Saturday, November 5, 2011

Totally Twilight: MY Fan Fiction!

Grab the Totally Twilight Button!





One of the most enjoyable parts of the Twilight culture for me has been Fan Fiction. A huge number of fan fiction stories have been written in the Twilight world. On Fanfiction.net, probably the largest fan fiction website, there are almost 9,000 Twilight stories. Only Harry Potter has more.  As you'd expect, the quality ranges from truly awful to arguably better than the original. A few stories mesh so well with the books that I forget to separate them from Stephenie's work.

There many different types of Twilight fan fiction.

Canon - Stories that are set before, during, or after the Twilight books. The tales fit in with the plot of the Saga and the characters act in conformance to how Stephenie views them.

Human - Some or all of the vampires and wolves are human. Or Bella is a vampire and the others are human. For example, Bella and Edward are childhood friends; Edward is the new kid at school and meets Bella, Miss Popular. These typically try to keep the basic personality quirks of the characters but imagine how they'd be different as humans.

Alternate-Universe - Partial or complete departures from the Twilight canon. What if Bella falls for Jacob...or Alice? What if Edward is a police officer and saves Bella from an ongoing crime? What if Edward is a wounded Civil War soldier and Bella is his nurse?

Crossovers - These pair Twilight characters with characters from other stories. Harry Potter is the most popular cross-overs, but I've also seen stories featuring Vampire Diaries, Vampire Academy, Mortal Instruments, and more. I'm really curious about the more unusual pairings, such as Fruits Basket (my favorite manga!), Baby-sitter's Club, and Gone With The Wind.

Ratings

These are very important to me. A lot of Twilight fanfic is extremely graphic. Either Mature or NC-17. I prefer Stephenie's version of "graphic sex," so I am usually don't read M or NC-17 fanfic, unless it's very tastefully done. I read G through PG-13 stories.

Recommended Fan-Fiction

One of the best written Twilight fan-fiction stories (more of a novel than a story) is Ithaca is Gorges by Giselle_lx. It is New Moon from Carlisle and Edward's points of view. Giselle is an incredible writer who brings Carlisle and Edward to live.

My Fan-Fiction

I like writing short stories of Twilight fan-fiction. Everything I write is canon based. It helps further my Twilight obsession and I figure that it also helps develop my writing skills. See what you think!

Mistakes and Consequences


*The conflict in Breaking Dawn likely would never have occurred if Edward hadn't thrown himself at the Volturi in New Moon. Edward's misguided suicide attempt ended up nearly killing his whole family. I was curious how Edward reacted when he began to realize the consequences of his actions.

*Of course, Stephenie Meyer is the queen of all Twilight material. I only drool at the master's feet.

New Moon scene starting when Alice, Edward, and Bella are in the Volturi castle. Edward's POV.

Alice walked up to Aro resolutely, her hand outstretched. She did not hesitate to allow him access to her mind, knowing that it would save all three of our lives. Part of her also hoped that Aro might be able to see the memories of her human life that she could not. She’d foreseen that he would see nothing that would be new to her, but she still felt a slight thrill of anticipation that this particular vision might be wrong.

Aro grabbed Alice’s hand greedily, beside himself with excitement to experience Alice’s mind. The moment he touched her, images, sounds, smells, feelings flashed before him like a slide show moving at lightning speed. Despite the rapidity, he comprehended every individual thought and catalogued it away in the recesses of his own mind.

I shouldn’t have been surprised that I too saw all of Alice’s memories, but I was. I witnessed my memories when he touched my hand, but they were all memories I possessed. I also saw the memories of Caius and Marcus when he touched their hands, but only the bits and pieces Aro was looking for. With Alice, nothing was spared.

I saw every interaction with Jasper, me, and the rest of my family. Every hope and fear she’d ever had. Every human she’d killed on purpose or accidentally. She dwelled on the accidents more than I’d known. I watched all of her visions. There were many of my family’s past. Carlisle and Esme’s first kiss, me hunting during my years away from Carlisle, all the horrible things that happened to Rosalie at Royce’s hand. Plus, thousands of inconsequential visions I didn’t know she’d seen. Carlisle and I reading Homer in Greek, Emmett and Rosalie swing dancing, all five of us huddled around a radio during World War II. I watched every private moment with Jasper, listened to him tell her things I knew he’d be horrified that Aro and I were now privy to, and saw more of him physically than I ever wanted. I saw every thought that she’d hidden from me. Not only that, I saw her deciding to hide them from me. Thought after thought flowed by of her horrific loneliness in the years before she found Jasper, something she’d always refused to talk about, barely even hinted at it.

The intrusion was sickening. I tried to tune it out, to focus only on Aro’s accompanying thoughts, to give Alice some modicum of privacy. But I was still aware of every single thought. Alice couldn’t see Aro and me processing her mind. All she was aware of was Aro’s probing, which felt like a rake digging through her head. She kept her face nonchalant, but her thoughts were uneasy and a bit sad. She brightened only when Aro viewed Bella with scarlet, immortal eyes and our survival became crystal clear.

Aro’s reaction to Alice’s memories was disturbing. Every image of the seven of us together produced thoughts of fear and jealousy. The same thoughts had flowed through his mind when he viewed my memories. Seeing them echoed in Alice’s mind only intensified his feelings. He’d always viewed Carlisle as an old friend, completely harmless due to his eccentricities. Now, he was starting to see him as dangerous, a potential usurper. Images of us fighting made him particularly anxious. He was dismayed to realize that despite our diets, we were all skilled fighters, even when we were only messing around. He took careful notice of each display of our various abilities, his desire to possess us ever increasing. Alice was the most fascinating, but he even noticed with anxious admiration that Emmett’s strength was greater than Felix’s. Aro released Alice’s hand and was gleeful at witnessing so many visions of the future. In the recesses of his mind, however, our family was quickly overtaking Stefan and Vladimir as the biggest threat to the Volturi’s power.

There was no time to say anything or apologize to Alice after we left the Volturi’s presence. All my focus was on Bella and Alice spent the trip back to Seattle sifting through visions of seeing Jasper. Regardless, Bella was awake the entire time and I wanted to speak with Alice privately.

A week after we’d arrived back in Forks, Alice and I still hadn’t spoken about what happened. I spent nearly all my time with Bella. I went home a few hours each night to change clothes and see my family at least briefly. Whenever I went home, Alice and Jasper were out on a nighttime stroll. I wasn’t sure if she was purposely avoiding me or just as desperate to be with Jasper as I was with Bella.

I decided to find Alice one night as I lay at Bella’s side, watching her sleep. She’d been asleep for over an hour. Her breath was even and deep, her mouth open just slightly, her body completely still but for the rise and fall of her chest. There would be no nightmares tonight. I kissed her forehead and gently eased off the bed. Just as I was about to leave, I heard Alice mentally shout, Knock knock. Looking through her eyes, I could tell that she was running through the forest about two miles east of Bella’s house. Less than a minute later, she was perched on the tree outside the window.

I opened the window to let her in, but she waved at me to join her in the tree. I leaped from the windowsill to the tree trunk and scurried up to the branch next to the one where Alice was sitting.

“Why did you run all the way here?” I asked. “You knew I was about to come home.”

Yes, but I thought we could talk here without being overheard. Besides- she brightened and switched to speech. “I found a new shortcut! I’m going to beat you here next time.” She swatted my head playfully. Last summer, Emmett, Alice, and I had an ongoing contest to see who could get to Bella’s house the fastest. Alice would take a different path each time trying to compensate for my speed with shorter distance. Emmett preferred to follow me and try (unsuccessfully) to knock me down when I least expected it.

“Plus, I thought Bella could use a visit from the clothes fairy.” Alice held up a bulging backpack.

“You didn’t happen to bring some clothes for me, did you?” I asked. If she did, I could change here and stay with Bella all night.

No, I did not, Alice replied. You’re going home after we talk. Esme would slaughter me if I gave you an excuse to stay away any longer. I’ve had enough of impending death for awhile.

“Alice...” I sighed and ran my hands down my face. “I don’t know if I can ever thank you enough for coming to Italy. Or apologize enough. You can’t imagine how horrible I feel about the danger I put you and Bella in. If I’d had any idea what would happen, I never would have-”

Alice put a hand on my arm. What’s done is done, Edward. You can thank me by never doing anything like that again.

“Jasper must hate me.”

Alice gave me a pointed look. Jasper knows how to forgive. She plucked a small bough from the tree and ran her fingers along the needles, making the pungent evergreen fragrance waft through the air. Although I’ll admit that you probably won’t top his list of favorite people for awhile. Fair enough.

“I’m sorry you had to share your thoughts with Aro,” I whispered. “It was an invasion of privacy I’d never wish on anyone. I really tried not to watch, but...”

It’s all right. It was better than dying. Now you know that I don’t have any skeletons in my closet. Except for a few literal ones. Her mouth curved up into a smile that didn’t quite meet her eyes. I’m glad you were there. I don’t want Aro to be the only one who’s seen everything I’ve seen. And other than Jasper, there’s no one I trust more than you.

I curled my knees up to my chest and buried my head in them. There was nothing I could say in response to Alice’s selfless acceptance. Just like Carlisle and Esme, she was far kinder to me than I deserved. I could never adequately repay her.

“The worst part,” I said lifting my head up, “was Aro’s reaction to our family. Jasper’s, your, and my abilities aren’t the only reason he wants us to join him. The idea of seven immortals functioning as a strong coven terrifies him. I’m afraid that I put us all in danger.”

Alice flipped through visions influenced by the Volturi’s decisions. There were several images of the three of us dressed as Guards and even one with Bella as well, the products of Aro’s request to join the Volturi. Thankfully they were fleeting and cloudy given the strength of our refusals. Otherwise, there was nothing indicating that Aro’s fear was going to turn into anything more. Nothing yet.

I’ll be watching for anything unusual coming from them. Whether it regards Bella or the rest of us. We’ll handle it when- if it happens.

I nodded. We sat silently for a few minutes. The misty rain that had been falling all night had turned into fat raindrops falling rapidly from the sky. The tree’s thick boughs weren’t enough to protect us anymore and we were getting soaked.

Alice stood, leaning against the tree trunk. I’m going inside to dry off and put Bella’s new clothes in her closet. If I place them carefully enough, she won’t notice them for at least a week and then she’ll be too embarrassed to give them back. She grinned briefly and then looked at me sternly. Go home, Edward. Everyone misses you.

Just before Alice hopped to the windowsill, I grabbed her hand. “Alice,” I said quietly. “I really am sorry.”

She looked at me for a second and then squeezed my hand. “I know,” she whispered. Then she turned around and disappeared through the window.

What do you think? If you like it, let me know. If you think it sucks big time, I appreciate lying too. :-)

Should I post more?

8 comments:

  1. Good job, it's so well-written! I like canon fan fiction but I don't quite get the appeal of human/AU. A lot of the time it may as well be different stories/characters!

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  2. It's really interesting. I think exploring those areas of the story is fun. I've often thought about what Edward though about his action. I've just never put it into words like you have. I think you write really well. :) And, I like that you stick to canon. The ones that don't bother me, but I understand why the writers do it.

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  3. i love it!!!! Great job. I didn't know all these types of fanfic existed for twilight. It makes me excited!!!

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  4. Alison, this is fantastic! Really. I read this at work (so I couldn't comment then) and you totally inspired me to pick up the series again (luckily it was on our shelves). I think I like your excerpt even better than the originals.

    You kept the spirit of the characters and the feel of the books, but you explored the characters in ways I wish had been in the original books.

    I really love it. Please post more :) Do you have anything about Jasper?

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  5. Dude! That is fantastic! I think you captured the characters well. You did a really great job in getting all of the emotions right. I loved it. And I will definitely check out your fan fiction.

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  6. This brings me back to the days when I was OBSESSED with HP fanfiction. I used to love different POV scenes like this one. And Edward is, of course, the ideal POV because of his mind reading power which allows us to see other characters' viewpoints too. I loved reading your missing scenes from Alice's memory especially. There's so much we missed of the Cullen family. Great job and great characterization. I'm still waiting for Midnight Sun, but fanfiction is a great way to reread the series from Edward's POV!

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  7. I LOVE LOVE LOVED it!!! You captured Alice, Edward, Jasper & Emmett. Keep it going!!!

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  8. Hi, Alison!

    I was going to post a comment on your WOW for this week (sorry for the lateness), when I noticed your button, "Totally Twilight", at the bottom of one of your other posts. I remembered that you are a Twilight fan, like me (I haven't visited your blog in a long time), and immediately decided to investigate!

    I LOVED this first chapter, and will DEFINITELY be reading more!! This was just GREAT!!! These were really Alice and Edward, as Stephenie herself created them! KUDOS, girl!!

    Some time back, I wrote some Twilight fan fiction myself, posting it on Fanfiction.net. I kind of gave up on it, though, and most of the stories are unfinished. I did post some chapters on my blog,too. They're under the heading "My Writing", in the contents bar under the header. Could you come take a look, and tell me what you think? I haven't gotten many comments on my stories, and I'd sure appreciate yours!

    I congratulate you on a fine piece of writing!! : )

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I love comments. I appreciate every one! Thank you in advance.

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