Any Twilight Fans Out There???

My wife took me to see the film Twilight last night. She’s read all the Twilight series books by Stephenie Meyer and wanted to ‘share.’ Since we live in Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, it was easy to drive to Port Angeles to see the film and have a pre-movie dinner at Bella Italia, a restaurant featured in the movie. Cool!

I ordered the Mushroom Ravioli which was simply incredible. Imagine my surprise when I found out that this very dish was served in the movie scene at the restaurant. Spooky!

Now that I’m well fed and happy, let’s talk a bit about the storytelling in Twilight. Remember, one our first ‘rules’ of writing. Put your character in danger and keep (in this case) her there. Ms. Meyer (and the film’s director) do a great job of this.

WARNING, if you have plans to see the film or read the book, best to stop here. Plot spoilers follow.

First – Bella discovers that the boy she is totally in love with is a vampire. I think this qualifies as serious danger, don’t you? By electing to continue the relationship, she places herself (not to mention her immortal soul) in even more danger.

Second – Walking along a deserted street at night, Bella finds herself surrounded by thugs and in a possible rape situation. Enter the sullen, brooding, highly protective, (and, according to wife-mate) very good looking) Edward to the rescue. So, we’ve got emotional, physical and ‘mortal’ danger all in play.

Third – Bella gets invited to meet Edward’s family and to join a game of ‘family’ baseball during a rainstorm. (A fun scene.)

Not all of Edward’s extended family are thrilled with Bella’s presence and a couple are continually giving her ‘I-think-I’d-rather-just-drink-your-blood' looks. I suspect vampires are not terribly keen on having a personal relationship with a potential food source. Anyway, more threat. More danger. The author is doing a great job.

Fourth – A group of non-vegetarian vampires arrives on the scene and one decides that he must have Bella “for a snack.” This plot twist kicks off a fierce chase, the inevitable battle between Edward and the non-vegan vampire. The ‘bad’ vampire is vanquished, but at the end of the film, we find that the bad vampire’s hunting partner is stalking Bella and Edward. I just know there’s gonna be another movie, don’t you? (Note: A vegetarian vampire is one that only drinks non-human animal blood.)

I was impressed with the film’s handling of danger. Hard to imagine anything more dangerous than a love affair with a vampire -- even a vegan-vampire, but Ms. Meyer escalates the dramatic tension nicely, thus illustrating that you can start at a high danger point and continue to escalate that danger as the book progresses.

So, here is your assignment. Go see Twilight. Go have dinner at Bella Italia in Port Angeles, WA. Drive over to Forks and enjoy the beautiful scenery of this lovely rainforest area. Have fun and keep a lookout for our local colony of vampires.

Happy Writing!