The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

of course you‘re not.

SM: It is funny…. I mean, it‘s hard because I am very thin- skinned. I don‘t take anything lightly. When I read a criticism, I immediately take it to heart and say: ?Oh my gosh — maybe I should have done that! Oh, I do do this wrong!? I question myself very easily. I don‘t question the characters, which is why I‘m able to maintain my voice when I write — because that, to me, is the one thing that‘s rock-solid. It doesn‘t matter what my doubts are — they are who they are.

And that‘s a good thing.

SH: It is. And despite all of the criticism, there are so many more fans than there are people who are angry about the books, but you hear the negative stuff so much louder.

SM: Oh, always loud. You know, it reminds me of the movie Pretty Woman. Whenever that comes on TV, for some reason I can‘t change the channel. [SH laughs] And there‘s the one part where she says: It‘s easier to believe the bad, you know.

SH: Yeah.

SM: That‘s one of the things that I think is a constant struggle: to make the negative voices not as loud as — or at least just equal to — the positive voices. I know a lot of people who feel the same way. It‘s easy to doubt yourself.

Maybe the answer is not to write a sequel. I‘m considering that. You know, write one-shots — just one contained story, which I have a hard time doing. I guess I‘ll just have to end it by killing the characters — because then it‘ll be over, right? [Laughs] But if you kill off your characters — even minor characters — you still sob for everything that they were and could have been.

But if you kill off your characters — even minor characters — you still sob for everything that they were and could have been.

SH: In the book I‘m writing right now, there is a death — a major death. And every time I do a rewrite, as I get near that scene, and I know I have to face it again, my stomach just clenches and I get sick with dread. And as I go through that scene, I‘m sobbing the entire time. It is not easy….

SM: No. When you know in advance that you‘re going to put yourself through that, it gives you some pause. And then you also have to know that it‘s a different story than what people are expecting. That‘s also the trouble with sequels.

SH: The most letters I get from fans is for one book called Princess Academy, and the most requests I get from fans is for a sequel to that book. And then they tell me what happens in the sequel, you know? [SM laughs] And that‘s how I know that I shouldn‘t write it.

SM: Right.

SH: Because they‘ve already told their own story. And that‘s what I want, anyway… because I didn‘t tie everything up completely. I just gave them an idea of where they might go in the future.

On Breaking Dawn

I was aware that it was taking Bella in a new direction that wasn‘t as relatable for a lot of people.

SH: I loved Breaking Dawn. It‘s hard to pick a favorite, but it might be my favorite. It was so the book I wanted, and so what it felt like it needed to be for me. And I have to say I loved the pregnancy and birth stuff, because I love the horror. Your books are romance, but there‘s also this real, wonderful undercurrent of horror that‘s different from any kind of horror I‘ve read. And I love what horror can do: shine a light on what is real. And you make it bigger and more grotesque — just so you can see more clearly how grotesque what really happens is.

SM: I do think that sometimes I put horror in unusual places for horror to exist, and I take it out of places where it might have been easy to have it. You know, that birth scene really was horror for me. We live in a time where having a baby is not much more dangerous than giving blood. I mean, it‘s horrible, but it‘s unlikely that you‘re going to die.

But that‘s something new for this century. You know, there was a time when childbirth was possibly the most terrifying thing you could do in your life, and you were literally looking death in the face when you went ahead with it. And so this was kind of a flashback to a time when that‘s what every woman went through. Not that they got ripped apart, but they had no guarantees about whether they were going to live through it or not.

You know, I recently read — and I don‘t read nonfiction, generally— Becoming Jane Austen. That‘s the one subject that would get me to go out and read nonfiction. And the author‘s conclusion was that one of the reasons Jane Austen might not have married when she did have the opportunity… well, she watched her very dear nieces and friends die in childbirth! And it was like a death sentence: You get married and you will have children. You have children and you will die. [Laughs] I mean, it was a terrifying world.

And Bella‘s pregnancy and childbirth, to me, were a way to kind of explore that concept of what childbirth used to be. That made it very specific for readers who were interested in that, and it did take it away from some of the fans who were expecting something different. I was aware that it was taking Bella in a new direction that wasn‘t as relatable for a lot of people. I knew that it was going to be a problem for some readers.

SH: Yeah.

SM: My agent and my editor and my publisher all said: ?Um, can we tone down the violence here? It‘s making me a little sick.? [Laughs] But I was kind of proud of myself. I was thinking: I actually wrote something violent enough to bother anybody? I?m such a marshmallow. Wow — you go, Stephenie! [SH laughs] And I toned it down for them, and I made it a little bit less gruesome. Although I kept some of the gruesome stuff in, too.

SH: I know you hate spoilers. You don‘t want any leaks.

SM: You know, though, I wonder with this last book… I wonder if it would have been an easier road for readers who have difficulties with Breaking Dawn if they‘d known more in advance. If people had asked me, ?Can vampires have babies with humans?? And, instead of saying, ?I can‘t answer questions about those crazy things that might or might not happen?—

which is what I said because I didn‘t want to make it super-obvious it was going to happen; I mean, that just seems wrong — I could have just said, ?Yeah, they can.? Maybe it would have been easier for them if they‘d been expecting it.