May 2025 Newsletter

Hello, everyone! Happy May!

This month has been a full one to say the least.

School’s finally wrapping up! This is the point of the school year where every last drop of motivation for school things is drained from my body.

We’re in the final stages of preparing to put on Aladdin Jr. This semester has definitely been more rushed/stressful than the previous semester, but everyone’s doing really well and I think it’ll be a great show.

(If you’re interested in coming to see it, here’s a link to where you can purchase tickets. My sister and I are in BLUE cast. Make sure you say hi to me if you do come!)

I’m starting to get adjusted to work and figure out my co-workers and boss. So far, my most interesting work story is about a man coming in and trying to ship $20,000 worth of gold under the description of “office supplies”. There also have been incidents involving Amazon returns of completely empty (they were not supposed to be empty) shampoo bottles and handwritten letters to the president.

What have you been up to in the last month?

Writing: The Importance of Having a Writing Community

Over the past month, I’ve been realizing just how important it is as a writer to have community. Writing can be a solitary pursuit—we spend so much time alone, tucked away in our rooms, plunking away at our keyboards. It’s easy to feel isolated and forget that there are others out there who share this (slightly crazy) passion.

When we think about writing community, we often focus on things like feedback, critique, or brainstorming help. And while all of that is valuable, I truly believe the most important part is simply having people who get it. People you can commiserate with over the agony of finding the perfect title, swap favorite writing resources with, or just gush about each other’s characters and plot twists.

You don’t need to be in the same stage of your writing journey or give the most in-depth feedback. What matters most is just being there for each other—celebrating the highs, surviving the lows, and reminding each other that we’re not doing this alone.

If you don’t have a writing community yet, I’d love to be that for you. Feel free to comment on my post—chances are, one of the many other writers subscribed to this newsletter would be happy to connect, too. And if you’re not sure where to start, I’m more than happy to offer suggestions on how I’ve started to find and build community with other writers. 

Reading: The Happy Writer

The Happy Writer By Marissa Meyer

A guide to bringing more joy to your writing process.

Genre: Writing Craft

Age rating: N/A

Writing can and should be joyful, fulfilling… even fun! Applicable to writers in all genres and disciplines—from screenwriters to novelists, journalists to picture book authors, aspiring to many-times published—The Happy Writer is a heartfelt and optimistic guide that will show you the way to a happier writing journey.

Part craft guide, part writing coach, and part cheerleader, this book offers useful advice on a slew of common writing and publishing ailments, such as how to end procrastination, how to build a social media platform that reflects your personality, how to get your imagination to overflow with new ideas, how to listen to your intuition when receiving a critique on your work, how to overcome impostor syndrome, what to do when you’re stuck in the query trenches, and so much more. (Part of the official blurb)

Even though I haven’t finished The Happy Writer yet, I can’t recommend it enough. I genuinely feel so much more inspired and prepared to write in a healthy way. The book is overflowing with tips on how to get more done and how to find more joy in your writing.

If you’re struggling with motivation or procrastination, this is the perfect book for you and, even if you already have good writing habits, there’s still bound to be something to help you in The Happy Writer!

Progress on my reading challenge: 4/16

Spotlight: Interview with Marissa Meyer

You might remember this photo from one of my newsletters last year when I shared about meeting bestselling author Marissa Meyer. I got to meet her briefly at the book launch for With a Little Luck—we spoke for maybe a minute, but I didn’t have time to ask her any questions.

This past month, I started reaching out to a few people to see if I could set up some interviews, and Marissa Meyer came to mind. Of course, she’s a hugely popular author, so I didn’t expect to hear back. But just a couple of days later, her agent reached out and said Marissa would be happy to do a short interview over email—and they even sent me a free copy of her new book, The Happy Writer!

I finally got to ask Marissa my top four questions, and I’m so excited to share her answers with you. I hope you enjoy hearing from her as much as I did!

In my next full-length project, I’m hoping to write a morally gray main character. I love how you handle characters like that in your books, so I was wondering: do you have any advice for writing morally gray characters?

For me, writing morally gray characters really comes down to how well you – the author – know and understand what is driving this person. What do you relate to when it comes to their ethics, their moral compass, their motives, their reasonings? The more we can be inside their heads and understand why they behave the way they do, the more authentically we’ll be able to write them, and hopefully the result will be a character that readers can relate to on some level as well, even if they don’t always agree with them. An example of this was when I was writing Nova, the protagonist in Renegades, who was raised by supervillains and is aiming to bring down the current hierarchy and return her city to a state or anarchy. Personally, I think anarchy is a terrible idea, so at first it was difficult for me to comprehend why Nova would want this. But I did a lot of research into various “anarchist societies” across history and listened to interviews with people who believe in the concept of anarchy, until I could understand what was appealing to them. From there, I really dug down into Nova’s backstory and the people who have most influenced her, to see how her background intersected with her motives and beliefs. It was still a challenge to write her, because her beliefs are so different from mine, but ultimately I felt like I really got to know her and I really had a lot of fun writing her and her overall character arc.

As a full-time writer and a mom (who also homeschools!), your life must be super busy. How do you balance life and writing? Do you have any tips?

It is indeed a constant balancing act! It helps that I am a very organized person, and very self- motivated. I make a lot of lists and plan my days down to the half hour, so I know what I want to accomplish and have a plan in place for how I’m going to do it. That said, life is always throwing curve balls, so I also try to be flexible, and not panic when things don’t go according to plan. I am also very lucky to have a strong support system. My husband also works from home and we have lots of grandparents in the area, so I receive a lot of help. A typical day for me includes doing a bit of busy work in the morning (answering emails, social media, etc.), followed by two to three hours of homeschooling. I usually write for a few hours in the afternoon, maybe go to the gym, then spend the evening either reading or having relaxed family time. About once a week I will also declare a “writing day” for myself, in which someone else watches the kids while I spend a day at a local café writing.

You’ve written across multiple genres—sci-fi, superhero fiction, gothic fantasy. Is there a genre you’d love to explore next?

As a reader, I love many different genres, so I don’t think my brain was ever going to be content staying in one genre over an entire career! I have my first contemporary graphic novel coming out this summer – WE COULD BE MAGIC – and my first murder mystery, co-written with Tamara Moss – THE ESCAPE GAME – coming out next year. At this point, I’m really focused on my next fairy tale retellings, which will be fantasy, and we’ll see where inspiration takes me after that.

Your books—particularly The Lunar Chronicles—have such a huge, passionate fanbase. What’s been the most surprising or memorable fan interaction you’ve had so far?

I don’t think I could pick just one! That’s perhaps been the biggest surprise of my career, and it is so incredible to hear from readers who have connected with the series on such profound levels. A lot of readers cry when they meet me or ask if they can give me a hug, and it’s a reminder to me that what I’m doing has value beyond just being fun, entertaining stories. I recently met a reader who has struggled with dyslexia, and she told me The Lunar Chronicles were the first novels she ever read, and because of them she is now an avid reader and dreaming of writing her own books someday. I can’t imagine any greater honor than that.

Quick Writing Update

• Started editing The Phoenix Pendant

• Wrote one short story

• Continued working on my Sci-fi novel

What do you think of my interview with Marissa Meyer? Have you read any of her books? If so, let me know what your favorite of her books is? Let me know by replying directly to this email or leaving me a comment of the website that corresponds to The Introverted Writer!

Thank you so much for reading! Have a great rest of your day!

Abby Henderson

P.S. I’ll be back next month with more fun content!