Why ‘Fourth Wing’ author Rebecca Yarros is ‘slowing down’ her writing pace — and what she’s working on next

Since Rebecca Yarros released her hit romantasy novel “Fourth Wing” in May 2023, the author has gone on to write and publish at least three more books. Now, she’s planning on slowing down the pace.

Over the course of her career, Yarros has published more than 10 books, including “Fourth Wing,” “Iron Flame” and “Onyx Storm” — the first three books in the “Empyrean” series. During an episode of the “Open Book with Jenna” podcast, Yarros reflected on her publishing pace with Jenna Bush Hager.

Yarros said she had already written most of “Iron Flame” by the time “Fourth Wing” came out, so the 640-page sequel published just six months after the original. The author went on to publish a romance book, “Variation,” and the third book in the “Empyrean” series, “Onyx Storm,” came out in January.

Yarros told Jenna that she was writing for 12 to 15 hours a day when she was on deadline for “Onyx Storm” and writing “Variation.”

“We’re backing that down this year,” Yarros said.

Being there for her six kids is one of the reasons why.

“I have two kids — one who’s a senior in college and one who’s a senior in high school — and I need to be available for those last moments and those graduations and really focus at home because for two and a half years it’s been all ‘Empyrean,'” Yarros said.

Yarros shared that before the release of “Fourth Wing,” she sat down with her husband to have a conversation about the demands of publishing the series. Yarros, like the main character of “Fourth Wing,” has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, which affects her body’s connective tissue.

“I said, ‘It’s going to require me working hours that my body won’t sustain, and I won’t get to see the kids, and I won’t get to do this,'” Yarros recalled.

She said her husband, a military veteran, told her, “This is your turn.”

“I remember him saying like, ‘You took care of the family while I was gone and I’m going to take care of the family so you can do this. This is your turn. We can do this,'” Yarros said.

“And we had a conscious decision, like a conscious choice for the first year,” she added. “And then it happened again. I was like, ‘Well, they want to push ‘Iron Flame’ for six months,’ and he’s like, ‘OK, if this is what you want to do.’ And I said, ‘I think we can do it.'”

But starting with the third book, which was published 14 months after the second, Yarros said they decided together to “draw it back.”

“I miss my kids, and I miss my family, and I feel like I wasn’t able to be present because I was just driven by these deadlines,” Yarros said. “And so now being able to take a step back and say, ‘Hey, I’m still going to work and do this, but I need healthy hours. I need to work eight hours a day and not 12 to 15.’”

In addition to wanting to slow her pace down for her family, she added that she wants to prioritize her own mental and physical health.

“I think you have to have a sustainable pace,” Yarros said. “So, in order to keep putting these books out, I had to slow it down so it’s sustainable. Otherwise, it’s burnout, and then no one gets books.”

But Yarros said she will “always write.”

“There will always be a time I’m in a real life situation and I look at two people and I think, ‘How can I make you miserable and then make you fall in love?'” she said. “You know, it’s just the way my brain’s gonna work. I will probably write until I die.”

In fact, she’s already dreaming up her next book. Yarros told Jenna the next book she writes will be a contemporary romance, instead of a new fantasy installment.

“I swing back and forth between the two,” she said about rotating genres she writes.

But “Empyrean” fans, never fear. Plans for the fourth book are underway.

In January, Yarros told TODAY.com that she had already made the playlist for the next book in the “Empyrean” series — the first step in her writing process.

While she couldn’t share any songs on it (“I think it would scare everyone,” she said at the time), she did reveal the first song is by Taylor Swift, specifically from “The Tortured Poets Department” album.

Listen to Yarros and Jenna’s full conversation on “Open Book with Jenna” here.