my love/hate relationship with Stephenie Meyer

I am not a huge "Twilight" fan. I was pretty set against having anything to do with the series, until one day I was in need of a new book. In a brief and temporary moment of insanity, I decided to read "Twilight". I assumed it would be bad, but I was prepared to be wrong. I hoped I was wrong.

*sigh*

I think "Twilight" is HORRIBLY written. Based on reading all four of the books in this series, I have come to the conclusion that when asked to write an essay, Mrs. Meyer was likely never desperately looking for more information in order to come up with the minimum word count. There were times when I thought I could probably skip ahead a page or two and not miss a thing. I also don't particularly care for her writing style. It's very juvenile, and while I'll concede that the books were written for a young adult audience, and it is told from the point of view of a young girl, it's the writing itself that seems immature. It did get better as the series progressed, but I was still left with the feeling that the books were written by someone who hadn't quite gotten control over her writing style yet. Her repetition of words and her sometimes strange sentence structure were often enough to cause me to sigh out loud.

However, if the stories weren't at least mildly captivating, I would have stopped after the first one. I decided to keep reading with a "it can't get worse" sort of mentality. And there is something to be said for her characterization and attention to detail. As a reader, I did care about the characters on some level. They were generally believable, sometimes falling flat or becoming predictable, but never so much so that I lost complete interest.

All this to say, I am fantastically jealous of Stephenie Meyer. According to Meyer, one night she dreamed about a vampire that fell in love with a mortal, and BAM! Three months later "Twilight" was finished. And people LOVE it. Now, I'm not saying that I want to write so that I can have a cult-like following of crazies, but I do want people to connect with what I write. And Meyer has that. She just has it from a demographic who apparently feel the need to express themselves through squealing and fits of hysteria! (Note: I know several sane, non-crazies who also loved these books) So here's what I'm really jealous of: Meyer had an idea flash before her eyes, and she knew she had to run with it. And apparently it poured out of her, based on the fact that she finished so quickly.

Maybe it's the immature writer in me, but that's what I want. I want to be smacked on the side of the head by an idea that I have to get on paper. I don't particularly want to spend hours doing writing exercises. But maybe that's what I need. Maybe in order to avoid all the things that I dislike about Meyer's writing, I need to put in the hours before I have my big epiphany. Better get started...