New Information About Old Friends: The Cullens

[Openhome]

We are allowing all character discussion to occur in the Sparkling Forum. The links by each name will take you to the character’s thread where you can post away!

Just remember to go to the final page before posting your thoughts.

Carlisle Cullen

Esme Cullen

Alice Cullen

Rosalie Hale

Jasper Hale

Emmett Cullen

[marielle]

I'm going to post this here instead on all the different pages because I have something to say about the whole Cullen Family.

Maybe I expected a bit too much from the Guide, or maybe my imagination is just going haywire but I really dislike the way SM set down the Cullens.
There is just no new information, yes we now know their age and a small bit of their history but there wasn't really nothing new in their stories. I had expected SM to be a bit more elaborating about the characters, like Jasper, his histroy is facinating but all we get is what he already told Bella, same goes for Rosalie. with Esme, Emmet and Alice it's all from what she already told usin interviews or outtakes.
the book could have been a 100 pages thicker... and I really expected SM to write more about the main characters...even Edward's history is minimal...

[Jeakat]

I'm going to post this here instead on all the different pages because I have something to say about the whole Cullen Family.

Maybe I expected a bit too much from the Guide, or maybe my imagination is just going haywire but I really dislike the way SM set down the Cullens.
There is just no new information, yes we now know their age and a small bit of their history but there wasn't really nothing new in their stories. I had expected SM to be a bit more elaborating about the characters, like Jasper, his histroy is facinating but all we get is what he already told Bella, same goes for Rosalie. with Esme, Emmet and Alice it's all from what she already told usin interviews or outtakes.
the book could have been a 100 pages thicker... and I really expected SM to write more about the main characters...even Edward's history is minimal...

I kind of agree. There wasn't really any new information. There was a bit more on Emmett, and there were some facts on the other Cullens (especially Carlisle and Esme) that would be new information if I hadn't read them on the Lex, but that was it. I was a bit disappointed, but then I think there's little new information because so much was covered by the books. Actually I really loved (as did many, I'm sure) that each book in the Saga charted the histories of different Cullen members, especially how they tied in to what was going on (Jasper). The back stories went into so much detail that I wasn't really expecting anything new, other than a bit more detail on Emmett and a lot more of Alice's story. It would've been nice to have more though!

[giselle-lx]

Yeah, count me among the "Hey, wait a minute" folks.

I was both delighted and disappointed by the Cullen info--delighted because the countless hours I've sunk into writing fic that uses snippets from the books and history to crate believable backstories wasn't rendered moot, but disappointed because I really would like to know what SM envisioned and whether it's in line with what I think.

I don't know. When I write a novel or even a short story, I like to imagine EVERYTHING about my characters, and if you ask me to expand on each one, I'd go on for days with all the backstory and interesting things about them that scaffold the little bit I wrote about them in the story, even for the tiniest bit players. That that didn't happen in this volume to me felt like SM hadn't done this sort of thinking about her characters, and as someone who adores one of the secondaries (Carlisle) I was sad.

[TeamBella76]

I'm going to post this here instead on all the different pages because I have something to say about the whole Cullen Family.

Maybe I expected a bit too much from the Guide, or maybe my imagination is just going haywire but I really dislike the way SM set down the Cullens.
There is just no new information, yes we now know their age and a small bit of their history but there wasn't really nothing new in their stories. I had expected SM to be a bit more elaborating about the characters, like Jasper, his histroy is facinating but all we get is what he already told Bella, same goes for Rosalie. with Esme, Emmet and Alice it's all from what she already told usin interviews or outtakes.
the book could have been a 100 pages thicker... and I really expected SM to write more about the main characters...even Edward's history is minimal...

I guess I wasn't disappointed in it because I was looking forward to knowing more about the series other then the Cullens. I'm a huge fan of the Volturi, Nomads and the other vampire covens so I was happy with what I got. But I understand those who wanted more from certain characters. I was happy with Alice's story though.

[TeamBella76]

Yeah, count me among the "Hey, wait a minute" folks.

I was both delighted and disappointed by the Cullen info--delighted because the countless hours I've sunk into writing fic that uses snippets from the books and history to crate believable backstories wasn't rendered moot, but disappointed because I really would like to know what SM envisioned and whether it's in line with what I think.

I don't know. When I write a novel or even a short story, I like to imagine EVERYTHING about my characters, and if you ask me to expand on each one, I'd go on for days with all the backstory and interesting things about them that scaffold the little bit I wrote about them in the story, even for the tiniest bit players. That that didn't happen in this volume to me felt like SM hadn't done this sort of thinking about her characters, and as someone who adores one of the secondaries (Carlisle) I was sad.

I disagree. I think Stephenie THINKS about her characters very much. I know you all wanted more from the Cullens but for a fan like me who likes the other vampires I enjoyed it and thought it was very interesting. I honestly think some of the other covens were more interesting.

[corona]

Yeah, count me among the "Hey, wait a minute" folks.

I was both delighted and disappointed by the Cullen info--delighted because the countless hours I've sunk into writing fic that uses snippets from the books and history to crate believable backstories wasn't rendered moot, but disappointed because I really would like to know what SM envisioned and whether it's in line with what I think.

I don't know. When I write a novel or even a short story, I like to imagine EVERYTHING about my characters, and if you ask me to expand on each one, I'd go on for days with all the backstory and interesting things about them that scaffold the little bit I wrote about them in the story, even for the tiniest bit players. That that didn't happen in this volume to me felt like SM hadn't done this sort of thinking about her characters, and as someone who adores one of the secondaries (Carlisle) I was sad.

Hello giselle, and welcome to the forum.

Are you the author of the Ithaca fanfic? If so, I loved it, have it nestled in a nook on my Nook.

[giselle-lx]

I disagree. I think Stephenie THINKS about her characters very much. I know you all wanted more from the Cullens but for a fan like me who likes the other vampires I enjoyed it and thought it was very interesting. I honestly think some of the other covens were more interesting

I just don't know. The more I'm entrenched in thinking about her characters and the more I see of what she comes up with, for example the ways she would at times contradict her own canon in interviews and in her personal correspondence, it at least appears that she doesn't think about characters the way I do. I think she wanted to write more about James and Victoria, just like she wanted to write more about Bree, so we got more info about them. But I know when I'm writing, every single character who hits the page has a HUGE back story, not just the ones I feel like thinking more about. Answering the question, "How does bit player Q react when main character A does this?" requires knowing Q really, really well. That the stories for every character didn't fall onto the page like crazy in this volume at least makes it appear that those stories don't exist. Maybe they do and she didn't feel like writing it, but I know that if I were to write a guide for one of my novels, there would be enough back story for every character to fill a couple of pages.

Are you the author of the Ithaca fanfic? If so, I loved it, have it nestled in a nook on my Nook.

That'd be me. Glad to hear you enjoyed it, and I'm flattered you've kept a copy!

[Tornado]

But I know when I'm writing, every single character who hits the page has a HUGE back story, not just the ones I feel like thinking more about. Answering the question, "How does bit player Q react when main character A does this?" requires knowing Q really, really well.

This is exactly why I haven't tried writing any fanfic myself. I have a couple of stories in my head, but if I look too hard at the details, I usually end up hitting a brick wall somewhere along the way, because I can't be sure the reactions I am ascribing to the characters are correct. This is also why I don't read fanfic. Usually I get halfway down the first page and find something that conflicts with the way I have read the character myself (it's amazing how differently we can all see them in spite of the fact that we've all read the same book!) and after that I find that I can't trust what the writer is doing, because to me it feels like the characters aren't as they should be.