The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide Read Online Free Page B

gone, and none of them were the right way. I knew what the real way was.
    But I do know what would have happened if Edward hadn’t come back. You know, I know that whole story—how it went down, and what their future was. I know what would have happened if this character had changed—when he did one little thing here, or that. There are always a million different stories—you just know which one it is that you’re going to write. But that doesn’t make the others not exist.
    SH: And I think that comes through in the writing—that you are aware of these alternate realities. I think the reader becomes aware of these other realities, too. And that’s nice, because then it’s not predictable. You don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, because you can see there are other ways it can go.
    SM: I think that’s why the alternate stories develop—because you have to make it suspenseful; there has to be conflict—and there has to be, hopefully, some mystery about where it’s going to go. If it’s so clear that something specific is
obviously
going to happen, well, nobody wants to read that. So where’s the suspense going to come from? It comes when you start to realize: Well, this other thing
could
have happened. Even though
you
know where you’re going with it.
    SH: I love that.
    SM: It’s all very circular. Something happens within something else, but the thing that happened is somehow the birthplace of the other one, too. It’s very confusing [laughs] in the head of a writer. At least, for me.
    SH: But it
is
like life, in that I think we are all aware of how if we’d made a different decision, we would be living in adifferent reality. And you can think about the other ones, but you live the one that you’re in. The story has to live in the reality it’s in.
    SM: I think my fascination with that very concept kind of comes through in Alice’s visions of the future, where there are fourteen million of them. As characters make choices, they’re narrowing down which visions can actually happen. Alice sees flashes of the future possibilities coming from the choices they’ve made. But if they make different choices, it becomes a whole new future. And that’s what happens to us every day. You choose to go to Target today [laughs] and you don’t know how that’s going to impact everything in your future, because of one decision. I’d always been really fascinated with that concept, and I enjoy science fiction that sort of deals with those strands.
    SH: So, if you knew—that morning you woke up after having the dream of Edward and Bella in the meadow—if you knew the reality that would happen after you sat down and wrote it, would you still write it?
    SM: You know… I wonder if I could have. The pressure would have been so immense. If I’d been faced with knowing: If you sit down and write today, eventually you’re going to have to speak in public, in front of thousands of screaming people; you’re going to have to travel around the world and live on Dramamine and Unisom; and you’re going to have to be away from your family sometimes; and you’ll be more successful than you could ever possibly have dreamed, but there’s going to bemore stress than you could have ever thought you were able to handle—I don’t know what my decision would have been.
    Probably, because I’m a coward, I would have jumped back under the covers and said: [high, squeaky voice] “I’m not ready!” [Laughs]
I was never really sure where I wanted to be in ten years, but Bella knows.
     
    SH: I guess that’s why it’s good that we don’t know what’s going to happen in advance. I mean, if Bella had known everything that was going to happen…
    SM: See, Bella would have gone through it exactly the same way. I know what my characters would do. They’re very, very real to me. I know what they would say if I had a conversation with them. I know if I said this, Jacob would respond like this. And even if he knew exactly