Maggie Stiefvater

Literary Birthday – 18 November – Maggie Stiefvater

Happy Birthday, Maggie Stiefvater, born 18 November 1981.

Seven Quotes

  1. Google is a godsend. Check out as many editor, agent, and author blogs as you can find — the internet is like a free crash course to the writing business and craft, available 24/7. There’s just not any excuse not to be well-versed in the writing world now.
  2. I picture my books as movies when I get stuck, and when I’m working on a new idea, the first thing I do is hit theatres to work out pacing and mood.
  3. The biggest mistake you can make is assuming that creativity will hit you all at once and the muse will carry you to the end of the book on feather wings while ‘Foster the People’ plays gently in the background. Storytelling is work. Pleasurable work, usually, but it is work.
  4. In the end, you have to write like you’re not afraid of the critics.
  5. I can tell you that as a writer and as a reader, I regard character as king. Or queen. No matter how riveting the action or interesting the plot twists, if I don’t feel like I’m meeting someone who feels real, I’m not going to be compelled to read further.
  6. It’s not that we don’t want to write women who are capable in the same way as men. It’s that it requires a helluva lot of imagination to overcome the weight of that narrative history. It’s one thing to write a better version of something you’re already looking at. It’s another thing to write something you haven’t ever seen before.
  7. Read. Read widely. Read everything. YA, teen, adult, fiction, non-fiction, cereal boxes, toothpaste tubes. You can read books on the rules of writing, but it’s better to see what the rules of writing look like in practice. Also, read critically. If you love a book, break it down: why do you love it? If you hate a book, break it down: why do you hate it?

From Maggie’s Quick & Dirty Guide to Getting Published

Maggie Stiefvater is a best-selling American author of young-adult/urban fantasy novels, including The Shiver TrilogyThe Raven Cycle, and The Scorpio Races. Find out more about Maggie’s writing processes here.

Source for Self Portrait

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cartoon_character_maggie.png

Bluesargent, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

[Top Tip: Learn how to write fantasy. Buy The Fantasy Workbook]

by Amanda Patterson

Are you interested in more authors’ birthdays? Please click here: Literary Birthday Calendar

Posted on: 18th November 2013
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