Hi @gracefulmoretz, and thanks for such kind words.
There are several ways to answer this question, so I’m going to answer what is the inspiration for books. Usually, it’s two things. First, a premise: A what-if? question. In If I Stay’s case, that question was: What if something catastrophic happened to your family and you yourself were hanging between life and death, and knew what had happened, and could choose. What would you do? So I have this premise swirling around in my head for years (because writers are morbid people), but it’s not a book yet. It becomes a book when the character arrives. And she did. Out of the blue. One October morning. Seventeen years old. Serious. Smart. And a cellist. This collision of premise and character is the spark, the inspiration, of a book. And then the story itself becomes its own propulsive engine, inspiring me to keep going.
- Gayle Forman