[Random] Ask Marissa Meyer

Selamat menjelang Valentine kawan-kawan! Ngga terasa udah pertengahan Februari aja. Oh iya, ada yang tahu tentang The Lunar Chronicles karyanya Marrisa Meyer? Nah, baru-baru ini Meyer meluncurkan buku terbaru berjudul Fairest. Buku ini bukan buku utama seri Lunar, cuma sebagai selingan, aku belum baca sih (ceritanya tentang Levana soalnya) tapi ada rencana buat baca.

Anyway, merayakan peluncuran buku terbarunya Meyer mengadakan Q&A di goodreads dan jawabannya keluar kemarin. Finally. Meskipun ngga ada pertanyaanku yang dijawab (sedih) tapi cukup terhibur melihat banyaknya pertanyaan yang dijawab Meyer.

Yang paling aku suka itu waktu ditanya gimana caranya menciptakan karakter jahat. Meyer menjawab dengan "menemukan alasan kenapa karakter itu jahat bukan membuatnya jahat karena harus ada karakter yang jahat". I would say it's so important to know WHY they're bad. It can be tempting to make a villain evil-for-the-sake-of-evil, but that's not very interesting. Ask yourself what happened in their past to make them the way that they are, and what are their motivations for doing the things that they do? Some famous writer (I don't know who...) once said that the villain believes they are the hero of the story, and I think it's important to keep that in mind.

Karena jawaban ini juga aku akhirnya memberanikan diri untuk membaca Fairest, tadinya mah males. Masalahnya Levana coy, masa harus Levana sih, dari sekian banyak karakter yang bisa dibikin buku side-storynya, Levana harus jadi salah satunya? Dan ini jawabannya Meyer.

Levana was one of the first characters I thought of when I decided to write a series of sci-fi fairy tale retellings, and I've long been fascinated by the evil queen from Snow White. I always wanted to know what would make a woman place so much value on her beauty that she would do horrible, unspeakable things just to stay the "Fairest of them all." So Levana's story has really been building in my head from the very beginning when I started writing this series. 

Then as I was working on Winter, I found myself getting stuck on scenes that involved Levana and her relationships to Winter and Selene, so I decided to pause and write Levana's story. Once I gave it a chance, her story came pouring out of me, and I learned so much about her and made so many connections that I hadn't put together yet. It was definitely time to put her story on paper! And it did help me get past all those places that were giving me trouble in Winter, too, so it worked out really great. I'm just glad my publisher actually wanted to publish it, ha!

Dari Q&A kemarin juga aku baru tahu kalau Little Android itu based on Little Mermaid, kalau dipikir-pikir iya juga sih. Nuansa sedihnya sama.

Terus lucu juga waktu Meyer bilang kalau dia selalu nulis karakternya lagi di mana, kondisinya kayak apa, sama lagi ngapain biar ngga lupa. Termasuk type A nih berarti mbak Meyer, harus ditulis biar ngga lupa. Tapi iya sih, kalau sampe lupa nanti bisa ada yang ngeganjel dong. Misalnya si Jasin lagi patah tulang tapi tiba-tiba lari, itu kan bisa gaswat.

ikutan harap-harap cemas..

Ngga ngerti sih kenapa dia nanyain ini, tapi yah kan bebas mau nanya apa aja, yekan?

sad. but I'll find my way.

jadi pengen baca Bluebeard.

Untuk pertanyaan dan jawaban selengkapnya bisa di klik fotonya Marissa Meyer di atas postingan ini.

Sekalian aku juga pengin berbagi fanart The Lunar Chronicles nih, terus kalian kenal Joo Ji Hoon ngga? Yang jadi Lee Shin di Princess Hours? Dia pernah dinobatkan sebagai dream cast buat Prince Kai loh. Mentang-mentang dia jadi pangeran di Princess Hours. Anyway, here they are.