The man behind “The Notebook” and “A Walk to Remember,” New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sparks will speak about his newest book, “See Me,” tonight. Sparks spoke to Arts & Entertainment Editor Sarah Vassello about the joys and challenges he faces as a writer.
Daily Tar Heel: Did you always want to be a romance writer?
Nicholas Sparks: No, I mean, I think growing up I had no idea what I was going to do. l wrote my first novel at the age of 19 and my second novel at the age of 22, but even then I didn’t think I would be able to make a living at it. When I was 28, I decided I was going to decide I was going to try and write a novel that moves — that I was going to give it my all, and at that point in time, it worked.
DTH: What’s the best and the worst part about what you do?
NS: The worst part is the challenge. It’s becoming exceedingly difficult to write a novel that both delights and surprises the reader. The challenge of originality and literary style — it’s quite a difficult thing to do. The best thing about it is that writing allows me a lot of time to watch my children grow, spend time with my family and it allows me the opportunity to pursue other ventures as well — film, television, teaching track and field.
DTH: How have those pursuits gone? Why did you get interested in them?
NS: I’ve done a lot of different things — I’ve coached track and field, I founded a school, I traveled the world, and I suppose you can call these things bucket list items or potential dreams — just, ‘Hey, this sounds like something fun to do for a while.’ So, writing allowed me the opportunity to do those things.
DTH: When you go to meet and greets or events, do people ever ask you for dating advice?
NS: There’s people that ask me all the time about advice on all sorts of things, and my answer is always the same. I say, ‘Look, I write novels, that’s what I do. I’m not in the advice-giving game.’
