Everything Wrong With TWILIGHT Fanfictions

An Introduction To Twilight (Characters)

Yeah I know most of you want to get straight away to the cliche plots chapter, but I think the whole idea of a helpbook will be incomplete without this introduction.

Twilight is a 2005 young adult vampire-romance novel by author Stephenie Meyer. It is the first book in the Twilight series, and introduces seventeen-year-old Isabella "Bella" Swan, who moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington. She is endangered after falling in love with Edward Cullen, a vampire. Additional novels in the series are New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.

Twilight received lukewarm reviews. Some praised the novel's tone and its portrayal of common teenage emotions such as alienation and rebellion. Others criticized Meyer's prose and argued the story was lacking in character development.

However, this is just a statistical description taken from Wikipedia. Now let me come down to the real reason for which I had to write this chapter.

I know many of you are fanfiction writers and are here just to see what you can do and avoid to improve your writing. In order to write a great Twilight fanfiction you have to understand the original plot and characters first. Since all of you are well aware of the plot, I think we should go straight to the characters.

The main characters are the Swans and the Cullens as well as the Volturi and usually fanfics revolve around these characters. Hillias Martin of School Library Journal wrote in her review that Twilight was subtle and easy to follow. I have to agree with her on the easy to follow part.

There are many novels who use character tropes and as I have read both Harry Potter and Vampire Diaries I know that both those books use character tropes too but follow a mix and match technique.

Whereas Twilight is a novel which uses each character trope just the way it is, which makes it easy to follow and far less complicated.

Let's view each character and the trope they fit in, if you understand that all first you will find it a whole lot easier to portray them just the way they are.

Edward Cullen (The Perfect Guy):

Edward Cullen is the male protagonist of the story who can clearly be categorized under the Perfect Guy trope. He is described as tall, handsome and has a considerate personality. Plus the Vampire traits work in his favor as he is rendered the forever seventeen, pale and in other words a perfectly modified and advanced version as compared to a normal human being

Bella Swan (The New Girl):

From Cady Heron in Mean Girls to Jessica Day in New Girl, this trope is quite popular and often chosen for the main female protagonist in young adult reads. Bella Swan is the typical new girl, who moves to Forks and has no clue about the place and starts school over there. She is pretty, clumsy, shy and silent most of the times and is also portrayed as a slightly awkward teenager.

Carlisle Cullen (The All Knowing One):

This is also a very commonly used trope in novels. Another example of this character trope is Albus Dumbledore in Harry Potter Series. Carlisle is the wise doctor who has the answer to everything and knows the solution to every problem. He is the one all characters look up to when stuck in a dire situation.

Esme Cullen (The Nice Mom):

Esme is sweet, kind and very caring who loves every Cullen equally and thinks of them as her own children regardless of any difference. She has a heart of gold and a very soft nature. This trope is also visible in Molly Weasley from Harry Potter Series and Jenna Sommers from Vampire Diaries. But unlike Jenna and Esme, Molly is not a complete as it is portrayal of the trope but also has additional qualities which make her much more complex.

Rosalie Hale (The Queen Bee):

Rosalie is the perfect portrayal of the Queen Bee trope with her flawless beauty, attitude, narcissistic behavior etc. Even in the books, she is shown as shallow, a person who only cares about herself or those who are very very close to her such as her family. Other examples of this trope are Caroline Forbes from the The Vampire Diaries TV show and Regina George from Mean Girls.

Emmett Cullen (The Big Buff Guy):

Emmett is the broad, muscular one and that character who's not really explained in much detail throughout the books. However he is known as the physically strongest member in the Cullen family who is very much in love with his wife Rosalie. Furthermore, like other big buff characters in literature, he has a competitive nature, enjoys sports and is actually quite soft on the inside.

Alice Cullen (The Hyperactive Optimist):

I think writers are quite fond of having a short girl with a pixie haircut who is hyperactive as well as a great optimist. Alice Cullen fits this trope very well with her bubbly nature, caring personality, optimism and overall enthusiasm.

Jasper Whitlock (The Bad Boy Who Isn't Really Bad):

This trope reminds me sometimes of Damon Salvatore from TVD. However, Jasper fits the trope since he has the least control over his thirst and would occasionally find human blood tempting, making him uncomfortable around humans. According to Twilight Wiki, Jasper can sometimes pass as cold, because he has a very militaristic mindset from his time as a human in the Confederate army and later as a vampire in Maria's army. However, the truth is that he is a very polite and gallant person, a natural scholar and avid reader, and has a shrewd mind on business and battle tactics.

Renee Dwyer (The Careless Mom):

Now this is the total opposite of The Nice Mom trope. Not that the characters which are categorized in this trope are negative, it is just that their behavior is different as compared to those of the Nice Moms. The Careless Moms, such as Renee Dwyer, are usually those mothers who don't know how to handle a child and can not deal with all the responsibility. That's either due to the fact that they conceived too early or because they were just not ready to look after another human being. Renee's behavior is sometimes a little childish and it is mentioned in a few places that Bella seemed to be her mother at times as she was slightly immature.

Charlie Swan (The Typical Dad):

Charlie Swan is best classified as a typical Dad since he is overprotective of his daughter, is slightly mistrustful of Edward at first and yet cares for Bella more than anything in the world. He might seem a bit unemotional at first and is shown as a person who doesn't converse much. He thinks of Bella as his little girl and someone whose most important to him in the whole world.

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If you understand all of these characters and the tropes they fit in, you will see it is really very easy to write fanfiction revolving around them. For one, if you have understood completely then you won't deviate from their attributes and will not have to encounter a case of OOC (out of character) syndrome.

But all that is going to come way later in the book so don't worry about it just now.

The next part of this book is going to be dedicated to Cliche Plots used in Twilight fanfictions, so grab a popcorn and get ready for a crazy wild ride.

See you soon with the next update.