“Twilight” was neither the beginning nor the end of teen vampire/werewolf romances, and nor should it be. Just because one of them made it big doesn’t mean that they all should stop happening. As long as being a vampire or a werewolf is sexy (Meyer’s interpretation may not do it for you, but there’s tons out there), there will be romances about them. Unfortunately, some people aren’t decent writers.

What really needs to stop is people comparing every paranormal love-triangle with a female protagonist to Twilight. That needs to stop right now. Those things are allowed to exist without everyone constantly referring back to something that’s universally considered poor. It’s a disservice to women everywhere.

And unfortunately as much as it is funny that 50 Shades started off as a Twilight fanfic, fanfiction is what breeds writers. Being a fan with an overactive imagination gives you the motivation to actually write, which is a very difficult thing to possess, actually. Not to mention that most every professional writer out there is working with someone else’s world and characters (TV shows are a good example), so it’s all essentially fanfiction if you think about it.

Sorry, had to rant.

+1 and I’ll add to that: every work is derivative of SOMETHING, even if it’s simply the environment and culture surrounding the author. I see no problem with novels derived from fanfiction, as fanfiction itself is (mostly) original stories drawn from a specific inspiration. If it will sell and all reference to the inspiration is removed, what is left but the fic author’s original work? Laura, I usually love your work but this article, to me, came off as a bit snobby to tell you the truth.

How is this snobby? That seems like a weird way to describe it. Not sure I understand.

Right, but these are BLATANT rip-offs of Twilight. They weren’t just inspired by Meyer’s series.

at any rate thanks for reading!

“it promotes bad relationships and champions weak-willed women”

I don’t get that, at all, from the Twilight books…

I agree. That’s just the backlash I’ve seen.

Perhaps I’d have to read it to see. If you say so, I believe you. But I’ve seen a lot of people call something “like Twilight” that totally wasn’t.

I can’t answer for Sarah, but I replied because Twilight and 50 Shades bashing has been the go-to “cool” thing to do. The majority of it is a knee-jerk reaction to hate stuff that women like. “Girls ruined vampires!” (actually, sparkles aside, they’ve been like that since the beginning) “50 Shades is just porn!” (slut-shaming)

I think Twilight isn’t good and it does have a very unhealthy relationship in it, and I haven’t read 50 Shades but it’s probably as ridiculous as it sounds, but I defend them against thoughtless bashing because they happen to represent literature for women.

This is just a specific pet-peeve of mine. The Jane Dough is still awesome in my book. :)

This is a really smart comment and I’ve been enjoying this discussion all day! (And now I’m going to stay out of it :))