Movies from the Heart—The Notebook

I love the story of the writer who wrote the novel, The Notebook - Nicholas Sparks.

Seems that a literary agent, Theresa Park, just happened to pick his novel out of the agency’s slush pile and took it home to read. A slush pile at a lit agency is stacks of novels that were submitted by writers in hopes that they’ll get a book contract. Writers are VERY much discouraged anymore from sending novels “over the transom” as the saying goes, so I’m not advising it. But I still love this story.

So the agent reads the book, thinks it’s good—this is 1995—and she offers to be his agent. He’s delighted, as you can imagine. Within a short time, the agent secures a $1 million advance for Sparks from the Time Warner Book Group. The book was published a year later and was immediately on the NY Times bestseller list—where it stayed for about a year.

What I love about this story—beyond just a good writer getting noticed—is the serendipity of it. What if the agent had picked a different novel from the slush pile? Would Sparks’ novel ever have gotten noticed?

This resonates so much with me—and should for all writers—because it’s important to realize how much luck is involved in the writing business. Whether or not you get published, whether or not your screenplay gets bought, whether or not you sell a short story… whatever you’re going for is absolutely fraught with chance. There are hundreds—maybe thousands—of great writers out there who never get noticed.

Bottom line—take heart. Your break could be coming up. But if it doesn’t happen, realize it may be because the right person just hasn’t seen your work.

As to the film The Notebook [2004], by Jeremy Leven, adaptation by Jan Sardi, it was an audience favorite. And it does something that’s difficult to do—it interweaves two stories involving the same characters from two different time periods. AND it keeps you in suspense about what’s going to happen with them—in the past and in the present.

Take a look at a trailer for the film.

So the film begins with this older man reading to a woman in a nursing home—a woman who’s seen better days. And as he reads the story, it comes alive, and we see the story of this young couple. And the girl in it is torn between two men… and we can’t wait to see who she’ll end up with.

But there are surprises here. The story isn’t always predictable. It keeps you guessing. And the way the stories are woven together is seamless.

So if you have ANY inclination to write a story set in two time periods, this is a film to study.

Next week, let’s look at the period romance, Finding Neverland.

Copyright © Diane Lake

30Jun24

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