Sarah Land's Blog

Now that the craziness of the Twilight frenzy is over, there are a lot of people who won't admit that they still like Twilight. Then there are some who have seen the 'error of their ways' after listening to the reasons their friends don't like Twilight. But despite the unpopularity I am here to say that I Love the Twilight series and I will tell you why. Now these are in no particular order, and will be listed as they come to me. So here it goes.
1. I love Bella
The reason I have heard more often than any other for jumping off the Twilight bandwagon is that people don't like the character of Bella Swan. They say that she is whiny, selfish, self involved, childish, etc., and they don't see why Edward and Jacob would fight for her because she's no catch. This is precisely why I love her. She is flawed and real and yet finds amazing love anyway. First of all who wants to read about a perfect person? How boring would that be? Secondly, I love this because it reminds me that I don't have to be perfect to have love. If Bella, who is klutzy, awkward, and self involved can find great love not once but twice then it gives hope to the rest of us that are klutzy, awkward, and self involved. And thirdly a character has to be written well to evoke such strong emotions from everyone. Bella's flaws and imperfections make her a great character.
2. It is fantasy
The next complaint I've heard most often is that it's not realistic. Edward is too perfect, the idea that Edward and Bella will never age or stop being super attracted to each other isn't reality, etc. I'm sorry the books are about VAMPIRES AND WEREWOLVES if you are looking for reality your are in the wrong genre. It is fantasy, and never claimed to be more than fantasy. For those of us who identify with Bella's awkwardness, we (or at least I do) read to escape reality for a little while.
3. It promotes many religious values that I believe in
While Twilight isn't a religious book it promotes values that most Christians would appreciate: the importance of motherhood and not having an abortion, striving for perfection, eternal marriage, resurrection, repentance and redemption, good vs evil, etc. Yes, I see all of those in these books. When Bella gets pregnant with a vampire baby she is willing to giver her life to have her child rather than have an abortion. Through out the book you see Bella change from this clumsy flawed character into this perfect, graceful vampire, and while those changes are physical, aren't we all striving for perfection? Throughout the books she begs and pleads to be changed and perfected, but she doesn't obtain that perfection until she dies and is reborn with a perfect resurrected body. Bella's and Edward's marriage is eternal, while if Bella would have chosen Jacob their marriage would have only been until death parted them. Eternal marriage, though different than how it's depicted, is real and worth reaching for, and sometimes that means choosing the one who can offer that over someone just as good who can't. Carlisle offers his family a different way of life then vampires are expected to live, teaching them that their souls aren't damned based on what they are but on who they are. Even though they are vampires they still have a choice. They don't have to give in to every carnal and animalistic urge. They can fight their drives and urges and are better people for it.
4. It refutes the idea of soul mates
While Bella and Edward seem to be perfect for each other, the books refute the idea that there is only one person in the whole world that will make us happy or will complete us, etc. I love how the author shows that Bella could have been just as happy with Jacob. While the books are fantasy this part is true. The idea of one person for everyone is hogwash. And while I don't think just any two people are compatible, I truly believe that there are many compatible people put in our paths and that it is up to us to choose. And just like Edward and Jacob, each of those people though different can make us happy.
So there it is. I love Twilight and I'm not afraid to say it.

I recently read a blog by an author I like and she admitted that she hates writing the first draft of a book, but loves the editing process. I can't agree more. Ask any english teacher I've ever had and first drafts are not my thing. In elementary school I couldn't write first drafts. I insisted on making it perfect the first time, editing as I wrote. Until I began writing a full length novel, my first draft was always my final draft. But novels don't work like that. They are far too deep, the characters too complex for that to work, though I have to admit that is how I began writing Winter's Fall. The problem was that I would write for hours, but would sometimes have removed more words than I'd written. I'd have a breakthrough and spend an entire afternoon perfecting one scene, but not have gotten any closer to finishing. Finally, I had to accept my imperfections and just write, knowing that I could fix them later, and eventurally a book was born, though it was far from done. Like this other author, I realized that my favorite part is in the editing. Writing a first draft is like drawing the outlines of picture. But my favorite part of art was always in the shading--the part where you take a flat two-deminsional drawing of a face and flesh it out so it becomes a person--complete with highlights and shadows and flaws. To me it is in the editing process that the characters take shape and the magic is created. I am currently working on the sequel to Winter's Fall, and if I thought writing the first book was hard, the second is worse, because I'm invested already. I'm in middle of this story, and am back to laying down just the bare bones, when all I want to do is create the magic and bring my characters to life. But those of you who are waiting, do not fear. I continue, though grudingly, to do the hard part because I know this is just a step I need to take so that my readers can step into this world I've created and experience the magic with me.

Have you ever had one of those days where so many things were happening that you felt breathless just trying to keep up with it all, and while not everything that was going on was bad, it was all stressful, and by the end of the day all you want to do is lose yourself in the pages of a good book and start again tomorrow? That was my day, and then I'm taking out the trash and I step into the most amazingly peaceful evening. The world outside of all of the craziness of my life was painted in shades of blue and gray. There wasn't a breath of wind, and the only sound was that of a squirrel shaking the branches of the tree in my yard as it desperately tried to run from my presence. It was enough to make me pause and reevaluate the events of my day. Maybe it wasn't as bad as I imagined. Perhaps it's moments like these that give you the strength to face the chaos that life throws at you.

It's weird. I like to write--as you may have noticed (me being an author and all)--but I don't think I'm much of a blogger. The truth is I think my life is fairly ordinary bordering on boring. I suppose I could wax poetic about the endless supply of dirty dishes which I still wash by hand (one of these days I'll have that dishwasher I've been dreaming about, but until then...) or the pile of laundry that never seems to go away no matter how many clothes I wash, but for some reason I don't really think those are blog worthy. Whatever the case, I love to read the blogs of other authors. It's fascinating to get a glimpse of the person behind the words. Sometimes when I'm looking up my favorite authors and reading their blogs and author pages I feel like I a high school student trying to get every morsel of gossip that I can about that uber-cool person that I'm not cool enough to talk to in person, but I want to know everything about them anyway because knowing about them makes me feel like I'm one of their close friends. Wow, that sounds kind of stalkerish, but I'm not a stalker I'm a fan.

Anyway, I'll give this blog thing a try, and see how it goes.