The Happy Writer with Marissa Meyer

In this 200th (!) episode of The Happy Writer Podcast, Marissa (with some help from Joanne) answers many of your burning questions. Topics discussed: dealing with burnout, crafting three-dimensional characters, writing to trends, co-writing, balancing writing with parenting, and so much more. Also included: much-anticipated updates on TLC production, upcoming tours, new books, and yes, a couple of...

Marissa chats with Alexene Farol Follmuth about her latest contemporary coming-of-age YA romance, TWELFTH KNIGHT. Also discussed: some of the differences between self and traditional publishing and how the two can come together in a career, crafting the ‘unlikeable female character’, using Shakespeare for source material, structuring a romance differently than what’s expected, the challenge of wri...

Marissa chats with Tessa Gratton about her new YA fantasy, BLOOD & FURY, the sequel to CHAOS & FLAME, co-written with Justina Ireland. Also discussed: building social justice and important topics into fantasy while also making a book fun, how working on different projects concurrently can be both challenging and inspiring, creating inspiration lists (inspired by ID Lists from past guest Je...

Marissa chats again with Jessica Brody, author of Save the Cat! Writes a Novel and Save the Cat! Writes a Young Adult Novel about her popular craft books and how she adapted the original Save the Cat screenplay book’s components for novel-writing. Also discussed in this craft-focused episode: how even pantsers can benefit from outlining tips, how having an outline doesn’t mean the story is set in...

Marissa chats with Isabel Greenberg about her new Arthurian fantasy graphic novel, YOUNG HAG AND THE WITCHES’ QUEST. Also discussed in this episode: the freedom of creating a first project without the expectation that it will be read, the challenges and allure of retellings and Arthurian legends, the process of creating and revising a graphic novel, how the reading experience of graphic novels is...

Marissa chats with Kekla Magoon about her new middle grade time travel fantasy, THE SECRET LIBRARY. Also discussed in this episode: How secrets can take many forms (goats!), writing stories non-linearly, how creating a timeline can help catch inconsistencies and track continuity, how sometimes you need to write the whole book to feel confident enough to try to sell it, mining old files for potenti...

Marissa shares her top 10 tips for improving your work-life balance. From starting with a focused to-do list, to reframing goal time frames, to the best way to approach multitasking, and so much more, you’re sure to find something helpful in this practical episode.  Note: For more writing-specific productivity tips, you can also check out episode 141 where Marissa and Joanne share their favorite p...

Marissa chats with Ana Ellickson about her debut YA urban fantasy, THE VANISHING STATION. Also discussed: having the courage to leave an agent even before selling a book, developing complex magic systems and how helpful editors can be for ensuring they work, using locations—known and unknown—as settings for urban fantasy, creating three-dimensional but lovable flawed characters, using Save the Cat...

Marissa chats with Makiia Lucier about her new romantic YA fantasy inspired by Pacific Island mythology, DRAGONFRUIT. Also discussed in this episode: writing by hand in notebooks, what it’s like to revise and resubmit to an agent, the advantage of keeping early writing a secret, the joy of research and using it to build lush worlds and believable fantastical creatures, how characters can surprise...

Marissa and Joanne get together to answer listener-submitted questions about publishing, getting into nitty gritty details of what it’s like to be a published author. Also covered in this jam-packed episode: word count guidelines, what happens after signing with an agent, the submission process, what it’s like to break up with an agent, advances and how they’re determined and paid out, who has the...

Marissa chats with Adib Khorram about his new YA romantic comedy, THE BREAKUP LISTS. Also discussed in the episode: the challenges of pandemic books and virtual launches, the positive influence of We Need Diverse Books, having fun mining your own experiences for fiction, showcasing the people who work behind-the-scenes in theater, identifying and consciously including themes in a book, discovering...

In this week’s episode, Marissa chats with Stephanie Kuehnert about her new YA zine-style memoir, PIECES OF A GIRL, that includes journal entries, original illustrations, and pages from her actual diaries and zines. Discussed in this episode: how a book can take the time it needs to take, how even a memoir can be a challenge to structure and know where it should end, the decision to include zines...

In this week’s special episode sponsored by Amplify Marketing, Marissa has a fascinating chat with company founder, Franklin Goldberg, about getting books into the hands and hearts of readers. Discussed in this jam-packed episode about marketing: how every book needs to be looked at individually depending on a complex set of variables, the most effective ways to market books, the difference betwee...

In this week’s episode Marissa chats with John Schu about his semi-autobiographical novel in verse, LOUDER THAN HUNGER. Also discussed: the difficulty in determining an age label for a book, writing a fictionalized account of your own experiences instead of a memoir and deciding when and how much to fictionalize, the healing power of writing from a place of vulnerability, making the choice to writ...

In this week’s episode Marissa chats with debut author and podcaster Bethanie Finger about her YA historical fantasy, MORE THAN LIFE. Also discussed in this episode: expedited series releases, being a pantser, even when worldbuilding, finding the magic in editing, short chapters, the effectiveness of writing exercises and sprints, the Prince Kai Fan Pod, the importance of setting boundaries, takin...

In this week’s episode Marissa chats with literary agent, coach, and now author, Lucinda Halpern, about her new book, GET SIGNED: FIND AN AGENT, LAND A BOOK DEAL, AND BECOME A PUBLISHED AUTHOR. Also discussed in this jam-packed episode: the varied job of representing authors, why the query letter is the most important document a writer will ever create, the three keys to getting an agent and a sub...

In this week’s episode Marissa chats with Hafsah Faizal about her latest YA fantasy heist, the first of a new duology, A TEMPEST OF TEA. Also discussed in this episode: how a non-reader can turn into a reader and then a published author, planning out a heist when being mostly a pantser, struggling with doubts and imposter syndrome, planning out romance, worldbuilding and the wisdom of editors, the...

In this week’s episode Marissa chats with Dinesh Thiru about his debut YA fantasy adventure, INTO THE SUNKEN CITY. Also discussed in this episode: how a gag project can inspire a writing career, retelling a literary classic (TREASURE ISLAND) in a postapocalyptic setting, how much of the source material to use, and creating a more modern diverse cast of characters, being conscious about your settin...

In this week’s episode, the first of the 2024 season, Marissa chats about her brand-new book, WITH A LITTLE LUCK, the companion to INSTANT KARMA. Featured in this episode are two special guests: Chuck Gonzales, the illustrator for the comic book pages inside WITH A LITTLE LUCK, and Stacy Carolan, the book’s audio edition narrator.   Discussed in this episode: the process of illustrating graphic no...

In this week’s episode, Marissa chats with Elle Gonzalez Rose about her queer YA rom-com, CAUGHT IN A BAD FAUXMANCE. Also discussed: How a career writing marketing copy for the screen is transferable to writing books and book marketing materials, the fun of writing favorite tropes in romance, bonding characters over cultural foods, the challenge of showing both sides of romantic feelings when writ...

In this week’s episode, Marissa chats with Andrea Tang about her latest sci-fi heist YA, KINGDOM OF WITHOUT. Also discussed, genre-bending in YA, on discovering who your character is during the writing process, how edit notes really can give perspective and sometimes, exactly what the book needs, leaning on experts to help ensure details are authentic and appropriate, how to balance the sci-fi and...

In this week’s episode, Marissa chats with Jessica Vitalis about her latest contemporary middle grade, COYOTE QUEEN. Also discussed: how to pronounce ‘coyote’ (which is not as simple as one might think) and fascinating coyote facts, digging deep to put difficult emotions on the page and how much of a challenge that can be, mining lived experiences for fiction, how books build empathy, creating ong...

In this week’s episode, Marissa chats with Kate Pearsall about her debut YA mystery (with magic!), BITTERSWEET IN THE HOLLOW. Also discussed: NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), creating an evocative and lush setting, using real locations as inspiration but changing details to suit the story, the brilliance of using gravestones for character names, how the setting of a small town can influen...

In this week’s episode, Marissa chats with Leanne Schwartz about her YA fantasy debut, A PRAYER FOR VENGEANCE. Also discussed: National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), using a theater background to help get into characters’ heads and allowing you to keep your audience in mind, writing neurodivergent characters from the place of a lived experience but still using beta readers, writing the motivati...

In this week’s episode, Marissa chats with Terry J. Benton-Walker about his middle grade fantasy, ALEX WISE VS THE END OF THE WORLD. Also discussed: how a varied background that seems to not be related to writing can still inform a writer’s career, on being a super-plotter, exploring how people react in stressful situations (like an apocalypse!), creating real-life superhero characters, being thou...