Lemon is there in the beginning of season 3, for the first 8 episodes in fact. Then she goes to take care of Grandma Betty, which was how they wrote her out for 5 episodes so Jamie King could have her baby and take a few weeks off. She then comes back in episode 14 and is there for the rest of the season as well as all of season 4.
Magnolia was written out because the actress was cast in another show that ended up only being on the air for a handful of episodes. They addressed it in the first episode of season 3, I think Annabeth tells Zoe about Brick sending her to boarding school because he couldn't handle her any more as well as Shelby and Brick calling off their engagement. I believe the actress who played Shelby was also cast in another show. Both of them come back from time to time, in case you miss them that much. Personally, I never cared for Shelby so I was not sad to see her go. She and Magnolia were never main cast members.
Joel was a devise to keep Zoe and Wade apart longer as well as to teach Zoe that the kind of guy she had always thought she should be with, would end up with, wants, was in fact not the one who made her the happiest. He's a perfectly fine guy and he's pretty good to Zoe, but they kept him around way too long.
There probably were writers who left the show, that's pretty standard in that business, but the Executive Producer/show creator, Leila Gerstein, was there from the very beginning to the end. My personal opinion on what happened, why things sort of fell apart in season 3, is that I don't think the EP had a vision for what she wanted to do and where the show should go after season 2. I think she had a very clear idea of what would happen in season 1 and a pretty good idea of how season 2 would go. The problem is I don't think she had any idea past Zoe going back to NY at the end of season 2. HOD was the first time she was an EP and I don't think she knew what to do. Hence, we ended up with season 3 which kind of meanders around without much purpose for much of the season, until she finally got her act together the last few episodes of season 3. Then season 4 is fantastic! What I usually say is that the middle third of season 3 is bar far the low point of the show. The first few episodes of that season are fine and then the last few are pretty good. It's the middle part that's not good and when the ratings really plummeted which helped contribute to the shows cancellation after the shortened season 4.
Try to stick with it, you don't want to miss out on season 4!
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