I tend to write in coffee shops and restaurants with friends of mine because if I'm at home, I get distracted by the television or the cats or my husband, or... you know - all of those things that make it easy to procrastinate.
Creating characters is like throwing together ingredients for a recipe. I take characteristics I like and dislike in real people I know, or know of, and use them to embellish and define characters.
In my own work, I don't have favorite characters, but I have characters that I relate to the most. And I relate the most to Simon from 'The Mortal Instruments,' and also Tessa from 'The Infernal Devices.' They're more sort of bookish and shy characters.
I am in the U.K. for inspiration because I'm doing a follow on series to 'The Infernal Devices,' called 'The Last Hours.' It's a re-telling of 'Great Expectations' with 'Shadowhunters'... because why not! It's set in 1903, so I'm doing a lot of locational research.
As long as they're making beloved books into movies, people are going to be like, 'That's not my mental image of them.' It takes that moment for it to click and become their mental image.
Nobody sells books like J.K. Rowling. We have a rule in publishing: Never compare anything to 'Harry Potter' because it's like lightning in a bottle.
In other people's books, I tend to love the really daredevil-y characters. I love Finnick from 'The Hunger Games.' And I think, probably, my favorite character of all time is Sherlock Holmes.
There are not that many parts for actors who are not white - even less substantive ones.
I work on a word count basis, so I have to write three thousand words a day. I can write them in the morning, I can write them in the evening; as long as they get done.
Write every day. Don't kill yourself. I think a lot of people think, 'I have to write a chapter a day' and they can't. They fall behind and stop doing it. But if you just write even one hundred words a day, it's not that much. By the end of a month, you'll have three thousand words, which is one chapter.
"Orange is not the color of seduction, Christopher. Orange is the color of despair, and pumpkins."
"Ah, Magnus Bane," said Matthew. "My personal hero." "Indeed, you once described him as 'Oscar Wilde if he had magic powers,'" said James.