10 Questions for Stephenie Meyer

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In Breaking Dawn it seems as though you purposefully avoid a fight scene at the end of the book. Had you planned that all along? —Travis Baldwin, Oxford, Alabama
That is the original ending to the first rough draft I ever did of Breaking Dawn, back in 2003. It was always for me more like a courtroom drama, which is one of my few TV addictions, rather than a battle scene. It was always about outmaneuvering someone mentally; I knew that if it turned into a physical battle, there was never going to be a winner. That was the ending that really felt true to the characters to me — because it was a mental game.

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Did your views on religion affect your way of writing in the Twilight series? —Margarita Galvez, Manila
Really, not so much. Not consciously at all. When I'm writing the stories I'm just looking to have a good time. But I do think that because I'm a very religious person, it does tend to come out somewhat in the books, although always unconsciously.

After reading TIME's article about you in April, I believed that a main attraction of the Twilight novels was the way your teenage audience could relate to Bella and her "squeaky-clean" relationship with Edward. Now, in Breaking Dawn, you've introduced these characters to marriage and pregnancy, both milestones that are many years distant for your young readers. Why did you decide to take the story in this direction? —Kathryn Blackley, Jamesville, N.Y.
To me, the story was realistic. Things do change, you do grow up, and the world changes. Maybe an influence was the Anne of Green Gables series, which is one of my favorites because it didn't end at the wedding. It wasn't a kiss and then everything was happily ever after. [The main characters] were married for years and they had kids and then their kids had stories. I really liked the book didn't end that way. I wanted to see reality, and the reality is that things don't fade to black when you get married.

Are the characters you wrote about based on any real-life people? Did anyone in your life influence the personalities of the characters? —Theresa Kolberg, Phoenix
Every now and then there will be a character that is a combination of people I knew — some of the girls in Bella's high school definitely reflect people I knew at that stage in my life — but for the most part, they come out of nowhere. It's amazing, some of the characters are so completely rounded and as soon as I think of them, I know everything about them. And then there are others that I have to work for a little bit harder, and sort of get down to their motivations. A few of them — Rosalie, for example — were difficult. It took me a while to figure out what her thing was.

Did you think that your books would have such a huge impact on readers? —Gail Schulman, Warren N.J.
Gosh no! And I keep getting surprised. When Twilight hit the New York Times bestseller list at number 5, for me that was the pinnacle, that was the moment. I never thought I would be there. And I keep having moments like that where you just stop and say, wait a minute — how is this still going up? I'm waiting for the rug to be pulled out from under me. I have from day one because I'm kind of a pessimist. But it just keeps being huge and no, I had no idea. I still have no idea.