Author opens up about vampire-human anatomy, torturing her characters and what's next for the Cullens.
By Sabrina Rojas Weiss, with reporting by Lisa GonzalezNo doubt, many devoted Twilighters are already well into their third read of "Breaking Dawn," now that it's been out for a full week and a half. But no matter how many times you delve into the final installment of the "Twilight" series, there are burning questions left to be answered.
Stephenie Meyer couldn't reveal much when we spoke to her before the book's release, so we cornered her one more time and hit her with the queries you submitted in the MTV Movies Blog.
(Just in case you've been locked in a subterranean hideout, far from any bookstores, SPOILER ALERT!)
Though she's been enduring complaints about "Breaking Dawn" from a very vocal minority, the author said she was relieved to be able to talk about the novel after keeping it a secret for so long. Here, she opens up about the technicalities of Bella's pregnancy, the original "Forever Dawn" version of the story, the future of the "Twilight" universe and more. (Meyer reveals her suggestion for two "Dawn" movies in the MTV Movies blog.)
Question: Bella feels hesitant about marrying Edward. Is that how you felt when you were proposed to? — KhmaixLinda
Stephenie Meyer: Actually, I was engaged more than once. I had my runaway-bride moment. Maybe there was some of that, although it's really different, because it wasn't the right person [for me] to marry. With Bella, there's no question in her mind that she's going to end up with Edward. It's all about people's perceptions, which is a really silly thing for her to worry about. ... I knew she was going to be with Edward. I wrote this story before I wrote "New Moon" and "Eclipse," and that relationship [with Jacob] actually went a lot farther than I thought it would.
Question: How was Bella's pregnancy possible? — Deep
Meyer: One of the longest things about this last year is that I've been reading all these quotes that people have been attributing to me that I never said. I had a rough draft of [this story] by the beginning of 2004, so before I ever did a tour or answered any questions or did an interview, I knew where the story was going. ... When people said, "Hey, can vampires have babies?" I always said no, because female vampires don't change at all, and it takes a lot of change for your body to accommodate a fetus, so it's not possible. But I never said anything about the part that I knew was coming. ... It is true ... there's a whole chromosomal-count difference, but venom works a lot of different ways, so for me, it always worked just fine.
Question: Why did you decide to switch to Jacob's point of view during Bella's pregnancy and delivery, instead of Bella telling us herself? — Sam
Meyer: In the first rough draft, it was Bella throughout the entire story. There's this section of the story where Bella's pretty much stuck on a couch and is not part of anything that's going on, and she's just hearing about it from the outside, and it's boring! ... So when I went back to do this, I realized that where the action was, was something we can only get through the first-person perspective of Jacob. And once I made that decision, I was really glad I had, because that was the most fun section to write out of the whole story.
Question: Why did you portray pregnancy in the light you did? Was there a meaning behind that, or did you do it for storytelling's sake? — Chrissy
Meyer: A story has to have an element of danger and hazard. If there isn't a risk, if there isn't something that goes wrong, there's no story. But no, the pregnancy wasn't a punishment. When you're writing characters, one of the things you do to make it interesting is you push them past their limits, and that's when the story gets exciting. Sadly, it's kind of fun to torture your characters.
Question: Why was Bella so controlled as a newborn? — Natasha
Meyer: Bella's really the only vampire who went into it knowing what to expect, being mentally prepared and on guard for her reactions. And she's a naturally stubborn person, which helps when you make up your mind to do something.
Question: You said once you read "Breaking Dawn," you'll understand the cover of the book. So does it represent Bella and Nessie? — Chrissy
Meyer: No, it represents Bella and Bella. ... Bella starts out as the weakest player on the board, and she ends up as the one who decides the outcome of the story. She becomes the most powerful player, and I really liked that metaphor. I liked seeing her evolution in one picture.
Question: Why did you decide not to have a battle scene? The Cullens seemed like they had a good chance of winning, didn't they? — Butane
Meyer: They had a good chance of holding their own, not winning. There wouldn't have been a lot of people walking away from that. And because I'm kind of a happy-ending girl, I didn't want the "Hamlet" ending, where everyone's dead on the floor, and one person's standing there giving their monologue about what they've learned. I wanted it to be something that could be won, so I set it up to be a mental game.
Question: Are you thinking of writing a novel in Renesmee's perspective when she's older? — froggyoggy
Meyer: If I were to go ahead with the Cullen universe — and honestly, I'll do it for myself, whether I publish it or not is questionable at this point — but the narrators that I would go ahead with ... would be Renesmee and Leah. Leah's the other one whose story doesn't seem resolved to me at this point.
Question: Would you please, please, please tell me who Embry's father is? — kateurie
Meyer: The problem with that question is — and this sounds like something crazy people would say — but I don't know. My characters don't always tell me everything.
Question: If Nessie's not able to have children on her own ...
Meyer: [Interrupts the question.] Here we're going off way into the future. For all intents and purposes, "Breaking Dawn" is the last book. It might easily happen that I quit here. There'd be a lot of good reasons for doing that, so I don't know if we need to get into all the future possibilities and speculations, 'cause I'll just go crazy, and I'm so close already!
Question: Will "Midnight Sun" be all four "Twilight" books told in one? Or will it be the first of several Edward books? — Ashley
Meyer: Option three — it will be a standalone retelling of "Twilight." And I've gotten the comments: "Please, please, please, please, please, do all the books." In reality, "New Moon" would be horrible from Edward's perspective. And I really feel like after people have "Midnight Sun," with a very little amount of effort, they'll be able to understand him for all of the books.
Question: Why were the last two pages of "Breaking Dawn" your favorite Edward/Bella moment? — edwardsheroine
Meyer: This is the moment, after all of these years, that Edward really gets to understand how Bella feels about him, and they're finally, truly seeing eye-to-eye for just that moment. For me, it was like four books of buildup for this moment, and it was great.
Every Tuesday is "Twilight Tuesday" here at MTV News! Check back here each and every week for the hottest scoop on the film adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's beloved vampire series, and we'll still bring you breaking "Twilight" news throughout the rest of the week. And make sure you check out the MTV Movies Blog for our ongoing "Twilight" discussions each and every day.
Check out everything we've got on "Twilight."
By Sabrina Rojas WeisTwilight’ Author Stephenie Meyer Talks ‘Breaking Dawn’ Movie Possibilities — Sort Ofs
How jealous are we all of MTV News producer Lisa Gonzalez? Mere hours after finishing “Breaking Dawn,” she got to sit down with Stephenie Meyer. But since Lisa was asking her your burning questions, we all win, right? Anyway, you can read those answers here.
One of our own burning questions stems from Meyer’s conversation with Kim Stolz before the book was released, in which the insightful author said that if “Breaking Dawn” were made into a movie, it would have to be broken in two.
Stephenie got back to us on that one, with a not-so-controversial answer: “The book is actually broken up into book one, book two and book three, and the end of book two is kind of the exact middle of the story,” Meyer said, referring to the conclusion of the section Jacob narrates, when Renesmee is born and Bella becomes a vampire. “It really feels like the clearest place to stop the action, but I’m not a movie person, I don’t know. I just think it’s too long for one movie.”
But wouldn’t a movie that ended that way be a little, well, frustrating? It reminds me of sitting in the theater after the end of “Fellowship of the Ring” and watching the reaction of the couple in front of me who had clearly never read the books. Let’s just say they really weren’t happy to have to wait a year to find out what happened next.
So, Twilighters, let’s play fantasy screenwriter/director here: Would you split “Breaking Dawn” into two? Where? And who are we going to get to play Garrett?
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