Curious About Crafting Rich Settings And Characters In Your Stories? How About Becoming A Better Critique Partner And Giving Valuable Feedback? Or How Sparking More Joy In Your Life Can Leave An Impactful Influence On Your Craft? We Talk About It All And More With Marissa Meyer.
Marissa is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Renegades, Archenemies, Heartless, The Lunar Chronicles, and her newly released novel, Supernova, the final book in her Renegades series.
In our conversation, Marissa shares how she intuitively navigates the business side of the publishing world while also giving us a snapshot of her inspiring writing and querying process for her novel Cinder. We then chat about support systems and their important role in our creative pursuits, why it’s so crucial to carve out time for fun in our writing process, and how diverse representation in children’s literacy is helping to change negative stigmas. Further into our conversation, we discuss the Lunar Chronicles series, how she transitions from one popular series to another, and how to balance crafting rich worlds and character development.
Marissa crafted an exclusive writing prompt just for our community, be sure to download it below to spark new ideas for your stories.
Books And Resources:
- Query Shark
- Alice Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
- Lintang and the Pirate Queen by Tamara Moss
- Puss in Boots by Jerry Pinkney
- Sailor Moon by Naoko Takeuchi
- Star Wars created by George Lucas
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
- Plot and Structure by James Scott Bell
- Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
Check Out These Highlights:
- How Marissa discovered her love for storytelling at a young age (3:25)
- A look into her career path that led her to become a bestselling author (7:00)
- How Marissa’s master’s in publishing helps her navigate the business side of the industry (8:17)
- A snapshot of Marissa’s inspiring writing and querying process for her novel Cinder (12:48)
- The central role your support system has in your writing journey (16:45)
- How creating space to enjoy life and have fun will hugely benefit your craft (20:25)
- She shares why Heartless was one of her favorite novels to write (23:30)
- What goes into being a great critique partner and giving valuable feedback (28:25)
- The importance of embracing diverse representation in children’s literature to help readers push back against negative societal beliefs (33:52)
- And she answers some of our very own listener questions:
- “What made you have the idea of twisting the stories of original fairytales and what made you choose the ones that you did for the Lunar Chronicles, i.e. Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Rapunzel?” (40:00)
- “I’d love to know about Marissa’s transition between one popular series to another because I know that sometimes if you have one really popular series, it can be had to find your groove writing different books, be they stand-alones or series. So I’d love to know what factors Marissa thinks have gone into the success of her post-Lunar Chronicles works?” (43:30)
- “How is she able to balance crafting such rich settings while also concentrating on developing distinctive, memorable characters?” (46:00)
Say “Hi” To Marissa:
Learn More About “Supernova”
All’s fair in love and anarchy in Supernova, the epic conclusion to New York Times bestselling author Marissa Meyer’s thrilling Renegades Trilogy
This volume sees Nova and Adrian struggling to keep their secret identities concealed while the battle rages on between their alter egos, their allies, and their greatest fears come to life. Secrets, lies, and betrayals are revealed as anarchy once again threatens to reclaim Gatlon City.
Learn More About Marissa Meyer
Marissa Meyer is the #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Renegades, Archenemies, The Lunar Chronicles series, as well as the graphic novels Wires and Nerve: Vol. 1 and Wires and Nerve, Vol. 2: Gone Rogue, and The Lunar Chronicles Coloring Book. Her first standalone novel, Heartless, was also a #1 New York Times bestseller. She lives in Tacoma, Washington, with her husband and their two daughters.
