Stephenie Meyers - The Twilight Series

Did you see her interview on Oprah on Friday?

The most interesting revelation is that Stephenie read every genre except horror and she has no idea how Vampires stories ever got into her head. On June 2, 2003 she had a one of a kind dream about a beautiful sparkly boy and a regular girl. He was a vampire. He talked about wanting her blood and loving her at the same time.

The dream images captured her and Stephenie was hooked on their story. She’d never even written a short story before. She never intended it to be a novel, she wrote for the fun of it.

It was a one of a kind opportunity and Stephenie’s glad that she didn’t ignore it. She loved spending time with her characters in fantasyland. Obsessed with her characters, in the beginning she kept her writing a secret from her husband as she thought she was crazy.

For those of us who have excuses for why we are not writing, she had three small children (1, 2, and 5) that were constantly ill when she wrote Twilight. She was trying to reconnect with herself.

Stephenie was an avid reader and she read Gone with the Wind when she was eight. She always told herself stories but thought that everybody did this. She’d never wanted to be a writer because she knew you couldn’t make a living by writing so why bother. (85 million books sold . . .)

It took her two years and three months before Twilight was published. She received nine rejections from agents, five no answers and one agent requested to read more.

All of the girls at Oprah’s South Africa school were reading it. One girl informed Oprah that it was delicious reading. Oprah has read the series.

Stephen King said during an interview, “The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can’t write worth a darn. She’s not very good."

I work, I write, I spend time with my family and when I read I want to be entertained. The Twilight series is Young Adult Fiction. To me, what matters, is a good story and Stephanie is a great storyteller. It’s all about the story.

As I read paranormal, sci-fi, and fantasy, I enjoyed every moment that I spent reading the series but you don’t have to like these genres to enjoy these books. When Twilight the movie first came out my husband also a fantasy addict refused to see the movie. I told him, “You’ll like it. It’s a great story and it has a lot of action.” He loved the movie.

We can't wait to see New Moon.

Stephenie kept a dream journal beside her bed so that she could record ideas that she received in the middle of the night. Many writers pay attention to their dreams to aid them in their writing. Writers Dreaming (Twenty-six Writers Talk About Their Dreams and the Creative Process) by Naomi Epel is an excellent book that describes this process.

Keep dreaming – Keep writing.