Those are two contradictory statement. The first ("the publishers have good editors") implies that the books come out with good grammar and are easily understood. The second ("nobody gives damn about grammar") implies that they don't come out with good grammar. Therefore, this isn't actually a legit either/or statement.
I agree with this wholeheartedly. First person puts you in the character's shoes to begin with. Making a character very vague with some pretty broad sweeping characteristics makes it easier to pull people into the story. I think that's something the vast majority of people go through at one time or another. I felt like Stephanie Meyer basically gave young girls a universal plug into the story. Feeling out of place, unwanted, boring, and longing to be desired are all pretty universal feelings. While I don't condone the atrocious writing (overall writing not just the characters) I think she managed to tap into something and that's why it's so popular.
With first person, it is possible that it can make the readers feel like the main character and understand him or her. Maybe that is what Stephanie Meyer intented for the readers, to experience Bella's boring and emotional life.
For me the biggest draw in Twilight is the feeling of the young love/ crush. It brings back memories of what it was like to be a teenager complety infatuated by someone so that your stomach flips when they walk into the room and your always hyper aware of where they are. For someone who's been married for 8 years it's fun to go back and remember when everything was new and exciting. I disagree that Bella has no personality. Sure she is very relatable- that's good thing!- but she's not a blank slate. She grew up with an unstable mother so shes learned to be the responsible one, a nuturer. When she moves to Forks she automatically starts caring for her father, making dinner, doing laundry ect. She is very kind and always worried about hurtting other's feelings almost to a fault. Shes a quite keeps to herself kind of girl. Shes a good student and likes to read. She's horrible at sports and all things physical. She seems like smeone I would want to be friends with- I don't understand wat everyone hates about her so much. Ifeel like I know as much about her as any other charater in fiction. I realize Stephenie Meyer isn't a super great writer but she is a good storyteller and her writing is aceptible enough to let the reader enjoy the super fun storyline.
I don't think it's a strictly Bella thing. I think it's a Bella & Edward thing. The whole thing is fantasy, fairy-tale. You've got the average girl, so average she's downright dull. But ho! Look - prince charming, the sexy, older ( as in centuries older ) guy who picks her ( of all people ) - not to just fall in love with - no, he wants to spend eternity with her. ( what commitment! ) He also stays young & beautiful forever, is rich, can protect her cause he's superstrong, Hell, he's so perfect the guy glitters. Also throw in the fact that she's got another guy fighting for her - equally strong, sexy, unique - and you have enough ingredients to make millions swoon. It's fleshed out fantasy - even without bringing in the fact that Edward's a Vampire and Jacob's a Wolf. There's nothing exactly wrong with it, but it is what it is. Pandering.
And that's exactly why it's fun. Who wants to read about some average guy? They are everywhere in the real world. I read to escape my boring average life so I want to fall in love with a character that is the opposite of boring or average. The story I'm working on has two main men and they are not perfect but they are both smokin hot
I like characters who are badass and violent, and better than normal people. They are not the type who let emotions get to them. They start logical and figure out the best way to solve the problem. If I am going to write a vampire story, the vampires will be read monsters if they are evil. And average girls are always the ones who get killed.
Also it's worth mentioning that it's not insta love for Edward. At first he sees her as just another average human, not worth his time. Then he finds out that he is not able to read her thoughts like he is everyone else and he is frustrated and can't help trying to figure out why that is. When he gets a whiff of her she smells more appetizing than any human he has eer smelled before. This makes him downright HATE her because he feels that she is forcing him to become the monster he has been trying so long to avoid. It takes every ounce of effort from him not to kill her. He becomes hyper aware of her and slowly starts to notice her kindness and goodness and evently fall for her. He tries to fight it, he keeps telling himslef he hates her but everyone in his family sees he is falling in love with her until he finally admits it himself. Vampires rarely change but when they do it is complete and forever- therefore he now that he loves her he will always love her, that's just the way SM made her vampires. Most of this is revealed in Midnight Sun. Ok- I didn't mean to get on here and purely defend Twilight lol. I came here to discuss writting so I'll try to do that now. I just couldn't resist the whole twilight thing.
No prob with me. I'm not a Twilight hater. I'll answer the question without the Twilight spin. Whenever I read junk fiction - for me the character usually has to have an interesting problem or choice to make. I love reading trashy romance novels - you know the type with the covers Fabio used to pose for. And they were good only as long as the problems were interesting. One romance I remember had a young woman disgused on a hunks boat as a cabin boy. The hunk knew and put her in his captain's quarters with tasks like fill my bath and wash my back - lol! It was great fun - she was typical - cute and fiesty - but the situation really brought out those qualities.
I see what you did there. But I agree with what someone said about people reading bad writing because of the characters. Kind of like how I've been reading this manga called BLEACH. It was good at the beginning, but now I only read it just to see what happens to the MC, though it will probably be something cliche or some Deus Ex Machina that happens to him at the end.
I think that's also what's baffled me about Twilight-esque novels. I mean, if it's a case of escapism, does it mean that women don't want that smoking hot guy in real life? They actually want "the average guy" (whatever that means, I'm yet to define it to myself), but they want to fantasize about the hot guy? Don't get me wrong, I'm not a-judging; when I was around 11-13yo, I also read these poorly written books with some dull girl catching the hot, mysterious guy. I still read Juliette Benzoni's Marianne novels. But I also wanted a guy who had that badass warrior spirit in real life. I do like the fact that they aren't perfect. That's what makes characters compelling to me, because it's relatable. I'm a screw-up by nature, I don't get through the day without some sort of a self-imposed catastrophe, so imperfectness in characters is essential. I found it entirely wrong that apparently Bella's baby is Jacob's soulmate. The dude is gonna do her even though he's seen her grow up. "Hey, hun, I remember when we used to watch Teletubbies together! I was bouncing you on my knee and you crapped your diapers! Hahaha!"
No, of course we want the smokin hot guy, but thats not always easy to get. Actually for me since I'm married it's more that I just like to remember that time when everything was new and you were falling in love. I can't go out and start dating attractive guys since that would be horrible to my husband and children but I can read about someone having fabulous romantic adventures. It is a little wierd but the way imprinting works, it always happens the first time they see each other. So some are older when it happens like Sam and Leah but sometimes the first time you see someone they are a baby. Remeber Jacob won't age as long as he phases so he will still look the same in 7 years when Renesseme reaches adulthood. Also Renesseme, although a baby is much more mature than your average baby. She looks out from her baby eyes when an adult like intelligence. She reads shakespeare at just a few months old, etc. The nature of the wolf imprinting is that he will always be exactly what she needs in that moment. So when she's young he's like the big brother, when she a little bigger he might be like the best friend and when she's ready he becomes the perfect lover. He doesn't have any sexual feelings for her until she older and ready. Remember Edward can read his mind and would not let him stick around if he was having inapropriate thoughts. Jacob wasn't ever really attracted to bella herself, it was the makings of Renesseme inside her that attracted him. Bella was like part of what his true soul mate would be so he liked her, but he never imprinted on her because she wasn't really it for him. Renesseme was the one all along.
Even guys can fantanize girls who are powerful or just typical sex objects. Lara Croft, for example, she is what any guy will want. Not only she has a hot ass body, she is smart, badass, and she isn't afraid.
Actually, based on observation, I'd say that's true. People fantasize about all sorts of stuff that they never try to attain, it's just too much work.
Exactly so even if Lara Croft wasn't writen that well it still may be compelling enough for people to want to read. (Was Lara croft a book first or just a video game?) So back to the original question, I think it just has to be a charater people can 1. See themselves as 2. Someone they want to be or 3. Someone they want to do or are attacted to.
This statement is true. When we were talking about just wanting and hot or average partner I would say people always want to hottest partner they can get but in a general sense we fantasize about things all the time we don't really want. Characters in books are always risking their lives and doing crazy dangerous stuff, which is thrilling to read about and imagine yourself doing. But actually risking your life? Not so much fun.
I bet a lot of video game players can also relate to Mario and Link. Both of them go on an adventure to rescue beatufiul princesses. If I can rescue a hot girl, then she might become my princess. And Lara Croft is just a character in the video game, Tomb Raider.
I think the reason a lot of people can really enjoy a story that is poorly writen is that your average reader doesn't notice the bad writing so much. They just want to be entertained and so they absorb the story. Unlike someone who has studied writing, they will pick up on things right away and be distracted from enjoying the storyline. I've only been creative writing for a couple of months. It's a very new hobby for me. When I first read Twilight I wasn't a writer at all. I didn't notice a single thing about the writing I just enjoyed the complelling story. Now, since I been imersing myself in the writing world, if I open up Twilight I can see many things I didn't notice before. I just wasn't looking for it before. Who knows, if I had read Twilight for the first time as a writer I may not like it as much as I do. But I think for the average reader as long as the writing is passable and not distracting in it's terribleness and there's a good story with compelling characters, people will like it. You can say that's awful that everyone can't recognize quality writing, but everyone has different prioities on how thy want to spend their time. Maybe someone doesn't know much about writing but they are an excellent cook or gardener. You can judge people for that.
