maggie-stiefvater:

maggie-stiefvater:

Dear Fandom,

I’m going to try to say this in a way that I hope doesn’t crush feelings; I appreciate the enthusiasm for the series and I don’t want to hold it under the water until the bubbles stop, etc. etc. 

But.

My inbox and Twitter feed are pretty adventurous places at the moment: basically, readers are asking me to participate in fandom in ways that I not only can’t (I can’t read your fanfic for legal reasons) or don’t want (I do not belong in my own fandom). Readers are asking me to confirm headcanons and provide extra-canonical material and asking for things to appear in the last book. Additionally, I have some messages about the content of the tag. 

Can I make this all sound coherent? We’ll give it a shot.

- a lot of the headcanons people are running by me are ship-related. A lot are sexual. Some of them are just pure smut. Guys, this is a series about teens. I am an adult. Even when my teen characters start exploring their sexuality, I try not to write them in a way that sexualizes them. I’m especially mindful of being an adult female creator writing m/m teen relationships. I know that it’s in fandom’s nature to write raunchy fics, but please keep them and any smutty headcanons out of my space. It makes me 400% uncomfortable. 

- I’m not hugely in favor of extra-canonical material. I know many authors are happy to provide things like “this is so-and-so’s birthday!” or “such-and-varmint was a ping pong champ before book 1!” or “this wizard was totes gay” on their blogs etc. etc. but I try to keep my canon details in canon. So know that if you’ve sent me a message (or, you know, twelve) asking for star signs or if a character is a virgin or whatever, I’m never going to answer it. Generally, if something interests me, I put it in the book. 

- I really don’t want to answer any more asks about Kavinsky. Kavinsky was written as a reaction to a violent, destructive time in my life and although I understand some readers choose not to read him that way, I don’t want to participate in those thought exercises. I tried for a year; it completely obliterated the catharsis of writing him. I really do not want to feel about the other characters the way I now feel about him.

- the smut and drug use in the tag isn’t really my business, even though I understand the uncertainty of the parents in my inbox asking about it. Maybe someone who is familiar with fandom can tell me if there’s a way this stuff is usually segregated? Or perhaps, if someone more versed in fandom could let me know of a solution to offer the folks in my inbox, please let me know.

- The Raven King is done, so asking me to put things in is impossible. And the book is full of what I think readers need, not necessarily what they want. Hopefully that will be good enough, but if not, there’s always gifs to express my narrative shortcomings. It is impossible to write a book by committee. I know you guys have been really patient with me moving the release date, and I appreciate it. March will be here and Gansey will be dead before we all know it.

urs,

Stiefvater

reblogging again, this time with feeling and a guitar playing in the background