Writing Young Adult Fiction with Jessica Goodman

Bad On Paper

Becca Freeman

Skincare, Beauty, Society & Culture, Comedy, Advice, Books, Arts, Careers

4.9 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2025

⏱️ 69 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, we're chatting about the ins and outs of writing Young Adult Fiction with Jessica Goodman! We talk with her about getting started in the genre, the challenges of writing YA, how she gets inspiration for her books, and more!

Read more from Jessica in The Meadowbrook Murders, The Counselors, The Legacies, They’ll Never Catch Us, and They Wish They Were Us.

Obsessions

Olivia - Ocean Vuong’s Interviews

Becca - Onitsuka Tiger Mexico 66 Sneakers

What we read this week

Becca - Silver Elite by Dani Francis

Olivia - All The Other Mothers Hate Me by Sarah Harman

This Month’s Book Club Pick - Audition by Katie Kitamura (have thoughts about this book you want to share? Call in at 843-405-3157 or email us a voice memo at [email protected])

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone and welcome to Bout on Paper podcast. I'm Olivia Mentor. And I'm Becca Freeman.
0:23.0	And today we have an episode with author Jessica Goodman talking about what it's like to write YA.
0:30.2	Yeah, I'm really excited about this. I feel like we, two summers ago, three summers ago, this was 2022.
0:36.3	We did a whole series of how a book gets made.
0:39.7	And we talked to an author paired with an agent, and then with an editor, and then with a publicist,
0:47.1	kind of all about the book process. And I feel like this summer, maybe we're looping back a little
0:51.6	to some niche topics of how books get made. So we're talking to a
0:56.4	YA author. We also have an episode coming up in July talking to a spicy book author. I think we want to
1:05.2	talk about the cover process. So yeah, just kind of some like book inside baseball. I'm looking forward to all of it. Me too.
1:13.7	But before we get to that, tell me your high. My high was that last week we had some really warm days,
1:22.1	like high 70s, low 80s. And there was this one day, I think it was maybe Thursday. It was about 80 degrees.
1:31.5	I was on a really long walk. I've been doing this like four mile loop and it's been bringing me so
1:36.5	much happiness. But I was on the walk. I was sweating profusely and I texted Jake and I was like,
1:41.2	that's it. We were going to a Mexican restaurant. We were sitting
1:44.3	outside. This has to happen. I don't care what I had planned to cook. Goodbye. It's gone. It's not
1:50.1	important anymore. So we ended up going to like a really early dinner at this Mexican restaurant near
1:56.0	our house, sitting outside. It was so hot. I was almost sweating, but not quite. So it was truly hot.
2:04.3	And I got an ice cold medello. And I swear to you, it was maybe the best sip of beer I've
2:10.2	ever had in my life. Like that first sip of ice cold beer with a lime on a hot day,
2:16.5	I just, the sun shining on my face, I was wearing shorts.
2:21.3	This is a staycation vibe. It was, yes, it was an hour of pure bliss, pure bliss and happiness.
2:30.3	And it felt like, okay, warm weather is officially here. Of course, I spoke to you soon because
	...

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