From Family to Fiction: Rebecca Yarros on Motherhood, Writing, and Advocacy
In an enlightening discussion, Tricia and Doro are joined by Rebecca Yarros, author and mother of six, as she shares her journey into motherhood through biological and adopted children. She details the challenges and joys of parenting children with diverse needs, including her youngest daughter who has autism. Yarros underscores the importance of advocacy and support for children in foster care, spotlighting her nonprofit organization, One October.
She also delves into the journey of converting her passion for storytelling into a successful writing career, highlighting the themes of adversity, redemption, and romance in her novel "Fourth Wing." Throughout their conversation, Yarros shares anecdotes about balancing her career with family life, navigating chronic illness, and the crucial role of familial support. This inspiring conversation highlights the importance of passion and pursuing dreams.
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Website: http://RebeccaYarros.com
One October: http://oneoctober.org
Facebook: https://geni.us/RYFacebook
Instagram: https://geni.us/RYInstagram
Twitter: https://geni.us/RYTwitter
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Quotes:
My favorite part of having “Fourth Wing” out there is seeing the feedback from people with Ehlers-Danlos saying, “thank you. We feel represented for the first time.” - Rebecca Yarros
When there's something that's different about your children, you just learn to accommodate them. You find the right specialists and the right doctors. You forge on. - Rebecca Yarros
When I write in a first person point of view, I sink into a character to where I feel as though I'm within them. The world around me falls away. - Rebecca Yarros
Show Notes:
REBECCA YAROS: And for the most part, unless I'm on tour or I'm doing an event or something like this, it really is just my husband and I and my kids like it's we're still just us and our family. And then I also write and have to go do things for it, if that makes any sense. So the television series, it went to auction. I remember just sitting there thinking, how is this happening? And it turns out my editor had sent out one of my first drafts, and I didn't know that until we were in the middle of this meeting. And they said, well, there's this point here and here. I wanted to sink into the floor, into a pit of nothingness. I'm like, you have my first draft. So it went to auction and it sold, thank goodness. Oh, no. Um, oh, very humbled, very humbled for it. It was picked up by Amazon and Outlier. Outlier had one of the first diversity and inclusion writers in Hollywood. And I could not have been more happy, like in the background of this auction, just cheering them on. And so we knew that was going to happen. And so I sat down and I needed to write a synopsis for how the entire series would end so that they would have it. And as I started looking at it, I wrote something out and I started Iron Flame. And as I looked at the timeline of Iron Flame, I realized it needed to be six months, not a full year. And fourth wing is a full year. And I called my editor and I said, just an idea. Maybe it's five and maybe this is why they think about it. Go to Macmillan, think about it. And she's like, nope, it's fine. And suddenly I'm like, oh, okay, okay, it's fine, it's fine. But the whole thing is plotted out for the five books. So it was not the timeline.
DORO BUSH KOCH: In Fourth Wing, you have a gazillion characters, a gazillion. How do you develop each and every one, and how do you keep track of everything and how does that work?
REBECCA YARROS: So I had this little pink binder which just fourth wing on it because my husband bedazzled it for me. So as I start, I love pen and paper. Every time I name a character, I write it at the top of the sheet and then I develop them on the sheet and I say, who are you? What's your backstory? How many siblings do you have? Where do you come from? What region do you come from? Do you have a tragic backstory? And then as I write, I refer back to. That she and I add to it, and they're people to me. So, you know, developing the squad, I looked and I said, who are these people that are coming into the story and how do they fit, and what are their personalities, and how does Violet relate to them, and how do they build each other and build this chosen family? Really? And then my editor said, we're going to need that. So I had to transcribe it all into an online document so that my publisher could have access to it for edits for continuity.
TRICIA REILLY KOCH: So when you're writing, are you kind of really obviously really identifying with Violet, so you're feeling, you know, her or did you have to get to know her too?
REBECCA YARROS: It's very odd. I always feel like the weirdest person that I say this when I write in first person POV, I kind of sink into that character to where I feel as though I'm within them. The world around me kind of falls away. Force wing opens with her climbing the steps and then walking down the hall to her mother's office. And I really just felt like, what do these steps feel like? What is my mood? How am I feeling? What is this heaviness in my chest? Everyone is waiting outside these walls. It's conscription day and that's the deadliest. What is about to happen to me? And so I just kind of sink into her and she develops as we go through the story and she, you know, kind of reveals things to me. But the editors is mine. So her chronic illness is mine. So I identify with at this point, my knees would be killing me. At this point, my hip, my try to slide out of place, and I add those little bits and then all the characters, they just kind of appear. And I think she needs a protective older sister. The older sister is not my sister. Let's start that because.
TRICIA REILLY KOCH: She's not your sister.
REBECCA YARROS: Because the second my mother listens to this, she'll start thinking she's the mother. And then that does not make for pleasant dinner conversation. So no, no one's ever based on anyone in, like, real life. Except my husband bleeds into all the guys. I can't I can't explain it, but really, I know Violet because I'm inside Violet the best and Zayden I do have a couple chapters from Zaydan's point of view, and I always have to be able to step inside Zayden and say, what is he thinking? What is he feeling? Where is he coming from at this moment so that he's developing as well?
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