Twihard or Twi-hater? How about Twi-middle-of-the-road?

There is a great debate over Stephanie Meyer's Twilight, lately. Especially in my writing group (The Young Writers Society). It seems like the majority of the people really hate Twilight and a few people like it on this site - in the outside world there seems to be more of a majority in the 'Twihard' category, though. People's opinions aren't what bother me most; it's their reasoning and evidence for these opinions that does.

The people on YWS who hate Twilight - and I mean loathe, despise, wish it was never written - seem to really only hate it because they just don't like it. This isn't a problem to me; you can hate as many things as much as you want. It's how they spread this opinion with bashing Stephanie Meyer's skills as a writer, claiming the book as the worst thing written, and a literary nightmare, and even once someone posted on their YWS blog something along the lines of this: "Comment on this or Stephanie Meyer writes another book! Save us all!"

Is it just me or is this a little rude?

I mean, yes you can dislike it, but there comes a point where a line is crossed.

Twilight is in no way going to become literary gold, or the next great american novel, but it isn't terrible, I do not wish to burn it, and I certainly wish Meyer the best of luck in her future writing endeavors. But the people who are saying it's the worst thing ever written, and who believe Meyer should never write again are plain rude.

The book - ahem, the saga - was published. If it was the worst thing ever written, it would not have been published. There are certainly worst things written than Twilight. I've personally written worse things than Twilight. It has a decent story, preteen girls are all over it. Even if it has some literary flaws, and supports some themes I don't agree with, it is still an entertaining story.

I bought the books. I read them all. I even, dare I say it, enjoyed them. Sometimes, all the haters who hate because it isn't 'classic literature' need to chill out and accept it for what it is. That goes for anything. And if you're going to hate on something, don't read it. It's that easy. It doesn't need to be bashed, the author doesn't need to be bad-mouthed, and it doesn't need to be burned.

Being criticised for something that isn't awful would probably hurt my feelings. I'm a part of YWS, a site for constructive criticism on my work, so I appreciate the constructive criticism from my peers. But claiming something is awful, and that the author should stop writing, is not constructive. It's just mean.

Writers learn by experience. Twilight is written and published, it isn't going to change. I hope Meyer keeps improving, and keeps writing. To give up the craft would be a shame.

So if you hate something so much, be it Twilight, or anything else remember what you're saying about it. Someone put a lot of time and effort into that, and since it exists in mainstream society it certainly isn't atrocious. Don't bad-mouth something for the sake of bad-mouthing something.

If you don't have anything nice - or constructive - to say, don't say anything at all.

-Lauren-

Hello World of Blogs

I guess I should introduce myself or something.

I'm Lauren. I'm not entirely new to blogs, I guess. I have more of a social little thing on YWS (the Young Writers Society) but I wouldn't really consider it a blog blog. I suppose I must have important, or at least interesting thoughts because I started a blog to talk about them on.

I am a young writer; more young skill-wise than age-wise, but I am still young in age as well. I'll be heading off to uni in the fall, where my young writer-ing will become old writer-ing.

This is a pretty pointless blog post isn't it. Oh well. I'll try to be more exciting next time.

-Lauren-