belastein-blog

[belastein-blog]

Hello! I'm Bela (sometimes Belavula or Revenstein) and I role-play online and write twilight fanfiction.

I'm still new to writing fanfiction and you can probably tell if you read Black Hole Sun, my first attempt at branching out from the original author's work (as respectfully to the original as possible).

But in Carnival of Rust I was ready to make big changes to the original and folks have really liked it so far. It's my goal to write my own stories someday and I hope I keep learning and growing.

However, I say this to the endless void of the internet, I feel like I need constructive criticism. Every budding writer needs it and though it's hard to hear sometimes, it's necessary for growth. But, I can't tell you how irksome it is that people are angry with my work because I captured the original Edward's personality *well*.

People hate Edward, and I honestly don't blame them, but even with him being a toxic person how many of us had a toxic person that we fell in love with and either we realized it and broke up with them, or they understood what they've been doing wrong and work to change themselves into a better person. I feel like folks see the original toxic Edward traits in my female Edythe for instance and disregard the possibility that I have a goal to correct that and actually have characters take accountability for their behavior and have growth. Like, one of the things I hated from the original series was how Jacob had no chance to grow the hell up. He just bonded with Renesme and it's like everything was sunshine and rainbows, so to speak. He was forgiven, everything 'made sense' (uh, no. Lol) and he didn't have to face accountability for what he did to Bella. Not really, not enough to provoke change and growth.

The real human experience that we, as readers, genuinely need. At least, in my opinion.

I guess, for me, having been on both sides of the coin, I'm most grateful to the times I lost my husband or lost friendships because that (with other things obviously) helped me to understand how my teenage self was toxic and (heavily repressed) and I was lucky to break out of that. Even slowly, it's progress. To be better than I used to be. If I could do it, why not Edward/Edythe? Why can't they be given the chance to become a better person?

If they have the chance and don't, then good riddance. But read the whole story before making an assumption that a character will always stay that person. I don't care if Edward being able to grow as a person breaks 'vampire canon' it's necessary.

But then, a lot of things are changing. Hopefully for the better. It's just taking time for me to stand on my own legs. Sometimes growing them grows me into someone better along the way.

I also ramble. I'll try not to do it too much. Lol.