Stephen King Calls Stephanie Meyer "Not Very Good"
In an interview with USA Weekend Magazine, Stephen King said that Stephanie Meyer, author of the bestselling Twilight series, "can't write worth a darn."
In comparing Meyer to J.K. Rowling, King remarked that while both authors spoke to young readers, "The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn. She's not very good."
In other Twilight news, after an unfinished draft of Meyer's latest Twilight novel, Midnight Sun was leaked on the Internet, Meyer responded by saying that she would stop work on the novel:
“I feel too sad about what has happened to continue working on Midnight Sun, so it is on hold indefinitely,” Meyer wrote on her web site, stepheniemeyer.com.
Stephen King's disparaging remarks and Stephanie Meyer's current refusal to go forward with the series notwithstanding, The Twilight Saga continues to ride the top of the bestseller lists, with all four books (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn) all landing this week in Amazon's top ten bestsellers.
Comments
Not very good indeed.
1. All fans are defensive of their chosen “hero” and of their own taste.
2. Meanwhile the actual “heroes” are busy doing what they do and making some money at it because (in this case) getting published is no small trick.
The point: enjoy what you find entertaining and satisfying. The real danger is in reading only one author or one genre of literature. As pointed out in the article: Ms. Meyers aims her writing at a specific audience. It happens to be girls / young women at a certain stage of life. They will (like generations before them) “move on” eventually – as they mature.
Not too many years back, Mr. King was himself saying in public that he was “stung” by criticisms of his work and accused some critics of being elitist. Yet – he was always honest about his humble beginnings and about some of the crap he wrote.
I doubt his remarks hurt Ms. Meyers that much – not enough to make her stop her writing career. Maybe enough to cause her to abandon the book project she has now. It can be hoped that she will do what good writers do: look at her writing flaws and improve as she goes along. That’s what King and hundreds of other successful writers did to get to the top.
R U freakin stupid or r u just platying stupid man Stehanie Meyer is one of the BEST writers in HISTORY!!! ( we talkin’ long time ago buddy)well if you don’t like her it’s probably cuz u ain’t got a soul maybe your feelings drained out of u . well i fell sorry for chu cuz u r missing out on alot =’( (tear)well gotta go i neeed to read ECLIPSE FOR THE 3RD TIME!!!!
AND.. THIS GUY WROTE WAT… I HAD NEVA HEARD OF HIM!!!
Team Stephanie =D says:
R U freakin stupid or r u just platying stupid man Stehanie Meyer is one of the BEST writers in HISTORY!!! ( we talkin’ long time ago buddy)well if you don’t like her it’s probably cuz u ain’t got a soul maybe your feelings drained out of u . well i fell sorry for chu cuz u r missing out on alot =’( (tear)well gotta go i neeed to read ECLIPSE FOR THE 3RD TIME!!!!
TWILIGHT !!!!!!! XD says:
AND.. THIS GUY WROTE WAT… I HAD NEVA HEARD OF HIM!!!
____
By the look of your speeling and grammar I’d say Meyer is the only author you would be able to understand.
She would not be able to write a good book if someone laid out the plot for her.
If you want to read authors who don’t leave you crying for the future of literature, Stephen King, David Eddings, Jane Austen, Patricia Cornwell, Kim Wikins, Oscar Wilde, Charles Dickens, and Phillip Pullman are all far better in creating a story that will captivate and excite you. Though there are more that I could list right down to Edgar Allen Poe, but you wouldn’t know who these people are, would you? I pity your simplicity.
Team Stephanie =D says:
R U freakin stupid or r u just platying stupid man Stehanie Meyer is one of the BEST writers in HISTORY!!! ( we talkin’ long time ago buddy)well if you don’t like her it’s probably cuz u ain’t got a soul maybe your feelings drained out of u . well i fell sorry for chu cuz u r missing out on alot =’( (tear)well gotta go i neeed to read ECLIPSE FOR THE 3RD TIME!!!!
TWILIGHT !!!!!!! XD says:
AND.. THIS GUY WROTE WAT… I HAD NEVA HEARD OF HIM!!!
LOL! That one made me roll around on the floor! Are you seven or just plain stupid? You certainly are a part of Stephanie Meyer’s target audience!
So did Meyer make any kind of response to these comments? Did she… bite back?
The fans are definately worse than the series.
i think that some people are missing the point of being an author. whether you write for kids, young adults, or actual adults, the book has to good enough to publish. With the Twilight series, those were the best books I have read in a long time. I have read Stephen King, I have read Charles Dickens, I have read Nicholas Sparks, all great authors, but they are the same. Everybook is the same. There is the slow begining, then a dramatic middle, and a good ending. Stephen King always writes about horror and scary things, he does not break away from that cause that is what he is good at and the same for Nicholas Sparks, he writes about love and losing it and getting it back. With Stephanie, the people who read her books are into it. If someone likes something, you can’t tell them that it is crap. If you have read the books and don’t like them, so be it. But don’t put her down as an author when she has sold just as many books as all the other authors that one person put down. She is a good author in her own right and if you don’t like it…..too bad!
Oh and by the way, I was re-reading the comment posted by Lamia and she can’t spell either. Don’t make fun of the way someone writes or types if you can’t do that good of a job yourself!
Team Stephanie =D says:
R U freakin stupid or r u just platying stupid man Stehanie Meyer is one of the BEST writers in HISTORY!!! ( we talkin’ long time ago buddy)well if you don’t like her it’s probably cuz u ain’t got a soul maybe your feelings drained out of u . well i fell sorry for chu cuz u r missing out on alot =’( (tear)well gotta go i neeed to read ECLIPSE FOR THE 3RD TIME!!!!
Team Steph, I love Twilight just as much as you do but really, this isn’t helping our case.
I agree with Stephen King! She started off very good but by the fourth book, i was completely disappointed. She should definitely NOT be compared to a wonderful author like J.K Rowling!!
Mrs. Meyer is freaking amazing! i would LOVE to see you write one of the most popular series in the world!! DUH,
it deosn’t take common sence to take that she is a amazing writer, who sold hundreds of millions of books!!!!! you saw how popular the movie was,,, yeah. thats because of the book!!
The number of sales don’t make a book good, any more than sales make a writer. There’s plenty of good writers out there who don’t get the recognition, or sales, they deserve because people don’t seem to average more than a fifth grade education these days.
I have not read Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series because I prefer Laurell Hamilton when I want vampire.
And I must agree with Stephen King–J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series just got better and better with each addition.
I’m glad for Ms. Meyer’s success, although to me her recent declarations are making her look more and more irrational. As an author myself, no one and nothing, even the leaking of manuscript, would ever make me quit writing.
It’s really pathetic that Stephen King is jealous of Stephenie Meyer.
I’m an Old School Stephen King fan so I find it odd that he has becoms such a harsh critic of another writer. It just doesn’t seem like his style. Is Stephen King being critical of Stephanie Meyer, or is Stephen King Stephanie Meyer? (Remember Richard Bachman?)
Dear Twilight Fans:
Stephen King is right. Does that mean that all SMeyer fans in the world need to unite and go burn down his house? No. Does that mean that all the Twihards in the world should send him hate mail? No.
Opinions are like belly-buttons, everyone has one. Many of you say “where does he get off saying that?” Well, for starters he did major in Literature in college. Secondly, he has been around for 30+ years and his books have been Bestsellers and the movies based off his books have been major motion pictures with many awards. These movies have also starred big name stars like: Tim Robbins, Thomas Jane, Morgan Freeman, Jason Lee, Rob Lowe, Jack Nicholson, Johnny Depp, and the list goes on.
So, Stephen King said she can’t write worth a darn. Who cares. That’s called criticism and that’s what happens when an author is published. He or she opens themselves to criticism by critics, other authors, etc. It’s part of being in the public eye.
Many of the Twihards out there need to stop putting SMeyer on a pedestal. There are going to be problems with her grammer, with her writing, etc. It happens. No on is perfect.
Stephen King even has problems with his writing. I read everything of his I can, or at least try to. Could I read “Dreamcatcher”? No. There’s just something about aliens that explode out your rear-end that doesn’t appeal to me.
Also, Stephen King is not “just a horror writer”. Try reading his books (other than “IT”) sometime. Read “Lisey’s Story”. Read “‘Salem’s Lot”. Read The Dark Tower series.
Will SMeyers writing get better? It will if she take the criticism with a grain of salt, gets back on that computer or laptop or whatever and continues writing.
Now, to say that “Twilight” is the best book in history is…well, that’s just a little condescending, really. Even to say it’s the best vampire book in history is not really true. Keep in mind that if it wasn’t for Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, or even (and I hate to admit this) Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series, there would be NO Twilight.
So, as opposed to saying “Stephen King sux” or “that old man is a meanie”, take a moment and carefully read through Twilight. Give Stephen King’s books a try. And try reading some other vampire literature.
Sometimes, being a fan means admitting that the person you look up to has flaws. It doesn’t mean you threaten to burn the world as soon as someone criticizes the way they write.
Hear, hear.
Ha..ha
why is it that stephenie’s fans can’t type well, and use the phrases “OMG” and exclamation marks EXCESSIVELY.
I am 15 years old, stephenie’s writing target, yet even I know that she’s a horrible writer.
Lamia, by the look of your ’speeling,’ maybe you should check out Meyer’s books, which you so fondly criticize. (and by default, her readers as well.)
(And isn’t it called IRONY that you misspelled ’spelling?’ I love that.)
Luke, as a fan of the series myself, I’d say that’s a pretty stereotypical thing to say. There are many highly educated, professional ‘Twilight’ fans in the world. That seems like a silly thing to say.
Must EVERYTHING be high brow and stuffy in this world?? Man.
M.L.Bushman, you might want to READ the book before posting . . . that would probably increase the credibility of your desire to weigh-in.
Meyer wasn’t saying she was going to QUIT WRITING, period. She said she was not going to finish *that leaked manuscript* called ‘Midnight Sun.’ She has since written another book called ‘The Host’ which is targeted for an adult audience, not so much a ‘teen’ one, as has been said with the Twilight series. But the love story in Twilight is ageless, which is why I think it has resonated with people of all ages and cultures.
Preferring one writing style over another is personal preference, period. It doesn’t make someone ’stupid’ or ‘5th grade educated’ to like a published author that not everyone ‘gets’ (with regard to ‘the hype,’ I mean).
Regardless, one would think an ‘accomplished’ author like Stephen King wouldn’t find it necessary or appealing to criticize a fellow writer in print. That’s just . . . beneath anyone who deserves respect, frankly.
It bears repeating that a book doesn’t have to be good to be published – it just has to be marketable. People seem to forget publishing is a business and the main objective of the industry is to make money in the sale of books. It has always been this way. And the Twilight series is mindless, superficial fluff, which sells really well. I’m not going to fault people for reading what entertains them (I read Emile Zola for the same reason). Just keep in mind that just because you’re reading doesn’t mean your doing something intellectual. This series is as challenging as a Hannah Montana episode.
‘Twilight’ never paraded around as ‘challenging’ or something other than a fun, compelling, romantic read with an interesting story line.
Why do people act like they’ve been ‘duped’ into something flawed and are horrified at the prospect of a book series that sold gazillions of copies but isn’t Dickens?
It’s so annoying. You high-brow snobs really should enjoy life sometimes – - stop finding a need to take everything so seriously or it’s not ‘worthy’ of your precious time or energy.
Geez, I’m sure you’re a blast at parties.
zzzzzzz
I’m an avid fiction reader, averaging about 20 novels a year while holding down a full-time job and taking care of my 12-year-old daughter. My daughter, however, has hated to read since she was a small child. When she started reading the Twilight series last fall and finished all 4 books within a few months, I had to see what was so amazing about the series.
So I read the Twilight books. All of them. It was the most painful experience of my life. The first 3 books in the series were particularly awful. Chapter after chapter of the whinings of some high-school girl agonizing over whether she was good enough for some impossibly handsome, abusive guy (yeah, when I saw the photos of the plain Meyer, I finally ‘got’ that she was the model for the chronically insecure, yet oddly self-absorbed, Bella). On almost every page, there was a sentence that made me cringe, whether because of its mangled syntax, implausible dialog, or the fact that it only added to Bella’s complete and utter degradation. The forth book was better, but by that point I realized that even I was a better writer than Meyer. And I’m a freakin’ scientist!
The plot line was the only aspect of the series that saved it. The idea of a vampire falling in love with a girl was a stroke of genius, but Stephanie didn’t even have to work for that, either — it came to her in a dream!
I’d say that Meyer is an incredibly lucky woman. She took a great plot line and practically crucified it with writing skills that, on a good day, could only be equated to those of an average sixth grader. She happened to find an agent who could see past the awful writing to the (generally) good story line, although I do wonder why the agent couldn’t have found a better editor. I think they were in a rush to get all three books in the original series published so that they’d have a better chance of marketing them as a package to Hollywood.
The screenwriters have had to basically rewrite Meyer’s books so that they 1) make sense, 2) not show Bella to be an immature, depressed girl but rather a thoughtful adolescent in love for the first time, and 3) provide real heat between Edward and Bella that was so lacking in the original books. Kristen Stewart’s obvious boredom with her role notwithstanding, ‘Twilight’ was a decent movie. Hopefully, they’ll spend a little more money on the special effects when filming the rest of the series — the glitter used to show Edward sparkling in the sun never fails to send both me and my daughter into hysterical fits of laughter every time we watch ‘Twilight’.
So here’s to the spectacularly untalented Stephenie Meyer — a woman who earned millions of dollars writing cr*p that, in a sane world, would have been thrown into the nearest paper shredder. Now we have legions of young girls who think that it’s easy to find unconditional love and that it’s OK to feel really really bad about yourself for long expanses of time until the guy you love decides that you do, in fact, belong together.
For those of you who read the Twilight book and didn’t like it, there is a common motto on websites that write stories for books such as Twilight. It’s called “If you don’t like it, don’t read it.” motto. It saves people from the headaches of the constant complaining. I’m not saying criticism is wrong, it’s just that criticism gets to a point where it gets extremely rude. For example, some of the comments on here are extremely rude saying that Stephenie Meyer can’t write to save her life. That’s that person’s opinion. Even though I did like the series, There was the problem of being repetitive. I did not like New Moon at all and I had a bit of a problem with Breaking Dawn, but to me the rest of the books were fine.
I read the draft of Midnight Sun, I have to say Stephenie did a better job with that writing. Obviously it’s a draft, so it won’t be perfect. Anyway the point is you have a right to your opinion, just don’t take it to far!
I read all four Twilight books in three days (insomnia hehe). Truthfully, I enjoyed reading the series without putting any thought into it. It appealed to all my hormonal high school fantasies. At face value, Twilight was an okay book and it alleviated my boredom for awhile.
The few friends that I have that like Twilight asked me what I thought about it. I said it was ‘okay’. They were annoyed or affronted or said it was better than Harry Potter. I then explained to them why I didn’t like it.
I’ve spent weeks worth of hours analyzing stories that I absolutely love. I pick apart the characters, I delve into their flaws, I put them under a magnifying glass and laugh evilly when they shrivel up like ants. With Twilight, I can’t do that. The characters are too simple. Bella’s flaw was probably vanity (not wanting to get old), but that was never really even a flaw, just an emotion that S.Meyer used to turn the story slightly interesting. Clumsiness doesn’t count.
I wanted to see character progression. I think that’s one of the best differences between Harry Potter (I chose Harry Potter because it’s also very popular) and Twilight. Harry Potter learns and grows and some characters die and you fear for their lives. In Twilight, you know from the beginning until the end that nothing is going to happen to the core characters. It was BORING. I wanted someone to die, I wanted the characters to mourn, to have to overcome something other than mindless action and romance, but I knew from page one that that would not happen.
I believe that once you ignore grammar mistakes and differences in genre, it’s easy to see the merit of stories. You should ask yourself, “What have I learned from this?”
SPOILERS for Twilight and Harry Potter endings:
For Twilight my first thought was, “love concurs all?” Bella and Edward living completely happily ever after is a joke. They had everything they wanted, a baby, a marriage, eternal love, money, security. It doesn’t get any better than that. No regrets. How absolutely empty.
For Harry Potter, I had a similar thought. Love is stronger than evil. During his journey, Harry lost parts of him and even in the end, when everything was resolved, he still had to deal with the gaping holes left behind. It was bittersweet entirely, and made the readers whimsical in imagining a world where none of that happened and Harry had a chance at a normal life (but where’s the fun in that ;D?)
Conclusion:
Twilight is excellent if you don’t mind unrealistic romance, with little to no character progression and an un-dynamic cast of characters.
THAT is what I believe Stephen King meant. Forget grammar. The story lacked a story. There was action, yes, kidnappings, almost rapes, etc, but that doesn’t mean anything when the characters learn nothing from them.
Read Twilight. Read Carrie. Read Breaking Dawn. Read The Stand. Read New Moon. Read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Now tell me, out of the six, which authors have better:
Character development: King and J.K.
Plots: King and J.K.and(arguably) Meyer
Action sequences: King and Meyer
General Writing: King and J.K.
Believeable/realistic diologue: King and J.K.
Number of books: King
If anyone disagrees then say so. But if my chart is correct, Meyer’s books don’t have it where it counts. What counts is skill and talent. Some people can write stories, some can’t. It’s still to early to tell for Meyer, but they shouldn’t have been published. She needs to practice more.
@ liz – You’d have to read it to decide whether you like it or not.
@ mysteriousname – I completely agree about the characters being annoyingly simple.
@SKWYA – Agreed.
When I first read the books, I thought they were okay, nothing to shout about. Then I re-read them. And re-read them. I went from thinking
“This isn’t so bad.”
to
“Mon Dieu, these are possibly the worst books I have ever read.”
Just an opinion, I don’t want Twitards hunting me down.
Vampires falling in love with humans? Honestly?
“Vegetarian” vampires that SPARKLE in the sunlight?
Love at first sight?
All this jumped out at me when I re-read the book.
Stephenie Meyer’s a horrible writer, to be honest. I think my 6th grade essays were better than those books.
There is no way in hell Stephenie can compare to Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, Anne Rice, Dan Brown, etc.
I’m 13(her target audience?), I’ve read the books, I dislike them.
TWILIGHT!!!!!!!!!!XD, he wrote Carrie, Cujo, The Girl who love Tom Gordon, IT, Four Past Midnight, Misery, Under the Dome, Shawshank Redemption, Rose Red, Salem’s Lot, The Green Mile, Thinner(under the pen name Richard Bachman), Dreamcatcher, From the back of a Buick 8, and too many more for me to name.
Well I haven’t really ready any Stephen King, I should as so many of his books have made amazing movies and books are usually better than their theatrical counterparts. I’m personally more of a Michael C. fan (such a shame he passed relatively young) or technothrillers and old victorian lit.
I think not enough people read this days, or at least read more than what is popular. I think J.k. Rowling was VERY imaginative and her stories were pretty good but there IS better out there.
I am one of the few, or only guys I know that has read not one but ALL the twilight books (to surprise a girl I was dating). I have to agree with Stephen’s comment. A number of people here said having sales humbers doesn’t mean you’re a good writer. I couldn’t help but think the whole time I was reading these books and then this happened and then this person said this and then this happened. It was kind of droning like the kind of stuff kids whip out of their butt writing essays. When I picture how this was written I picture an author sitting down after their “dream” and seriously just writing one continuous, thread all the way through.
I think the most creative thing she had in terms of writing was in the book where Eddy is gone and there are a couple of chapters that are like one page saying nothing happened or whatever. She really didn’t do anything unique or creative. I can tell you EXACTLY why these books have big numbers. It’s the CONTENT of the book. It has NOTHING to do with writing. All these women and girls are getting all ridiculously swept up by this “fairy tale” (but more like unrealistic, almost creepy) romance that appeals to those folks. All the lovey dovey, immortal love junk. I saw some pic text the other day on a friends phone that said, “Why can’t I just have a perfectly sculpted immortal who loves me” or some crap like that.
To be honest, as a guy, I almost felt a little offended by these books. It really honestly is a COMPLETELY unrealistic view of love, relationships, men and life and that has NOTHING to do with any of the vampiric content. Any girl should be freaked out that a guy they don’t know is staring at them at night. And what guys are like that anyway? What guys are talented in every single topic, multi lingual, rich, perfect bodied, etc. etc. etc. etc. When I’m in a relationship I do EVERYTHING I can for the girl because she is important to me, wether its taking her lunch or womanly products to her work or painting her nails. I don’t mind and I am comfortable doing that I mean freak, I read all these books. I even felt these were a little degrading to men and I hope do not lead too many women to live fantasy worlds.
It’s also this idea that some impossibly perfect guy is gonna come to every average Jane. No go is perfect we all have our flaws. Women all have our flaws. We have to love people for who they are and frankly the only mistake I ever remember Ed making was leaving her for her safety, which is lame because in reality thats a noble effort on his part.
If girls/women wanna read this stuff, be my guest people can read whatever they want but please READ IT AS ENTERTAINMENT, don’t take it seriously or try to apply it to life or take lessons out of it or anything. Realize it’s a STORY it’s not realistic. And also please considering getting out and reading other things. There are good romances that are within the realms of being realistic in the way the relationships build and how imperfect the characters on. If you wanna try non romantic literature I think “Picture of Dorian…” is my favorite.
As for the incredibly hilarious comments made by that Team Steph and TWILIGHT!!!! person they are actually SO bad I can’t help wonder if that was somebody pulling a prank. lol Who is Stephen King? How old are you and do you pay attention to modern literature and cinema AT ALL? And Team Steph? Everything everyone has posted about your comment is true, I hope she came back to this thread and read them.