A talented cello player must make the difficult choice between leaving her family, pursuing her dreams, and going to Julliard or not. However, her entire family gets into a car crash, instantly dying, and puts her into a coma. Now she has to choose between joining her family in the afterlife or wake up and be reunited with her boyfriend. This “out-of-body” story takes place in Gayle Forman’s novel “If I Stay” which was later adapted into a movie. Forman visited the Learning Commons during a seminar author visit on March 3rd and spoke about her experiences in the field and how she got to where she is today.
“I’ve always written. Even before I could write, I made up stories in my head, and I was like a little kid who wrote plays and stories and poems,” Forman said, “but I never thought I would do it professionally.”
Forman’s career went a different direction initially, and she took nine years off before college and worked with Doctors Without Borders and then went to college to pursue a pre-med track. However, after taking a journalism class she fell in love with the field and became a journalist for the next 12 years.
“It just all clicked, because I love to travel, I love to talk to people, and I love to write,” Forman said.
While she loved being a journalist, writing fiction never occurred to her. It was only after she had her first kid that she decided to start.
“I had my first kid, and couldn’t travel and do this sort of journalism like I’d been doing,” Forman said. “And so I wound up kind of accidentally writing my first novel and realizing this is what I’m meant to be doing.”
Working as a journalist not only inspired her to become a better writer but also shaped how she handled the complexities of being one. Working in a deadline-driven profession all her life helped Forman manage the stress of similar ones she now faces writing books. Traveling also opened new literary doors for Forman.
“When you travel young, you understand that you are not the center of the universe,” Forman said. “People are very, very different on the outside and yet there’s basic things that link us all. I think that gives you a sense of empathy. I think writing fiction in particular, you are putting on someone else’s body or putting on someone else’s experience.”
Forman also believes that one of the biggest influences on her writing is her family. Her experiences with her daughter have molded the perspective she takes while writing and is apparent in her books as well. For example, Forman wrote “If I Stay” after being at home for three years with her daughter when she couldn’t afford a babysitter.
“That book is based on nothing to do with my daughter. But it’s also so much about how when you have children, you make these sacrifices for them, and you don’t even think of them as sacrifices, because you would do anything. So from that point on, [my family] has informed all my work,” Forman said.
Similar to how Forman became more empathetic after traveling, experiences with her family guide the experiences of her characters as well. Yet Forman still struggles with the writing process as a whole and speaks to how she manages writer’s block and the stress of outputting quality material.
“I find that the busier I am, the better of a writer that I am, because sitting there and having eight hours and thinking you’re gonna be able to fill the eight hours with quality writing is crazy,” Forman said. “I think handling stress is the same as handling everything else; you have to sort of keep it in perspective.” “If you get tired of something, give it a break and then you can come back to it and be refreshed on it. I think there’s a good lesson out there.”
To keep from becoming overwhelmed in the writing process, which prevents her from doing her best work, Forman also tries to keep busy outside of her day-to-day work.
“I do yoga, I walk my dog, I see my friends, I love to cook, I love to entertain and have people over, and all those things kind of bring me joy and mitigate the stress, whether it’s from writing or career or other things,” Forman said.
Senior Blake Graf attended the author visit and was able to take inspiration from Forman’s experiences. Although Graf doesn’t have any plans to become a writer, he learned some valuable lessons on approaching problems in any facet of his life.
“I thought it was pretty cool that an author came into our school and told us what her thought process was and how she wrote her books. It was really inspiring,” Graf said.
Now, after publishing several bestselling books and releasing a movie adaption of her book, Forman hopes to continue expanding her abilities as a writer. She is currently revising a dystopian novel and is excited for what’s next to come on her journey as an author.
