Stephenie Meyer and How Twilight Came to Be

Stephenie Meyer is a household name around the world these days. If the reason for her popularity had to be summed up in a single word, that word would certainly be ‘Twilight.’  The franchise has helped her make millions of dollars in a very short space of time, and has given her almost overnight fame and a following of millions. 

So how exactly did Stephenie Meyer come up with the idea for Twilight? How did a straight-laced Mormon woman from Connecticut turn into one of the biggest selling vampire and werewolf authors of all time?

The origin of Twilight is a somewhat traditional one.  On June 2, 2003, Stephenie Meyer was sound asleep when she had a strange dream about a young girl walking in a meadow, who was in love with a vampire who simultaneously loved her and thirsted for her blood.  This dream of dual desires led her to sit down and start trying to write out her dream. 

The way she tells it on her Author website, the book pretty much wrote itself following this initial burst of inspiration, and less than three months later, this simple dream was turned into a complete novel.  The scene from her dream ultimately became the thirteenth chapter in the first Twilight book.

Stephenie Meyer showed the completed manuscript to her sister, who convinced her to try her luck at submitting it to publishers.  It was rejected by nine different agencies before being picked up by Writers House.  The rights to publish Twilight were purchased in early 2003, and by November of that year, Stephenie Meyer had a three book deal worth $750,000…. a figure unheard of for a first-time writer. 

Since its initial run, the book has been published multiple times in more than 25 countries, and translated into over thirty languages.  It is currently among the most talked-about bestsellers in the entire nation, with other books in the series also on the bestseller list. 

For a book that started with a dream, Stephenie Meyer has certainly turned Twilight into a real-life dream of her own!