Nicholas Sparks

        The most recent and popular films/ novels are all based on similar aspects. One may be comprised with a girl who dies from cancer, and through her last struggling months she falls in love with the bad boy at school, or another may be a girl who is abused and runs away and eventually ends up with the guy of her dreams. All of these scenarios fall under the category of “chick flick”, in which has the intention to bring out the “inner girl” in everyone including crying, laughing, gossiping and lots of junk food. Whether someone is 14 or 46, these stories are being heard and bringing in the fame and fortune. As there are many authors that have written “feminine” books, Nicholas Sparks is among the best. He is mostly known for his works, The Notebook, The Last Song, Dear John and A Walk to Remember. Every one of his stories captivates your mind and heart, with each ending to allow feelings of happiness for the characters and sadness as well because you feel as they have become a part of you and will now disappear.

              Although Nicholas Spark’s is always put in the category of Romance, he believes his work should be defined with much more. In a recent interview with Sparks he stated “It's the difference between Cinderella and Romeo and Juliet. Cinderella is a classic - it's what the romance genre is: a fantasy, romantic escape. That's not what I do. I do Romeo and Juliet. Love and romance are a part of it, but so is the rest of the range of human emotion. And sadness is part of that and can come in different forms.” He is trying to get his audience to realize that yes; he writes about love and happiness but also wants his audience to feel the other emotions that go along with loving someone. Not everything will always be rainbows and butterflies in a relationship or companionship.  In correlation ”it is important to understand the link between love and tragedy: all great love stories, by definition, have to end in tragedy. The greater the love, the greater the tragedy when one of them dies.”  Sharing this input on his writing shows that he is not just about coming up with showy, fake stories with the fairytale ending. He writes stories based on scenarios that are very frequent or possible to happen in our everyday lives, in which leaves such a great affect on the audience.

               As I mentioned his writing skills very specifically, his skills in film making are a noticeable feature as well. When questioned about his books verse his movies he replied “What a lot of people really don't know is that in many ways the novels are just as powerful as the films. You can watch The Notebook, and love The Notebook, and look at the book and think to yourself, "I don't have to read that because I saw the film" or "I already know the story, so the book won't move me the way it did" - and yet it will. It's the same thing with The Last Song. I don't care if you've seen the film, the book is worth reading. I made them purposefully different.” By creating and adding different details in his books and movies, he’s giving an interesting and impressive effect that most authors cannot master. He wants the same message to be portrayed throughout each but doesn’t want to keep his followers from sticking to one over the other. It may seem stereotypical, but Nicholas really captures a girls mind and brings out every emotion he can. I have read many of his works and will continue my journey as he continues his writing career. I mean I have never met a girl who hasn’t dreamed about being the girl in his novels, who are always being saved by the beautiful guy, and steals the key to her heart.