#cassandra clare needs to understand

[tyblackthornfrog]

i literally can't shut up once shadowhunters becomes the discussion topic. favorite book series? tda. but let me tell you why. favorite fictional character? probably ty blackthorn. BUT LET ME TELL YOU—

[kitty-gray]

No, you don't understand. "Love means you see someone, that's all" is such an important quote. For both, Dru and Ty.

Like, throughout TDA Dru felt invisible. Too young to fight but old enough to feel left aside. She's resolved to put herself in danger on her own if that means she can help in any way that matters. Even in TWP she hides her panic attacks, and probably so many other ways her trauma affected her.

And Ty, he dreams of being a detective and solving mysteries. He's always been the one trying to understand the world, but the only people who ever tried to understand him were his family.

They both see. They both are comfortable and used to it. But to be seen? I bet it's gonna be pretty epic.

[wikitpowers]

i swear if they don't make one of those cute kit plushies once twp comes out i'm sueing

[shellii-c]

How does everyone ask @cassandraclare questions to get answered??

I've been dying to ask about her extra content she sometimes sends out...Life is a book for The Infernal Devices Extras...We Jace you a Clary christmas for Clary and Jace extras in TMI..

I NEED to know is there one for TDA...all those juicy Emma and Julian extras and deleted scenes....and if she will ever grace us with its presence.

[icyminghao]

(pretty) hungry

pairing: minghao x gn!reader genre: fluff, drabble, established relationship word count: 0.6k warning(s): mentions of food

summary: minghao attempts to flirt with you in chinese, but ends up getting extremely shy when you confront him to translate whatever he said for you.

from the universe of i don’t understand (but i love you), you nailed it! and a little sweet, but can be read as a standalone.

inspired by jem carstairs from the infernal devices by cassandra clare!

“Baobei*, ni hao piao liang**,” Minghao randomly pipes up, breaking the silence that loomed over the both of you in your weekly reading session.

You look up from your book, ears perking up at the sound of Minghao speaking in his native tongue. “What does that mean?”

There’s a pause. Minghao seems taken aback. You quirk a curious brow at him.

“It means I’m hungry. Let’s go get some food,” Minghao places the book he was reading down on the coffee table before getting up and walking towards you.

You would have believed his translation, if not for the fact that his ears were tinged with the deepest shade of red you’ve ever seen.

Minghao extends his hands for you to grab onto to get up, and you withhold a giggle at how hard he’s trying to hide the blush slowly creeping up his cheeks. You willingly grab onto his hands and lift yourself up, a teasing smile appearing on your endeared expression.

“It means ‘I’m hungry’? I could use it on Junhui the next time we meet, show him how good of a teacher you are,” you smile, eyes focused on his reaction. “Baobei, ni hao piao liang.”

“You can’t tell Junhui that.” Minghao replies immediately. You don’t know how it’s possible, but Minghao only gets redder as he practically squirms under your gaze, looking down at his feet to avoid your eyes. You simply grin wider at how cute he’s being, all because of a few simple words from his native language that he’s refusing to translate for you.

“Why not?” you feign innocence, lowering yourself a little so you could make eye contact with his lowered head. “It’s a pretty useful phrase, isn’t it?”

Minghao sighs, lifting his head up. His face is completely red now. “Well, yes, but it can only be used in specific contexts.”

“Specific contexts?” you raise a brow at Minghao, leaning closer to him. “Do enlighten me, Hao.”

“You can just Google it, y/n,” Minghao presses his lips into a thin line, obviously trying to avoid the topic, “what do you feel like eating?”

Unfortunately for him, you do not give in easily.

“But Hao,” you whine, removing your hands from his to shake his shoulders for dramatic effect, “why would I need to ask Google when I’ve got you?”

You stop shaking his shoulders after a while, moving to cup his face in your hands instead. “What does it really mean? I promise I won’t laugh.”

Minghao’s eyes widen. “How did you know it doesn’t mean ‘I’m hungry’?”

“That’s because you taught me that phrase before, silly. Your excuse sucked from the beginning,” you giggle, booping his nose with your finger before going back to rest your hand on his cheek.

Minghao sighs, reaching up to rest one hand over yours, resigning himself to his fate. “It means you’re really pretty, love.”

Now it was your turn to be flustered. Your hands on his cheek stiffened just a little bit, clearly not expecting the words that came out of Minghao’s mouth so easily. Your gaze fell on everything else but Minghao, and he chuckles in amusement.

“What’s wrong, Baobei?” Minghao teases, leaning closer towards you.

You lightly punch his chest in mock frustration. “You can’t just say stuff like that out of the blue!”

“Well, you were the one who pushed for me to tell you what it meant,” Minghao retorts playfully, smile growing impossibly wider. You huff, and Minghao reaches to take your hand in his.

“Okay, let’s finally go eat, hm?” Minghao smiles softly, turning to lead you towards the front door.

“Wait!” you call after Minghao, and he stops in his tracks before turning to you with a confused expression.

“Ni hao piao liang.”

Oh, if only you took a picture of his stunned, absolutely flustered expression to keep forever (and maybe use as blackmail). You guess you’d just have to keep the image in your memory.

*: Baobei (宝贝) — Chinese term of endearment for “baby” or “love”.

**: Ni hao piao liang (你好漂亮) — “you’re really beautiful/pretty”.

a/n: i love hao sm can u tell (also i may or may not have written this bc of that weibo live earlier omg minghao needs to stop like rn.)

taglist (send an ask to be added!): @slytherinshua @xomingyu @pepperonidk @belladaises @tastymintchocolate @dahliatopia

masterlist

[clockworkbee]

when they're so desperate to be with the one they love that they don't even care if they get hurt in order to stay together

“Come with me, then,” he said. “Stay with me. I saw the look on your face when you saw the horses of the Hunt. You would do anything to ride again.” Suddenly furious, Mark leaned down over him. “Not anything,” he said. His voice throbbed with low anger. Kieran gave a slight hiss. He caught at Mark's shirt. “There,” he said. “Be angry with me, Mark Blackthorn. Shout at me. Feel something.”

—Lord of Shadows, Cassandra Clare

“We're staying together,” he promised. “You're not getting away from me. Never again.” Only then did she understand what would happen. A one-way trip. A very hard fall. “As long as we're together,” she said. [...] Then Percy let go of his tiny ledge, and together, holding hands, he and Annabeth fell into the endless darkness.

—The Mark of Athena, Rick Riordan

“I've been broken for weeks,” he said unsteadily, and she knew what that cost him, that admission of lack of control. “I need to be whole again. Even if it doesn't last.” “It can't last,” she said, staring at him, because how could it, when they could never keep what they had? “It'll break our hearts.” He caught her by the wrist, brought her hand to his bare chest. Splayed her fingers over his heart. It beat against her palm, like a fist punching its way through his sternum. “Break my heart,” he said. “Break it in pieces. I give you permission.”

—Lord of Shadows, Cassandra Clare

“Can I?” he asks. Can you what, Simon? Kiss me? Kill me? Break my heart? I touch him like he's made of butterfly wings. “You don't have to ask.” I say it loud enough that he'll hear me, over everything.

—Wayward Son, Rainbow Rowell

“You cannot hurt yourself, Daisy. You must not. Hate me, hit me, do anything you want to me. Cut up my suits and set fire to my books. Tear my heart into pieces, scatter them across England. But do not harm yourself—”

—Chain of Thorns, Cassandra Clare

Come home. Come home and shout at me. Come home and fight with me. Come home and break my heart, if you must. Just come home.

—Queen of Nothing, Holly Black

[jeahreading]

(This mood board is freaking awesome and everything you really need to know about me, the love of my life @im-on-crack-send-help made this)

(Right I think It's time for me to finally get this over with )

Helloo and Welcome to my Blog, This is Primarily a Writer/readerBlr, but there are other things too(Particularly listening to podcasts ) since I can't be bothered to make a side one.

My reader side - I am an avid reader and am almost always in the middle of a book, I will be updating here on which books I'm reading

Current read list -

Dracula (Bram Stoker)

The Screaming Staircase (Jonathan Stroud)

A Dance with the Fae Prince (Elise Kova)

American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Kai Bird)

The Silver Birds (Apolline Lucy)

That Night (Nidhi Upadhyay)

The Complete Adventures of Feluda, Vol 1 (Satyajit Ray)

The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)

The God of Small Things (Arundhati Roy)

The War of Lanka (Amish Tripathi) (YES I CAN FINALLY TAKE THIS OFF MY LIST I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED THIS I CAN'T BE HAPPIER)

City of Bones (Cassandra Clare)

Circe (Madeline Miller)

The Housemaid is Watching (Freida McFadden)

And that's all I can remember Right about now , Yes I'm reading 10 books or more simultaneously, no I do not have an explanation to that.

My main Genre is Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery and thriller, But I do love widening my scope so do recommend me any books you might think may pique my interest. 😁

My reader side also includes me obsessing over podcasts, I'm including my Favourite podcasts here too, and I assure you they are amazing!

Podcasts for you - I usually listen to them on Spotify and love True crime, mystery, Murder mysteries etc. Here they are -

Rotten Mango by Stephanie Soo (True Crime) - I wouldn't suggest you listen to this if you get disgusted or scared easily, I usually am not affected by these kinds of things and I was still very disturbed, The first 2 episodes are quite... I would suggest you research about it more before you listen to it.

Baking a Murder by Stephanie Soo (Books and movies) - This podcast is again one of my favourites, the way she explains the movie is just so immersive, if you want to understand a story but don't have time to sit down and read the book/watch the movie then this is for you.

7 Suspects by Cryptic Radio(Murder Mystery ) - OH MY GOD, holy- this is probably one of the best mystery podcasts I've ever listened to, tbh you think you know what is going on and till the very end that is kinda sorta true, but then in the like the last 5 moments the plot twist so intense you are left sinking on to the floor thinking "What just happened", listen to, right now.

Magnus Archives by Rusty Quill (Story? horror? not sure what it comes under) - I've started listening to it after getting intense FOMO and can confirm it's going pretty well, I mean I have a LOT to catch up to, but I can say, it's caught my interest.

Murder in HR by Caspian Studios (Murder Mystery) - Again OH MY GOD, again, this is one of the best mystery podcasts I've ever listened to, I mean yeah, the gym ad thingy gets a little bit annoying but the rest of the story compensates for it, again, you think you know where you are going, again up until the very end you just don't know what the hell is going on, and again (Do you see a pattern) when the mystery hits you you are flabbergasted, soo I suggest give it a listen(also kinda obsessed with the soundtrack).

Murphy's Inc. by 97toNow Productions (Scifi mystery) - This is one of the better ones, I'm still listening to it and it's just actually really good, It's kinda the thing you listen to once a day, kinda relaxing (for me at least )

Ok, so this one is a bit different, there is a podcast Caso 63: Enigma: Spotify studios but it's in Spanish which I still haven't quite learnt and I didn't know this existed. I was recommended 2063 theke Esechi by Spotify Studios which is in Bengali which I do, in fact, understand. It was voiced by one of my favourite actors and I was absolutely in love with it, It feels like I wasn't listening to a podcast but a movie and there is so much confusion and so many twists. This podcast has been made in other languages as well, the other two ik are Case 63 (In English) and Virus 2062(In Hindi). So check it out!!

Treat by C13Features (Horror, gory) - This is like a podcast movie, it's around 2 hours long maybe? this is pretty good I would say, you can give it a listen.

Welcome to Night Vale by Night Vale Presents (Absurdity?) - I really don't think I need to say anythi_-_- HAIL THE GLOWCLOUD.

Morning Cup of Murder by Morning Cup of Murder (True Crime) - True crime yk...

The Sounds of Nightmares by Little Nightmares - Bandai Namco Europe (Horror, gore, mystery) - Uhh it's a little unnerving how detailed the actions of characters are As if they were compensating for the fact that there are no visuals, but it was pretty good I would say(Also like the soundtrack)

My writer side- My most popularly known name is Jeah (jee - ah) and I'll be using that here, I am a new author getting started on writing. I still have a looong way to go but, I enjoy writing very much even though my mind and body are definitely not on par with my will to write which is why my second unintended hobby is procrastination. Most of the time that I'm here on Tumblr I am supposed to be doing some other work, like right now.

Anywaysss here are my current WIP's

Mirror My Way - This is my first and only properly published Book. Tbh Not very proud of it, I did it in a hurry, because I took part in the school's Writing program, did nothing the whole year, and finished it in the last week, I honestly think It had potential but I kinda ruined it trying to finish it within the deadline. I wouldn't recommend you read it, It was supposed to be a part of a duology or trilogy but I think I'm just gonna let it sit in the corner for now, let it be there, think upon its mistakes, it did wrong 😤.

Tots and Coffee - Now this one I like better, this was actually inspired by the Scam Caller post here on Tumblr. Kinda had a sudden burst of inspiration and Wrote the first Chapter and since then it's still going pretty strong. Unlike the previous one, it is there on Ao3 if you wish to read it 😁.

I dunno what to call this but I occasionally write short stories in the replies of Pinterest pins when I come across writing prompts. This isn't a wip exactly but , I once posted the starting of a story and jokingly wrote "Continue-!" at the end thinking that would be the end of it, but someone did eventually continue it and that led to a string of events and a very weirdly Eledritch, beautiful Frankestine story formation, I'll be posting it slowly here on Tumblr as well, so keep checking!

Forgot to put it in earlier, but check out @the-writers-corner-inc It's a group blog I initiated, and you can find lots of fun stories, prompts, visuals and more!!

Oh just a side note, I amde another side blog where I post the answer of the everyday wordle.@answer-of-the-everyday-wordle

And that's about it, I don't what else to say, but while you're here, grab a cup of coffee or tea, pick out a book and read a page, I'm right here on the other side with a book as well, let's be booky buddies 😄😄😃😃🍵☕

[lady-bluebird-luv]

Youre making me want to pick back up acotar lmfao

Welllllll if you do, you'll have at least one friend you can talk about it with. :)

I don't know how similar this is to your experience, but I actually wasn't a big ACOTAR fan when I first read it in 2017-ish. I thought the first book was OK, got obsessed with ACOMAF, got frustrated with ACOFAS, and didn't think about the series again for years. I had gone down a manga rabbit hole and started writing SnK fic around the same time, so I directed all my fandom energy at that.

Last winter, I got nostalgic and re-read a lot of Cassandra Clare novels. I studied world literature, so I read a lot in my day-to-day life, but that winter was when I remembered how nice it is to read unpretentiously. Romantasy was my original bread and butter, and not everything has to be high-brow, award-winning Literature with a big L. Then I re-read ACOMAF, and one thing led to another.

I'll be the first person to admit that ACOTAR has its fair share of issues, and I don't adore SJM as an author or as a person. But ACOTAR is still meaningful to me. It brought me a lot of joy at a time when I needed it. It inspired me to write fic for the first time in a while. I don't think it's good for all the reasons why SJM intended it to be good. Like, SJM doesn't understand how morally grey some of her protagonists are, but they are morally grey, and I love them for that. One of the best things about fandom is that you can give canon/authors' interpretations the middle finger and do whatever the fuck you want.

I'm new in ACOTAR fandom spaces, but the culture is definitely different from SnK. IDK if the ACOTAR fandom can be so negative because it's starved for new content, or what, but I've never seen "pro" or "anti" tags to this extent. It also seems like there are a lot of people here who aren't familiar with fandom netiquette. I hate the moral policing, although that problem isn't ACOTAR-specific - I got off ereri Twitter to avoid the harassment/doxing that people were getting there. That all being said, there are also some lovely, insanely talented people here who inspired me to create my own ACOTAR content, and I definitely want to stay to connect with them more. I'm trying to avoid the bickering discourse and just reblog pretty fanart on my silly little blog.

I would be psyched if you joined us, but if not, no harm no foul. The series and fandom is whatever you find in it. Either way, I'm genuinely flattered, and thanks so much for the ask! Sorry that this got a little rambley.

[faithfromanewperspective]

sugar coated brain (the fluid ain’t to blame): unraveling Conor Aurelian

I don’t know if this is me admitting to have read embarrassingly little in terms of Actual Books since I turned 18 but. Wow. I loved sword catcher, and for once I was there eating up the plot rather than only relating to the characters so much I was obsessively hoping for a happy ending for them. 

I’ve said before that sword catcher was good, so good it’s almost above fandom discourse (like a Beethoven symphony perhaps, you think twice before making arrangements of a masterpiece like that) but even the best symphonies deserve, actually they’re honoured by, critical analysis of the phrasing and melodies and that which are used. And this is a Cassandra Clare book after all. The beauty comes from beautifully (read: realistic, somehow more human than real humans idk I’m blown away every time) constructed characters, and then from the plot. Which was character-driven and so, so delicious, but we’re not talking those kind of spoilers this early in the game. 

While I’ll admit that Kel was the most relatable character, followed by Lin or maybe Ana, there were some things about Conor that just cut a little too close in ways I hadn’t thought about in years. Taking me back to some worldbuilding of my childhood, a ‘reluctant princess’ I came up with based on feeling trapped and overprotected and that fantasy world has long since been archived in my head and it’s entertaining to think this weird kid in western sydney who didn’t get to run quite as wild as some of the other kids (but still did get to run quite wild) felt like that when we were the furthest thing from royalty. I didn’t expect to be reminded of that in an adult fantasy book, but here we are, and I’m being entertained to see all the different takes on Conor: some driven to fascination, some to annoyance, and somehow in the 5 of us who’ve actually read sword catcher already everything in between. 

But let’s be real for a second: who hasn’t heard the ‘oh you can’t be depressed you have everything you need’ and been like. Really hurt by it?? Who hasn’t sat among know it all adults in their younger years who would just judge the hell out of other young people who supposedly ‘never got to hear no’ and now they have ‘no resilience’ and ‘no wonder they’re having problems’? Referring to people you actually relate to and thought, well this definitely isn’t a safe space to be vulnerable I’ll just suffer in silence? I’ve grown up enough now to see Lin’s trauma behind the way she says this about Conor but part of me is still a little mad at her. As for Conor?? He’s everything I’d expect from someone in his position and I actually don’t think the majority of it comes from ‘never hearing no’ and ‘getting everything he wants’ but rather the things that those try to make up for: a lack of real autonomy over his life, not being allowed to feel Normal Child Feelings, having no one he can relate to and see as an equal, a heavy burden of responsibility before he was ever old enough to understand it, and the many levels of fuckery that’s all done to his parents making them not just emotionally unavailable but frivolous, trying to maintain their own autonomy and connection doing silly little rich people hobbies that just make the divide between and resentment of them vs Every Other Person greater (constant stargazing or Decoration and Control). Sugar-coated brains: how could they not be when everything revolves around you but there’s so little you can actually do but pursue the pleasure you’re told you’re entitled to? 

I didn’t expect to be this mad at the royal family culture within SC but when I look back on it I’m not surprised. Not when the setting of the book is on the edge of a revolution, the unraveling of a society that feels so much like today and allows me to zoom out in a way that makes my little revolutionist heart happy. But oh, the angst and the bad decisions as the world teeters on that razorblade. The lives that are lost in the fray. I don’t know what’s happening in our world now but after Cast Long Shadows and an arc I know that she’s proud of (our dear Matthew Fairchild) I do trust Cassie. And in the meantime I’ll let her convince me of what I already know: the lives of nobility are simply pawns in a much bigger game no one (except maybe Ana) knows how to take the reins of, and the life of a pawn, no matter the luxuries, is a sorry life indeed. 

This little revolutionist brain of the 2000s had one thing right, and I feel vindicated to see it in such clarity here: the relationship between social class and genuine connection. From the stark contrast of the opening with Cas and Kel, even also Mari and Lin, against the disaster that is the royal family, it couldn’t be clearer to me: when you’re nobody, when there are no expectations of you, you can be who you really are. Maybe not in the eyes of the authorities, and that’s an important distinction to make, but there’s no need to pretend around your nearest and dearest and sometimes that’s worth so much more than hypothetical safety. Because yes you can get away with things when you’re rich but you’ve also got more people trying to assassinate you for who you are specifically rather than just running the risk of getting killed because you’re unlucky and too unimportant for anyone to think you’d be missed. When you’re royalty (or just have parents with really high expectations or are a gifted kid even) you’re given a mold to grow into and no one really asks if that’s who you really are: why would they, when their worldview depends on you being exactly who they want you to be? So if you’re not it you pretend and even with those, like your children, who are close enough to see behind the ruse, you never quite show them who you really are either. You can see how that would drive one insane. You showcase that the only way to exist is to mask until you snap, or lose the ability to be yourself at all. Which leads me to the second type of sugar coat. 

(And I’m quoting songs as my inspo behind this post as always, title quote is empty wallets by 5sos and I’m about to move onto sugar coat by little big town aka the band with an irl fairchild in it): this sugar coat is politeness and etiquette. There’s a quote somewhere in Kel’s narration I believe that I can’t find but basically views social etiquette and the like as you know. War strategy or something, which is another little segment of the reminder it’s cassie writing this and there’s a lot of accidental neurodivergence, or neurodivergence existing in a world so very different to ours, because that’s a very neurodivergent way of viewing it imo. And in this case, the sugar coat is like a constructed mask you spend your whole life trying to perfect, wear it as it’s handed down from your predecessors: in Conor’s case, lilibet (passed down from my mum, she wears it so well, put it on my shoulders said it’s colder out there than you think/would I recognise myself, would anybody else, if I took the damn thing off and burned it up?) who does make the frivolity and politics of being queen into her whole personality. She’s equally a pitiable and annoying character for that. 

But as for Conor? He’s a Cassandra Clare Created (TM) young man. Of course he can’t quite manage this kind of sugar coat business. The politeness, the etiquette, the little social dances: he longs for real connection (and now we’re back in empty wallets territory, get you high when I’m high, so we see eye to eye: to me this sums out how he makes connections with those who are nowhere near his equals but he wants to have some sort of equal footed connection with: Kel and *[redacted minor spoiler, see below cut]). He’s snapping from the pressure of it, and that’s exactly the kind of driving force for the narrative Cassie uses excellently. We see him coming undone, and hate it (or at least I do) but hope maybe, maybe it’s the path for liberation for him from the life that’s obviously making him (more) depressed (than he otherwise might be), and as the audience we don’t care if the kingdom burns down for this, as long as it doesn’t cause too much collateral damage. And we know it’s going to be a wild ride to get there. 

I don’t reckon this is obvious to everyone else but it is to me, with my experience of Christianity and life and just everything that if you’re a leader in any way, you’re a better leader for being liberated in yourself, having autonomy and appropriate boundaries and Conor has none of that and he’s coming undone and yes there’s a lot of other characters (who I will post about later) with their own arcs and A LOT going on (seriously it’s so deliciously complex and so much more so than tsc ever was with maybe the exception of tec which is kind of adult fantasy anyway). But oh. She really knows how to deliver, all through the first book and I can’t wait to see what the next one has to offer!! And to me the characterisation of Conor is just proof on how expertly the whole world of Castellane and it’s stories is being carried out. 

BIG GAP CAUSE CUT ISNT WORKING

*and Lin later on, kind of

tagging: @daisymylove and feel free to mention anyone who might like it in comments/reblogs!

[catreadsbooks]

hey queen, you are literally the glue of this fandom and keep everyone up to date bless youuu, you’re literally an angel!!!!!!!!

the masterlist of all the extras some links dont work, do you know where we can find everything. because that masterlist was my lifeline and i need to consume evry bit of tsc content!!! if ur able would you be able to make an updated one, if not queen you already do enough and i salute your efforts queen 🫡 xoxoxoxoxxooxoxo

Hi there!

Thank you for your incredibly sweet message! This was a very lovely thing to wake up to this week. I'm sorry that some of the links are broken! I'm currently working on updating my list and have made pretty good progess so far.

I'm still going through my very big Cassandra Clare folder to unearth the stuff that I can share, and I've also asked my friend Rò from shadowhunters.it for help. Just an FYI, though: Some extras were exclusives and haven't been shared by Cassie yet, so I won't share them either. Hope you understand!

Cat xo

[daystobook]

Day 6: Neil Gaiman Master Class, Dreyer's English, More Addie Larue, Advancing into the Story

Allegation/Trigger Warning: Neil has been accused by 5 women of sexual assault/rape.

The thing about writing early on—which I am at—is that it's too easy to give up. To become impatient and blurt, 'why is this not working?' leave it, and don't feel bad about it after a while—because there's nothing to feel bad about in the first place, nothing came of it so there's no accountability.

I was stuck with another story yesterday. Listening to VE Schwab's podcast with Cassandra Clare, when Cassandra said that she loves to run her stories by some of her close writer friends, and VE Schwab said something similar, I realised that as much as writing is a lonely occupation, it doesn't have to be. So I asked my friend Amrita a question, posed to answer as a character, and I got my unblocking. Thanks Amrita! I had been able to do something similar for her a few days back, it feels good to be of help.

I continued to write. Every bleh word after you realise this isn't working is a struggle. But I powered through and something I didn't know about the characters unfolded. I took VE Schwab's advice of going outside of the story and thinking about where I want it to go, and started creating a Miro board. Miro boards are nice! I didn't know about how effective they could be before Imagine 2200 folks created an interesting writing exercise for us on a zoom call before they started this year's edition of the writing competition.

At the same time, I also just kept pantsing. I was planning the story alongside of letting it unfold in parallel. Today in Neil Gaiman's masterclass chapter 4—Finding your Voice, I took away two things

Make mistakes.

Only way to make mistakes is to finish writing what I start.

You learn more by finishing a failure than by writing a success. And you definitely learn more by finishing a failure than you ever do by beginning something that's fantastic but stops. —Neil Gaiman, Masterclass, Chapter 4, Finding Your Voice

I haven't had finished failed stories. I don't have stories archived somewhere, which I know nobody will ever read. How will my voice ever develop, if I can't sustain copying others and ensuring an end, no matter how terrible. Listening to Neil, the bucket in which I put 'not good', or 'failed' writing has changed from useless to medals.

I also started reading Dreyer's English. Em dashes and commas, when used effectively can make a long winded thought sentence into something tangible. Dreyer's introduction was funny and full of easily understandable long sentences.

I'm not supposed to use

very

really

rather

quite

in fact

just

so

pretty

of course

actually

extremely

surely

for a week, as an exercise from first chapter of Dreyer's English. That was the whole chapter.

I also realised my one pastel highlighter is the last one standing, and I'll need to order more soon. I am going away from wax highlighters, at least for a bit, because of the ease of order, comfort, contrast, and aesthetic of pastel lightness of liquid highlighters.

There's an interesting exercise I'm going to try from the Neil's masterclass workbook:

Challenge yourself to write a short story in one sitting to fight fear of mistakes. You're not allowed to go away from the project until you have a completed draft. It can be any length, but tell a complete story that will satisfy a reader. Don't do too much editing while you write, let your ideas flow and then structure them once you've got everything on the page.

Hopefully in between the next couple of posts.

[livvyofthelake]

speaking of cars. which no one was. other than my girl addison rae of course. anyway. re: cassandra clare’s the wicked powers. i fear i’m still gonna need more information about this “road trip” cassandra. who is driving the car… you don’t understand this haunts me it’s 3am and all i can think is like. in what world does it make any sense that ty knows how to drive… he is nottttt a driver that boy is not driving a car. cassie let’s get serious tell me the real plot of that book

[poeticexhalations]

Mrs. Miller’s Antics

My old literature teacher in seventh grade was a gentle soul with a unique charm. Her name was Mrs. Miller, and I can see her face clearly to this day; I can see every wrinkle, every wink of her toffee eyes, every time her worn hands waved through the air like she was casting a protection spell on me. She was somewhat eccentric, and her aged face was a testament to her years of wisdom. When I was being bullied, she’d let me scurry into her crowded classroom during lunch where I could hide in the cabinets, books, and disarrays of ungraded work. 

One afternoon, my bully came to look for me. I squeezed my tiny body behind a turquoise filing cabinet and crushed myself against the brick wall next to a spider. When the bully asked Mrs. Miller if I was there, she simply replied, “I haven’t seen her.”

I was thirteen, and Mrs. Miller was my favorite person in the world. 

It was around this age that I realized what a deep, ardent passion I had for the literary world. Math was numbers, science was logic, but literature? It was the study of humanity. 

It was resurrecting dead voices and embracing each others’ pains. Literature helped me understand worlds outside of my small corner of Albuquerque; I read stories from Nashik, Puebla, Ireland, and even Hogwarts. The characters I read about became close friends to me; I felt like I truly understood them, and as silly as it sounds, I think those characters saw me, too. I was so gifted in her class that if I nuzzled my face into a dusty book from her bookshelf while she was instructing the class, she’d leave me alone because she understood that I already knew the content. 

I just needed to meet a new friend.

My desire for literature, for magic, started here. I picked up every book I could, and my father, who was so enthusiastic about shoving me in my bedroom to be quiet for a little while, offered to buy me books as long as I’d actually read them. My first Barnes and Noble trip is still ironed into my memory. I had never seen so many books in one place under an artificial tree. And fuck, did I read them.

And read.

And read.

The Warriors series by Erin Hunter.

The Mortal Instruments series by Cassandra Clare (my first literary crush. Oof.)

Blue is for Nightmares by Laurie Faria Stolarz.

Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

Eragon by Christopher Paolini.

The Tale of Desperaux by Kate DiCamillo. 

The Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer.

The Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead.

The Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

The Princess Bride by William Goldman.

The Merlin Prophecy books by T.H. White.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

The Angel of Death by Alane Ferguson.

The Night World series by L.J. Smith.

And so, so many more.

[daily-clace]

A smile ghosted across his face. “You know I want to beg you to stay out of this, right? It’s going to be a vicious battle. More vicious than I think the Clave even begins to understand.”

“But you’re not going to do that,” Clary said. “Because that would make you an idiot.”

“You mean because we need your rune powers?”

“Well, that, and— Did you not listen to anything you just said? That whole business about protecting each other?”

“I will have you know I practiced that speech. In front of a mirror before you got here.”

“So what do you think it meant?”

“I’m not sure,” Jace admitted, “but I know I look damn good delivering it.”

Cassandra Clare, City of Lost Souls

[lizbethborden]

honestly as a locked tomb enjoyer I don't give a fuck what Muir's personal life is like, maybe she's bi, maybe she married a closeted trans woman, maybe her husband is trans but wasn't out when they met, maybe she just likes to lie, what matters to me is that her books are well made and the lesbians in it are relatable. But the obfuscation around it is really puzzling. First of all I've always found authors marketing their personal life and gender as being weird, irrelevant (as far as I know Muir isnt a necromancer cultist and yet she can write about necromancy cults) and borderline dangerous (bc it sort of puts this expectation on the author to come out...), so I don't understand why 'Muir is a lesbian' would need to be in that bio in the first place. Then, even if it was put there as a marketing ploy, I don't see in what world marketing yourself as a lesbian as opposed to bisexual is a beneficial move. The wider your audience reach the better, no? and God knows lesbians are a niche population to pander to. idk.

I also genuinely dgaf about how authors of books live and identify but it makes me mad asf that not only is she appropriating a label that isn't hers, she's doing it married to a whole man.

I also have to be honest, having read some the books are also profoundly twitterfied, meme-y, and "Cassandra Clare stealing quips from BTVS"-esque, so it makes perfect sense to me that an extremely logged on bi woman would do what logged on bi women so often do, which is call themselves lesbians while being with men because they feel soooooo cool and awesome doing it. That's how you get that bisexual lesbian phenomenon and "it's bigoted to say lesbians don't date men" etc.

[thevagabondexpress]

a mad scientist and an angry fanauthor v. the harmful myth of the cinnamon roll. or, some issues a tsc fan sees in tsc, pt. ii

"Alas, Christopher is far more at home with beakers and test tubes than he is with female company. Let's just hope he doesn't pitch poor Rosamund into the refreshment table." — James Herondale, Chain of Gold

Cinnamon roll. You know the term. You've heard it around. I don't know if it's still in use, maybe I'm dating myself with it. But you know what it means.

Think of someone sixteen years or older that you consider to be a cinnamon roll. Get a good picture of that person, fictional or real, in your head.

I was a cinnamon roll for a very long time. That's how my friends treated me, that's how my first girlfriend treated me, and it's even, in a few cases, a monicker they directly applied to me. And I hated it. It showed that they only cared to know me on this superficial level of "adorable baby too good and pure for this world." They didn't care about the less adorable, less innocent, less naïve, and definitely also a high school student and not a child who lay underneath the oversized spectacles, the choice to keep my business to myself (my school friends simply did not need to know what I read and wrote on AO3 or how foul my mouth could get if I wanted it to) and the long-standing hyperfixation. They didn't want to see about the parts of me that didn't fit their precious archetype.

Does this sound familiar?

Enter Christopher Lightwood. I can guarantee you this was his experience, except that never once do we get enough from his point of view in the series to let us actually see it. Maybe I'm just projecting here (because why wouldn't one project onto their fictional crush) but I had issues with the way Cassandra Clare wrote, framed, and treated Christopher long before his narrative's ending in Chain of Thorns. He was mistreated consistently by the narrative, by the society around him, and unconsciously by his own closest friends.

Think about it. He's consistently dismissed, even by those closest to him, as the cinnamon roll, the mad scientist, the one who's bad at social interaction, the one who's definitely not interested in romance, with no input from Christopher himself whatsoever at all to confirm or deny any of these stereotypes. He's constantly belittled, his friends and even his sister treat him like he's six, not sixteen (upon hearing of his death Charles calls him "Little Kit" as if the person in question wasn't two years away from being a legal adult). They seem to think he can't take care of himself just because he's absentminded, nobody ever tells him anything important (Thomas only realizes he should've told Christopher about Alastair once Christopher's gone), and any time he tries to step out of the "mad scientist" box his decisions are questioned and he's thrown right back in. Say what you will about Grace Blackthorn but she and Henry are the only people who actually get Christopher, who not only understand him but make attempts to understand him at more than a superficial level.

And because nobody's obviously outright hurting him and he doesn't have a deadbeat and/or abusive parent and he's pretty good at just keeping a cheerful face on about it because being angry and mean doesn't do anything but make a situation worse, you don't even realize it until you go back through and look for yourself. And I encourage you to look for yourself. I'm only the pastor, I ain't the Bible.

And guess what? Christopher Lightwood is also a textbook cinnamon roll.

Except he's not. There is no such thing as a cinnamon roll. They don't exist, no more than Santa Claus or Alexandria's Genesis. And that person you've just called a cinnamon roll? Yeah, they're gnashing their teeth, ready to scream.

The cinnamon roll is a myth. A harmful myth, one used primarily in three ways: by allo people against ace, aro, and aroace people, by neurotypical people against people with autism, adhd, and similarly-presenting neurodivergences, and by cis and binary trans people against nonbinary people, to infantalize them, to put them in a neatly definable category, and to keep them in that box where they have no power. As a person who is all three: a grey-asexual, nonbinary, and neurodivergent, it was a deeply hurtful label I couldn't escape.

Neither could Christopher.

And in the end, it killed him.

"some issues a tsc fan sees in tsc" is an attempt to break down the unacknowledged things in tsc that i unearthed reading chain of thorns, rereading the rest of the series in preparation for it, and writing two longform fanfics (one of them a genderbent canon reworking) for the last hours. click on the "some issues..." tag to see more of these.