Hers Is A Recipe For Success

“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.” – Cassandra Clare

Born to American parents in Iran on this date in 1973, Judith Rumelt took on the writing nom de plume of Cassandra Clare while still in high school in Los Angeles, where she mostly grew up.  By the time she finished college in the late 1990s she was writing under the name full time, beginning with a series of magazine jobs and then switching to YA fiction in 2005.    She is perhaps best known for her bestselling series The Mortal Instruments, which include her mega-seller titles City of Bones and City of Ashes.   Her sequel to the series, the Dark Artifices series, is currently “In Progress,” with Lord of Shadows now on the market.

A prolific writer, she has 22 books either on the market or coming by year’s end and also has written more than a dozen shorter works of fiction, all highly acclaimed and most as award winners.  Clare said her recipe for “lots of writing” is simple:

“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.”         “And write what you love - don't feel pressured to write serious prose if what you like is to be funny.”

Share A Writer’s Moment with a friend by clicking the g+1 button below