I've Learned...

1) It is serioualy annoying to regulary write a blog that not one person reads!  But that's cool, I'm learning and that was the whole idea of this project.
2) Characterization, (at least, to me), seems to be more important than word choice in fiction.  Who would have thought? Deffinitely, not I.  I am obsessed with Twilight, absolutely and uncontollably to the point my poor husband wants to run as far as possible from our apartment any time the word is mentioned.  I've always found this interesting because there are many things about Stephanie Meyer's writing style that I really don't like.  For example, her favorite word is chagrin.  It's a good word, but really, it does not need to appear in every other line of a four book series.  That is just too much. It's not just "chagrin" "god like creature" was a bit overdone too.  The writing style improves over the course of the series.  My favorite books are Twilight and Eclipse.  I read New Moon once, but when I re-read the series (which happens often), I always skip past the first 2/3 of New Moon to the part where Alice comes back and read from there.  re-read Breaking Dawn at all, because Jacob's imprinting on the baby and her being more attached to him than her father really bothers me.  And Bella's willingness to bring Jacob along to every family event also bothers me.  Though the romantic interest seems to be gone with his new imprint, (her child), it still seems that she hasn't completely chosen Edward.  The point is while there are many things I don't like about The Twilight Saga, something compels me to read it sixteen billion times.

The first time I read the powerful prose that flows like poetry of Shiver, I thought Shiver is the new Twilight and Stiefvater is a much better writer.  I cling to the second statement.  But I haven't re-read Shiver, because when I past my bookshelf, as much as I enjoyed it, no voice in my head screams to me to take it from the shelf and read it again.  I pondered on this.  Because on the last page of Shiver, I closed the book and said "Wow."  I walked into the kitchen and read the last two pages to my husband.  But when I closed Twilight for the first time, I said I would have "X." And listed the things I would have done differently.  After careful consideration I realized that Stiefvater's word choices are beautiful, powerful, different,  the words on the page are interesting.  The plot is strong, but Sam and Grace don't come to life the way Edward and Bella do.  I guess, I've learned that I read fiction because I like the characters.  It's freeing in a way.  Now, I can invent characters that people really want to hang out with and just write worrying less about the word choices, but what I wouldn't give to be able to choose words like Maggie Stiefvater.