How Sarah J. Maas' Journey to Success Began at Sixteen

Marvel’s What If…? has been a huge success on Disney Plus this year and it has an approval rating of 93%. The show offers up some surprising alternative takes on major events from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). But the concept of What If is not unique or exclusive to Marvel. In truth, What If… is a concept that is on repeat in the writer brain. And it’s this game of What If that Sarah J. Maas mastered at sixteen years of age to create one of the most popular stories on the internet. Her idea revolved around these questions: “What if Cinderella was not a servant, but an assassin? And what if she didn’t attend the ball to meet the prince, but to kill him, instead?”

The origins of Sarah J. Maas

Sarah J. Maas was born in New York City on March 5, 1986. She grew up in the Upper West Side, where she had access to some interesting historical exhibitions at the local museums. One of her favourite natural history exhibitions was the one about the Temple of Dendur.

This temple is an Ancient Egyptian temple built by the Roman governor of Egypt around 15 BC, as one of many Egyptian temples commissioned by the emperor Augustus. This structure could have been one of the many devices to fuel young Sarah’s imagination.

Maas’ parents had a love for opera, and by extension, she grew a love for both opera and ballet. They were healthy interests for her young, developing mind.

And it was at Dalton High School where she showed signs of who she would become. She began to show her storytelling talents at school by coming up with alternate versions of popular stories in her draft notebooks.

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This was around the time she began to develop the first increments of what would later become Throne of Glass. At sixteen years of age, she thought about an alternate reality for a character like Cinderella, where she was an assassin instead of a servant. By continuing down this rabbit-hole of creative thinking, Maas molded the idea into her own unique story.

Before Maas could think about publishing her stories, she had an academic career to get through. She enrolled in Hamilton College, where she studied creative writing as her major and religious studies as a minor. Some would say this is a risky path to take in college, as the creative writing degree is very rarely used for what it’s romanticized for. But Maaas’ extensive passion for writing and her determination to work towards her dream allowed her to graduate magna cum laude.

During her freshman year of college, Maas met (her now husband) Josh. When they graduated, they decided to move across the country to California to start their lives together. At this time they were already engaged. Josh was always supportive of Sarah’s writing, something a writer could only hope for in a partner.

Maas faced judgement over writing fantasy

While attending Dalton, Sarah took part in a creative writing workshop. The class was headed by a traditionalist teacher who preached about selling copies of books out the trunk of their car. Maas submitted the first draft of some other fantasy book she had been working on to be discussed during the class.

Unfortunately, the teacher decided to spend an entire forty-five minutes ranting about how fantasy fiction isn’t real fiction and is completely meaningless. The teacher went on to call other fantasy authors “hacks”. She completely ripped into the genre of writing that Maas was so passionate about, and this made her want to avoid taking writing classes for years until she took up her major. Maas did not let this negative experience stop her. It only intensified the burning passion within. She was determined to prove that fantasy could touch readers the same way traditionalist fiction did.

Throne of Glass

Queen of Glass was the original name of Maas’ debut novel. The mid-to-late 2000’s was the beginning of the Web 2.0 boom, when the internet was finding its way into more users’ hands. All thanks to technology like Blackberry and the iPhone.

Sarah J. Maas began publishing rough drafts of her story on Fictionpress.com. And over the course of time, it became one of the most popular stories on the site with close to seven thousand reviews.

Many times, writers are stuck in a cloud of self-doubt, wondering if their writing is even good enough to share with the world. But the buzz that Maas generated online was enough validation of her hard work.

Maas started sending the story to agents before signing with Tamar Rydzinski of The Laura Dial Literary Agency in 2009. And then, in March 2010, Queen of Glass officially became Throne of Glass. The book was published and well-received, resulting in Bloomsbury purchasing two additional books in the series. Eventually, the entire series would span eight books including a prequel collection.

A Court of Thorns and Roses

To this day, the A Court of Thorns and Roses series occupies the top shelf on my bookshelf. That’s the shelf I reserve for my favourite reads. ACOTAR is the series that reeled me in to the world of Maas.

Maas had already written the first book in this series back in 2009, but the book would not be published until 2015. Just like how Throne of Glass takes inspiration from Cinderella, A Court of Thorns and Roses is inspired by Beauty and the Beast. The story follows Feyre Archeron after she is brought into the faerie lands of Prythian for murdering a faerie disguised as a wolf in the woods. Feyre learns that her captor is hiding far more than his piercing green eyes would suggest. Their animosity for one another soon turns to passion, as Feyre learns the truth about Tamlin’s struggles.

The ACOTAR series is known for its steamy love scenes that sometimes cause confusion for those under the assumption that the books are YA. This series probably best suits the New Adult category for the simple fact that it’s saucier than the Throne of Glass series.

Currently, the series spans five books (A Court of Mist and Fury being my favourite) and there is a series based on the books in the works for Hulu. It’s an incredible feat that Maas is able to work on two lengthy series at the same time. She was also working on scripts for the TV show and a collaboration with DC Comics for a Catwoman novel.

Crescent City

When I learned that Sarah J. Maas was working on an adult fantasy series, I was thrilled. House of Earth and Blood: Crescent City is Maas’ third fantasy series.

After spending half her life working on Throne of Glass, creating a brand-new world presented many new creative challenges for Maas. But no challenge is too grand for wild imagination. Maas had dedicated her entire life to writing at this point, and she would bring alive the story that was floating around in her mind for years.

When asked by Christina Orlando at Tor Books about how different it was starting Crescent City, Sarah J. Maas said the following.

“With Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses, I had the luxury of years of letting those books sit and figuring out what I wanted to do with them, so I could really plan the twists and turns and revelations. But with this one I don’t have all those years, I need to be smart and figure out what I really want to happen.“

Although writing Crescent City took some planning, Sarah J. Maas was able to lean into her experiences growing up in New York City while writing the book, as protagonist Bryce Quinlan lives in a modern metropolitan city. Crescent City is an urban fantasy, and that means many of the technological systems in place didn’t need to be explained. Instead, Maas focused heavily on the magic, lore, and relationships between the characters.

House of Earth and Blood: Crescent City was released on March 3rd, 2020, and for me, it was the perfect escapism during the early weeks of the Covid-19 lockdown. It was well-received and it was ranked one of the top twenty Science Fiction & Fantasy books of 2020 on Kobo. The sequel, House of Sky and Breath, is set for release on February 15th, 2022.

House of Sky and Breath book cover. Coming from Sarah J. Maas in 2022

Sarah J. Maas’ writing routine

Even before becoming a full-time writer, Maas was locking herself away to pound out words. But now that she has publishers and TV studios buying her works, it’s even more important to have a solid writing schedule in place.

The typical writing day in Sarah J. Maas’ life consists of waking up and preparing breakfast. Her favourite breakfast is English tea, a glass of ice water, a glass of freshly-squeezed juice, and a few slices of turkey bacon. After breakfast, she then focuses on her administrative tasks, which, to a full-time writer is considered the actual work part of the day.

With all of the important admin tasks out the way, Maas is free to lock herself away in her nest for hours—sometimes twelve—and write her heart out. On an episode of 88 Cups of Tea, Maas revealed that she managed to pump out over 18,000 words in one session. This is completely insane considering that my mind turns to mush after writing just 2000 words in one sitting.

Maas likes to keep some form of composition notebook on her desk. She uses this notebook to brainstorm ideas or work out the kinks if she gets stuck.

Sarah J. Maas’ inspirations

Author stories are inspiring. Especially when learning about the sacrifices made in order to produce such great work. But what’s also intriguing is to learn about who or what inspires the author.

In numerous interviews, Maas has expressed how inspired she is by pieces of music. She has even created Spotify playlists to share the music that helped create her books.

In an interview with Steph Bowe, Maas said the following:

Music. All kinds of music, but especially classical and movie scores. Every scene I’ve written was inspired by some piece or another, and listening to music often helps me sort out plot problems, build character arcs, and connect to the soul of my book.

But although music has such a big influence on her writing, like all writers, Maas also takes some inspiration from fellow authors. Some of these names include Suzanne Collins, Garth Nix, Robin McKinley, J.K Rowling and Patricia A. McKillip.

Sarah J. Maas is proof that hard work and dedication pays off

To many onlookers, it can feel like highly successful authors are people of privilege. Some might think these people are chosen, or that their connections allow them to reach the heights of success. But after following Maas’ career for some time, I can see she is humble in her success. This is something she has worked towards since her teenage years.

It’s one thing to dream of being a writer. It’s another thing to park your butt in that seat and show up time and time again to finish your stories. Sarah J. Maas had the passion to do this early on. Sometimes going to the extent of sacrificing her social life to work on her ideas.

She was brave enough to share her work in the creative writing workshop that day. And when her teacher ranted about how fantasy isn’t real storytelling, this only fired up Maas even more. She believed so much in what she was doing that she didn’t let what someone said stop her. This is the drive needed to keep improving. And it’s those improvements that separated Maas from other inspiring writers.

Sharing her work online to thousands of unknown readers was another bold move. The internet has no shortage of people willing to dish out harsh critiques. Publishing your work on Fictionpress for free was a big risk that paid off. And it’s taking risks that pushes people further along in life. Maas’ work was so well received that she was filled with the reassurance that Throne of Glass was a story that needed to be professionally published.

Sarah J. Maas has earned her success. And her style is distinct to the point that she provides experiences that you can only get from her. When Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses blew up on the market, I saw countless other books with the words “Thornes”, “Court” or “Throne” in the title. Maas set trends that changed the entire YA fantasy market for a period of time, just as Hunger Games did before her in the YA dystopian market.

And what’s even more alluring about her brand, is her affinity and openness with her fans. Watching Maas and her husband Josh hop on live streams and interact with the fans is a warm experience.

Maas’ author brand has been an inspiration for many years. And these are the reasons why I decided to make her my first author biography.