader Press, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. Her memoir The Book of Separation was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice and excerpted in the New York Times Modern Love Column. She is also the author of three prior novels, Visible City, The Outside World and The Ladies Auxiliary which was a national bestseller. Her essays have appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe Magazine, Real Simple and Psychology Today, and her fiction has been broadcast on NPR.
Connect with Tova
Get More From Estelle
📰 Read & Subscribe
New Post on Substack
On Craft, Revision, and the Paragraph You Almost Cut
What writers risk losing when they revise too quickly, with details about an upcoming AMA for paid subscribers.
Read it here
🎓 Learn with Estelle
Save The Date
My next free Editor on Call web event (in collaboration with NYU, where I teach) will be on April 22, 2026 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm ETD. Stay tuned for my announcement of the editor I’ll be in conversation with, and a link to register.
Upcoming Writer’s Digest Webinar
Amplifying the Echo Effect in Memoir and Essays
February 26
1:00–2:30 pm ET
Learn how patterns, callbacks, and emotional echoes can deepen your memoir and personal essays in this brand-new, interactive craft webinar.
Learn more and register here
NYU Zoom Course
Writing About Your Life Through Memoir & Essays
Beat writer’s block, shape a powerful narrative, learn how to pitch editors, and leave with a ready-to-publish essay or memoir pages.
Find out more and register here
Private Small-Group Memoir Class
March session is sold out.
Next six-week session begins May 2026.
Email freelancewritingdirect@gmail.com to join the waiting list.
🎤 Watch, Read & Listen
TEDx Talk
How to Get Noticed in Your Writing and Beyond
Book
Writing That Gets Noticed
Named a Poets & Writers “Best Book for Writers”
Audiobook available here
Five Star Review Announcement
I’m honored to receive a five-star review from Reader Views for Writing That Gets Noticed: Find Your Voice, Become a Better Storyteller, Get Published — a book I poured so much into, and one that continues to find its way into the hands of writers at every stage.
Since its release in 2023, the book has been named a Best Book for Writers by Poets & Writers and even adopted as syllabus material by writing instructors, which still thrills me every time I hear it.
In the Reader Views review, the reviewer highlights how the book opens the doors to freelance writing with practical, experience-based guidance on everything from generating ideas to working with editors and handling rejection — and calls it invaluable for anyone with the gumption to freelance and a backspace key.
Read the full review here
Podcast
Freelance Writing Direct
2025 Podcast of the Year, American Writing Awards
About Estelle
Estelle Erasmus is an award-winning journalist, TEDx speaker, and author of Writing That Gets Noticed. She is the host, founder, and executive producer of Freelance Writing Direct and an adjunct professor at NYU.
Her work has appeared in more than 150 publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, WIRED, PBS/Next Avenue, The Independent, and AARP The Magazine. She has served as editor-in-chief of five national magazines.
Follow Estelle
Instagram: @EstelleSErasmus
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Twitter/X: @EstelleSErasmus
Bluesky: @estelleserasmus.bsky.social
