16 Aug, 2008
Aside | Midnight Sun: Twilight from Edward’s perspective
Posted by: Clare Swindlehurst In: Asides| Twilight Saga
Are you looking for the partial draft of Midnight Sun? Following an internet leak Stephenie Meyer has decided to make the whole draft available and you can download it here.
Ok, hands up those of you who devoured Breaking Dawn and are now looking for your next Cullen fix? Can I tempt you with the first chapter of Midnight Sun?
According to Stephenie Meyer, Midnight Sun is “an exercise in character development that got wildly out of hand”.
Apparently when Meyer is faced with an editing task she prefers to procrastinate - and it was during such a time that she began to wonder what the first chapter of Twilight would have been like had she written it from Edward’s perspective.
“There is so much more to his side of the story than there is to Bella’s in that first chapter. After all, Bella only knows that an incredibly gorgeous boy is looking at her funny. Meanwhile, Edward is suffering through one of the most momentous days of his very long life! First there’s the shock and frustration of not being able to hear Bella’s thoughts, then the wild, monstrous reaction to her scent, followed by the incredible expenditure of self-control that it takes to not kill her… His side of Bella’s first day at Forks High School is a hundred times more exciting than her own.”
Meyer didn’t have time to work the idea through right away, but she couldn’t seem to get away from it - and found herself jotting down phrases in the middle of night, or in line at the post office. When she finished with her ‘real work’ she decided it was time to let Edward have his say.
“Writing chapter one, “First Sight,” from Edward’s point of view was an exciting experience; I actually had my pulse racing as I typed. When I finished, I was truly pleased with my creation. Here was the other side of the story that no one knew. Here was the truth of what Edward had been through. I felt like I knew my Edward even better, and I was sure his dialogue would be more insightful in future novels. The end. Exercise over.”
Of course life is never quite that simple and Meyer found herself wondering about Edward’s point of view on other parts of the story - what happened in Alaska, what did his side of the fateful Biology conversation look like? Before too long she had started to write Chapter 2 - in her head.
“But when a story demands to be written, there’s no way to resist. And the more I wrote, the more I became convinced that Edward deserved to have his story told.”
Meyer originally planned to write Edward’s story and post it on her website - but it became clear that Edward’s side of the story would be much longer than Bella’s. Meyer also had a notion that she would “love to have a pretty, matching, bound version of Midnight Sun to put beside Twilight on top of my desk”. That’s when she decided to write the complimentary novel to Twilight - which apparently could take a while as she has to fit writing Edward’s tale in between her ‘real work’.
And because she doesn’t want to keep us all waiting Meyer has kindly shared the first chapter of Midnight Sun: Edward’s version of Bella’s first day at Forks High School.
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