Sunday, November 23, 2008

Thoughts of Twilight


So, I went to see Twilight, the movie, with some friends of mine last night. I know, that kind of makes me a nerd. But don't worry. I didn't go to the very first showing in town. In fact, we didn't go until the Saturday evening showing! And while I wasn't planning to really devote this entire post to the movie, I will say this, if you've read the books, you should definitely see it. You will appreciate it and enjoy it. If you haven't read the books, you'd probably like it too. It was quite enjoyable. And while I could give you my entire opinion and critique about the actors and the script and everything, I won't. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed the movie and would not hesitate to recommend it to others. Were there things I thought could have been done differently? Of course! But you'll find that in any movie adapted from a book. And you can form your own opinions. You don't need me to tell you them.
But my real feelings when I got home last night were not really about the books and the movie. My understanding is that Twilight was Stephanie Meyer's first book. (And I can't help but shake my head in amazement.) To me, that's just incredible. And if you've ever written a book before, I'm sure you feel the same. I think when every author gets into this business, they see the fantasy of making it big with their first book and being a huge success. And their book will revolutionize the way we live. But that rarely happens. And when it does, the rest of us just sit back and shake our heads. Because we know how much time and energy goes into writing a full length novel. We know what it entails because we've been there! We've done it! But most of us don't experience such instantaneous success. And perhaps people like Stephanie Meyer's success didn't come as fast either. But still, to come up with a story like that, makes me feel really inept to write anything!
So how does one write something so big? Well, I don't know. I have some ideas of things that could be big but they are outside my comfort zone to write and I don't know if I have the courage to write them. But if I figure it out and they make my name big, I'll let you know. For that matter, I'm not sure the big names know how or why it happened to them necessarily. But the rest of us are sure glad they are there. This way, we have something to keep us all entertained!

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