Jodi Picoult is not only the bestselling author of My Sister’s Keeper which made all of us cry years ago (book and film alike); she’s a Princeton alum too! Jodi Picoult is a shining star of what Princeton women are able to do, so let worries of grade deflation slip away. Also, the coolest and most recent news about Jodi Picoult? Her book, Sing You Home, has been picked up for a movie adaptation by Ellen DeGeneres! Talk about exciting: watch the interview below.
HCP: How was your Princeton experience?
JP: Fabulous. I loved it, and that is why I try to give back to Princeton any way I can.
HCP:On Princeton’s campus, there’s obvious judgment if one voices that they aren’t an engineer, science major, or even economics major. Many students have the inherent drive to be successful, and at Princeton obtain the drive to be practical. Do you think this drive led you to many different careers before you became a writer?
JP: It wasn’t like that so much in the 80s. I didn’t feel like, being an English/CW major, that I was being judged. When I was there it was about learning, connecting with professors, and really expanding your own mind — not so much about what job you were going to get when you got out. I think that’s probably a function of today’s economy!
HCP:What do you wish you knew in college?
JP:That it would all work out – and that I would be able to do the thing I loved to do. And that a broken heart would heal and I’d wind up very happy and married to the guy who was my buddy on the crew team!
HCP:What is your advice to hopeful college novelists?
JP: DO IT. Many people have a novel inside them, but most don’t bother to get it out. Writing is grunt work – you need to have self-motivation, perseverance, and faith… talent is the smallest part of it (one need only read some of the titles on the NYT Bestseller list to see that… :) If you don’t believe in yourself, and you don’t have the fortitude to make that dream happen, why should the hotshots in the publishing world take a chance on you? I don’t believe that you need an MFA to be a writer, but I do think you need to take some good workshops. These are often offered through writer’s groups or community colleges. You need to learn to write on demand, and to get critiqued without flinching. When someone can rip your work to shreds without it feeling as though your arm has been hacked off, you’re ready to send your novel off to an agent. There’s no magic way to get one of those – it took me longer to find my wonderful agent than it did to get published! I suggest the Literary Marketplace, or another library reference material. Keep sending out your work and don’t get discouraged when it comes back from an agent – just send it out to a different one. Attend signings/lectures by authors, and in your free time, read read read. All of this will make you a better writer. And – here’s a critical part – when you finally start to write something, do not let yourself stop…even when you are convinced it’s the worst garbage ever. This is the biggest caveat for beginning writers. Instead, force yourself to finish what you began, and THEN go back and edit it. If you keep scrapping your beginnings, however, you’ll never know if you can reach an end.
HCP:You’ve mentioned that The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks is the worst book you’ve ever read. Why is that and do you prefer the movie?
JP: The movie is better, although it was directed by Nick Cassavetes who directed My Sister’s Keeper and who effectively screwed up the story. But the Notebook is a good story, poorly told – trite characters, flat dialogue — and in real life Mr. Sparks isn’t a very nice man.
HCP:How does it feel to watch your books play out on the screen. Do changes to characters or plot, even subtle changes, frustrate you?
JP:Yes, because authors have no control over the movie versions. With MSK, the director flat out lied to me and said he’d keep the ending, which was one of my contingencies. Needless to say, that didn’t happen! The only saving grace is knowing that my book still is out there, and can be reread just the way I had hoped the story would go!
HCP:Your most recent book out, Sing You Home, has received mixed reviews. One reviewer on Amazon wrote: Where is the author of “My Sister’s Keeper” or “Plain Truth”? What is it about Sing You Home that makes readers doubt your authorship? Do you think the novel will garner better reviews in time?
JP: I have to correct you here – my book has gotten excellent reviews. It’s gotten mixed AMAZON reviews. There’s a big difference. Amazon reviewers are often people who have a grudge, or who are jealous about not writing themselves, or who didn’t get a chance to eat breakfast — who knows. I actually don’t read those anymore. The reviewers on Amazon aren’t really doubting my authorship – which hasn’t changed a whit. They are upset with, and unable to articulate, the fact that they don’t like the subject matter – gay rights. When you look at the number of posts about how some people feel the book is anti-Christian (it isn’t, and it states that case explicitly in the book) I think it’s a matter of people who are upset with the story I chose to tell. It doesn’t bother me. Because for every single narrow-minded Amazon review, I have had a teenager come up to me at a signing with tears in her eyes, saying she came out to her parents and that they don’t talk to her now. And as long as that is going on in the world, I know that this book needed to be written.