Sunday, June 8, 2014

STEPHANIE MEYER--A HERO? By Ronda Hinrichsen

When I was in high school, we had a "dress up as your hero" day. At that time, I couldn't think of anyone I considered my hero--anyone I'd wanted to portray at school, anyway; and since the idea was that our "heroes" would represent who we wanted to be like someday, I decided, in all my "strange," teen-age wisdom, to dress up as my future self. So, I put on my nicest formal and attached signs to it which listed my main goals. The biggest one was--"A Writer." 

I've known since I was twelve I wanted to be a writer. It was almost all I thought about (besides music--especially singing), preparing for motherhood,  and, of course, boys. And it's almost all I think about now. But during that time, while I learned from other authors, I never found one about whom I wanted to say: "I want to be like her/him." Until now.

Almost.

Who is it, and why almost? By the title, I'm sure you can guess the "who." It's 
Stephenie Meyer, author of the Twighlight series. Which, in and of itself, is strange because the hero of her romantic suspense novels is a vampire, and I'm not too keen on vampires. But I have learned to admire Stephenie because, as an LDS novelist, she was able to find a way to morally convey a sensual story about resisting temptation that appeals to the national market. It is so hard to find good books on the national market that don't offend me with their explicit sex scenes. And yet, Stephenie did it. Hurrah for her!

And hurrah for me, because now I have someone to learn from, someone's style I can really study and try to incorporate into my own writing. And as I've studied, I've learned I love the way she uses words--how she picks the perfect verbs to convey emotion, and how she uses pacing to increase the suspense. I want to be able to do that. And I'm trying.

However . . .

While I still enjoy reading her series, she isn't writing exactly what I want to write, and as a person, though she's very admirable, she isn't exactly what I want to be. That's why "almost." You see, I still, like in high school, just want to be myself. My best self, even my "Best Selling" self. But still myself.

And so should all of us, as writers, because, as my blog theme statement indicates, our value--our power as writers--lies in our individualities. It lies in who we are and who we're becoming.

BTW, are you a Stephenie Meyer fan? If so, what have you learned from her?

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