Stephenie Meyer

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AE: Would you please tell our readers a little about yourself and how you came to be an author?

SM: Writing was something that chose me, rather than the other way around. I was always a voracious reader, from the time I was about eight years old. That was the year that I discovered adult fiction; I started with Terry Brook’s The Sword of Shannara, moved on to Little Women and then Gone With the Wind. The thicker the book, the more I wanted it. Eventually I got around to young adult literature (L.M. Montgomery, Lois Duncan, Ellen Conford), but I didn’t go in order. In high school, English was always my best subject and so it seemed logical to major in English in college. However, I was always focused on the literature and research aspects and never creative writing. Creative writing frightened me; I didn’t think I had that spark in me. I’d always loved telling myself stories, but I couldn’t imagine that anyone else would want to hear them. If I hadn’t gotten married and started a family in my early twenties, I probably would have gone to law school rather than continuing into graduate school with literature.

I did write little snippets of novels occasionally—I’ve never in my entire life been able to write a short story. But I didn’t think it was worth the effort to continue on when I hit a hard part; obviously, the stories were only for me, so what was the point? My first child put an end to even these little dabbles in creative writing. For about six years, I didn’t have enough hands or energy to deal with anything besides being a mom. It’s still a challenge—motherhood is a responsibility I take seriously, and one that demands a lot of time.

And then, early in June of 2003, I had the dream that literally changed my life. In my dream, I was handed Edward Cullen on a platter (though, of course, he didn’t have a name yet). Bella was sketchier, she was more of a reactor in the scene I dreamt. But I had most of Edward—the beauty, the fact that he was a vampire, his unique yearnings toward Bella. The dream captured my interest to the point that I put everything I could on hold and started typing. I didn’t want to forget any of it. I wrote from that scene through to the end of the story, making up the plot as I went rather than outlining, and then I went
back to the beginning and wrote until the pieces matched up. I did this so obsessively that it only took me three months.

It wasn’t until the whole novel was completely finished that the thought of publication even crossed my mind. I did not think of myself as a writer then. The idea of pursuing a career in writing was not even a dream. It wasn’t until Twilight was picked up by Little, Brown & Company that any of that caught up with me. I never set out to become a writer—I just woke up one morning and realized that I already was one.

AE: On your website, you indicate that TWILIGHT is the first in the Twilight series. When you began developing the Twilight series, how was the storyline developed? Are the books in the series dependent on each other or will they be able to stand alone?

SM: Twilight was not intended to be the first in a series. I wrote it as a stand alone story. Before I had a publisher or any idea that I would ever see it in print, though—just as soon as I’d finished it—I started writing epilogues. Some of them were around a hundred pages long. I realized that I wasn’t capable of stepping away from my characters. If I stopped writing about them, that would almost be like them dying. So I started a rough sequel that spun into a seven hundred page epic. It was not usable for many reasons. I found my agent and publisher while I was writing this sequel, and I knew that it was going the wrong direction, but I finished it anyway to give it to my sister for her birthday. Then I started on a new sequel, taking a few of the elements from the first, but keeping the characters younger and developing some alternatives that seemed more realistic to me. The books in the series will hopefully be good stories in and of themselves, but since they are all part of one longer story, they will be somewhat dependant on each other.

AE: TWILIGHT is an unusual, modern-gothic tale. What prompted you to incorporate paranormal elements into your series for young adults?

SM: At first I thought Twilight had the paranormal elements entirely because that was how my dream was. That was just the story that I’d fallen in love with so immediately. But since then—after trying to write a purely human and possible story on a break from my vampires—I’ve realized that I need a little bit of the paranormal to keep me interested. My first try at normal human drama bored me. Perhaps it just wasn’t the right story.

AE: Both Bella and Edward are complex characters whose lives clearly define their behaviors. How do you shape your characters? Are they based on people that you know or have known?

SM: Both Bella and Edward grew very organically in my imagination. I really had no sense of borrowing from life, except that I gave Bella, on occasion, some of my own small quirks. When you write fantasy, it’s important to ground as much as possible in reality, to
keep your characters believable. I gave Bella little pieces of me because I could write from a sure knowledge that way. For example, I hid behind my hair a bit in high school. I gave Bella hair she could hide behind when necessary because I understood that behavior. Edward, on the other hand, is completely and totally his own person, with no outside source at all.

AE: Bella's relationship with her family is non-traditional, as are many modern families. What caused you to develop a main character that functions more as an adult than a teenager?

SM: You’re always fascinated by what you haven’t lived. My own family was very large and very supportive. I have excellent parents who took a great deal of care to be involved in my life and to do their jobs as my guardians and examples. Coming from that background, I wondered how my personality would have developed under different circumstances. Like anyone with horde of siblings, I always speculated what it would be like to be an only child. In the same vein, what would life be life if parents didn’t fill their traditional roles? Bella’s character explored some of these curiosities.

AE: The uneasy relationship the Cullens share with the Native Americans who live on the local reservation leaves a lot of unanswered questions. Can you share any hints of what may happen in next novel in the series?

SM: I can only say that this uneasy relationship will be a huge part of book two, and that Jacob Black will become one of the main characters.

AE: The vampire element you introduce in TWILIGHT differs greatly from traditional vampire tales. What inspired your unique view of vampire behavior?

SM: I’m not a fan of horror books or movies, so when I started writing about vampires, I didn’t know all the conventions. That made it easier, I think, to see my vampires in a totally different light. Some of the characteristics were evident in the dream that inspired the story, but most were things that just clicked for me. I wanted a “tell” for when they were thirsty, and I had a lot of fun imagining the changing eye colors. I also enjoyed dismissing the standard “fangs” feature, letting my vampires have perfect smiles that just happen to be razor sharp. As I wrote about them, my personal myth became more and more concrete until it’s practically scientific fact to me now.

AE: Readers are going to inhale TWILIGHT and are going to be ready for more! What can we expect from you next?

SM: I’m hoping, if everything goes well in editing, that book two will be out in about a year. It will continue the story of Bella and Edward, beginning in the third week of their senior year of high school, on Bella’s eighteenth birthday. The working title is New Moon.

AE: Would you like to share anything else with our readers?

SM: My one hope would be that Bella and Edward would feel as real to everyone who reads Twilight as they feel to me. It was love for my characters that pushed me to finish the book and then to get it published. I’m just tickled at the idea that they get to exist for so many more people now.

(Click here for a review of TWILIGHT)

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