November 21, 2008

Breaking Dawn vs. Forever Dawn

With the release of the Twilight movie this weekend, I thought I would share another thought I had on Breaking Dawn (2008).

I already talked about the Twilight series here. Quiet some time after I wrote that, something Stephenie put in her Breaking Dawn FAQ finally clicked. In the FAQ she explains that she originally wrote the series as two books - Twilight and Forever Dawn. After the success of Twilight, she wrote two more books, bringing the total to four in the series (so far).

She also outlines the differences between Breaking Dawn as it was published, and as it was originally written (read after "How different is Breaking Dawn from Forever Dawn? What changed, what stayed the same, and why? Will you ever post extras from Forever Dawn?")

What I realized is Stephenie allowed her characters to grow organically as she wrote New Moon and Eclipse. But with Breaking Dawn she was trying to bring the many of the story elements back to what was in her original Forever Dawn. Many of the characters evolved and grew in these two books and wouldn't be the same as they were in her first treatment. Stephenie still brought these characters back to many of the same situations with the same actions in her original version. This resulted in deeper and more complex characters being forced into roles, reactions, attitudes and outlooks that probably made more sense and felt more natural without the middle two books. This explains the disconnect that I, and many other readers, experienced in reading Breaking Dawn.

Now enjoy the Twilight event of the moment and feel free to let me know what you think of the movie if you see it (and if you have any more thoughts on Breaking Dawn, now that more time has passed).

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