Maggie Stiefvater's Blog: Maggie Stiefvater, page 365

maggie-stiefvater:I’ve been asked many times to share some of my deleted scenes from the Raven...

maggie-stiefvater:

I’ve been asked many times to share some of my deleted scenes from the Raven Cycle. The outtakes. Here’s the thing:

- they do exist. The Dream Thieves is 125k words long, give or take. My outtakes file for it — stuff that I cut out of the draft — is about 150k words long.

- they’re not exciting.

- they are either more boring versions of scenes that are in the book, bits of scenes that were going on for too long, or aborted plot lines. Sometimes they were me just writing my way around in circles while I figured out what I wanted out of life. Bits of book 2 ended up in book 3 and book 1 ended up in book 4, etc. etc. Timelines were always strange — The Dream Thieves used to begin with a prologue where Ronan lost the Camaro to Kavinsky in a drag race, and a lot of the outtakes involve me writing my way out of that. 

That said, here are some bits and bobs from the Dream Thieves outtakes file. Under a cut, because this is a lot of words. Still not even approaching the number of words in the outtakes file. But. A lot of words.

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flashflights:how do i know i love her? because i can sleep...

flashflights:

how do i know i love her? because i can sleep after i talk to her.

(please don’t tag as kin)

n00talie:I meant to just listen to Dream Thieves on audiobook...

n00talie:

I meant to just listen to Dream Thieves on audiobook while doing homework, but i ended up drawing Ronan instead

mable13:Getting my books ready to take to the Maggie...

mable13:

Getting my books ready to take to the Maggie Stiefvater signing tomorrow-featuring the bracelet I made for her.

It seems appropriate that a Stiefvater rainbow is half gray and in the shadows.

(Interscope Records)

(Interscope Records)

Pop Culture of My Life: Maggie Stiefvater on 'Jurassic Park,' 'The Village,' and Ace of Base

Pop Culture of My Life: Maggie Stiefvater on 'Jurassic Park,' 'The Village,' and Ace of Base

I adore the friendships in the Raven Cycle. I had some very strong friendships in high school and college. After that though, people started moving away, marrying, having kids, and our friendships faded. I still have people I consider very good friends, bu

Dear berylline,

Before you listen to my advice on friending, you should keep in mine the nature of the friendships of the Raven Cycle: suffocating, involved, nonverbal, volatile. This is not necessarily the best or easiest way to friendship, but this is how I do friendship. I’m all in or all out; I know in theory there is a point to shades-of-gray in this department, but I have not in 34 years been able to train myself to see it.

So if this sounds like a bad idea to you, do not listen to anything I have to say after this. If this sounds like a great idea — bring on the pain and joy, you say — let’s proceed.

The most common relationships are often relationships of circumstance. You go to the same school. You live next door. You do the same activity. You are in the same major. You have the same job. You are part of the same fandom. You both come to the same graveyard to perform your Samhain rituals. Circumstance. Terminal differences in principles or methods of communication fester in the organs but do not kill the patient because the shared circumstance masks the symptoms. If the circumstance is all that holds you together, when things change, slow death of the friendship begins.

I’m no longer interested in these friendships. I now call them acquaintances, and I’m friendly with these folks, but I don’t expect to have the same emotional intimacy with them that I expect from my friends..  

Here’s what I now require from my friendships:

1) a common outlook on the world. All of my close friends share a sort of intense curiosity about life, a live-and-let-live tolerance of other humans, a sense of humor about themselves, an unflagging interest in the truth, and a desire to continually better themselves in some way or another. They’re all kind. They try. That’s all the commonality I require from them; no other circumstance needs to line up. 

2) A genuine and equal fondness for me. I’m not going to chase. I’m too old to chase. I respect my own time too much to chase. I don’t need my friends to show their friendship in the same way I do, but I need them to be equally invested, or just — whatever. Talk to you later, bro. 

3) A shared method of communication. This part is crucial. Because circumstances will change, and people will move, and time zones are a bitch. Every friend I have knows that I’m not going to answer long emails nor pick up my phone and speak into it unless I’ve lost a limb. They know to find me in person, in a text, or on chat. Not everyone communicates the same way: your friendships will last longer if you make them with people who use the same channels.

4) Trust. I want to be able to trust them and vice versa, and I also want to know that if someone else meets one of my friends knowing that they are my friend, that that means that third party can also trust them. My band of friends might be assholes, but they’ll make sure you get home safely if your car breaks down.

Here is how I make my friends now:

1) I love myself. Look, this is a hard step. But once you’re confident that you’re a work-in-progress that you like working on, once you believe that you’re someone people would want to spend time with, people in fact want to spend time with you. There is nothing more irresistible than a weird person who doesn’t need you — who only wants you.

2) I ask. If I meet someone I click with, I tell them. Last year I met a friend by saying “we’re going to be friends for life.”* Last week I emailed someone and said “we’re clearly going to be friends so you might as well add me to your chat list, here’s an invite.” I’m done with the will-they?-won’t-they? nonsense. Let’s do this thing, or not do this thing, but no hanging out in the middle. We all march closer to death every day and this time spent waffling and wondering if we’re going to work is time we could be spending finding out if we agree on how cool raccoon hands are.

*this method is featured and demonstrated in The Raven King, try it at home, it’s fun and easy

My adult friendships are superior in every way to my teen friendships, because they’re stronger and more ferocious and more rooted in both parties understanding the other on a basic level. Circumstances don’t shift them. Time elapsed between visits doesn’t weaken them. 

So go out there, tiger, and fetch you some new friends. Cast the net wide. They could be anybody.

urs,

Stiefvater

Why are you so cool?!

Dear wild-the-wolf,

Oh, you don’t even know the half of it. Here’s how cool I am: I got an invite to the People Magazine cocktail party during Book Expo this week, and because I’ve been on tour since the 26th of April and am 80% imaginary at this point, I signed books at Book Expo and then drove my car to a Whole Foods 4 miles away, bought myself a chicken leg and an avocado because I have food allergies that keep me from stuffing my face with actual food like an actual human, and then I set my cellphone timer and slept in my Mitsubishi in the Whole Foods parking garage so that I would have slightly smaller bags under my eyes while attending said cocktail party in my combat boots and the same jeans I’ve been wearing for three days because I haven’t had time to do laundry since, like, last month. While there, a TV producer said, “ok, tell me about your life,” and I stared at her for about two minutes before saying “I’ve been living in a barn while at Book Expo.”

How cool am I?

I’m that cool.

urs,

Stiefvater

Hello Maggie! I am a NYC dweller and would like some clarification. Will you still be at Book of Wonder on May 22nd and moving the conversation with David Levithan to Oblong? Or are you canceling the event at Book of Wonder all together? I and a few other

Dear cindyd1223,

I’ll still be at both events — David simply had a schedule conflict with the BoW event and will have to come to Oblong instead.

urs,

Stiefvater