Nicholas Sparks: Love Stories

24:49Rob Lowe:How do you, how do you, what do you, okay, the days when the muse is there, that's easy. It's like you just do it. But what do you do? Love those days. Right? But what do you do when the muse isn't there? Do you grind through it? Or do you say, you know what, I'm going to take a walk and, or I'm going to try again tomorrow. How do you handle that? Yes. Yes. Yes. And you heard the part about the sleepless nights. So yeah, you can walk, you take a break, you push away. You can't push away too long though, because there was such a timeframe. I would try to use my days pretty effectively. If I couldn't write, then I would edit, right?

25:29Because writing is rewriting for me anyway. It's a lot of editing. And my book is edited 10 times by me before it goes to my agent. and then she edits and then I edit her and then it goes to an editor. So it's a lot of self-editing. So if you can't write, that's what you do, right? Well, okay. Well, let's just make sure chapter one is as good as it can be. Right. And is it as efficient as it can be? Is it everything, is it working exactly the way I want it to? Because you have to do that regardless. And that's a different thing than creativity. Fixing something, it's a different, I don't know, feels like it uses a different part of your brain in a way.

26:14I don't know whether that's true, but it feels like that. And so you can always do something like that. And then, of course, if you think about those dates, look, there were holidays in there. I had Halloween, I had Thanksgiving, I had Christmas, I had my birthday, I had New Year's. So, anyway, it was quite the press. And it took me a while. I think I was finally done editing it in April. And I wasn't able to start writing again until July. I was just tired. Done. Tired. Just done. Just you turn on the faucet, but no water's coming out. And what was interesting is I had been working on a novel.

26:57and I had to set that aside because now I got to write Remain and that's coming out next. So set it aside, did that. So finally in April, I say, oh, okay, let me go back to this previous novel I'm working on. It's called Forever Garden. Be out whenever I'm done with it and they publish it. But I wasn't able to start working on Forever Garden again until July.

27:20Rob Lowe:When you went back to Forever Garden, what did you go? Wait a minute. Like, was it, did it feel, do you know what I'm saying? Did you go, I'm not sure about this. I'd like to be more of that. Or did you pick up right where you left off in terms of what you thought of it? To a certain extent, I mean, I knew I needed to cut it because it was a little bit long. And so I knew that, but it was funny. I'd forgotten a lot of the little details. So you had to reread and you had to read closely. Oh, okay. Oh yeah. yeah, oh yeah, I remember that. And you're like, gosh. For the most part, I was very happy with it.

27:57I just, the muse, it was really tough to turn it on. And this one's a very complex story versus Remain, which tends to be quicker. And it's simpler. Remain is a story. It starts, it's pretty much over within two and a half weeks. That's the whole length of the story. You have a little backstory and then it's a two and a half week story. two main characters, and then some secondary characters. The one I'm working on, yeah, there's two main characters, but there's very, very important supporting characters. And there's a lot of stuff going on. So it's a little more complex. And anyway, I'm writing.

28:40Rob Lowe:I could talk writing process all day long. I'm fascinated. Okay, well, let's start with this. It's hard. And a lot of the times, I don't like it at all. I don't find it easy. Now, why do I write then? I don't need to write. I love a challenge. And this is about the most challenging thing that I can do. I love the idea of the concept of wondering, I wonder if I can do it again. I wonder if I can write the best novel that I've ever written. That's what drove me first when writing The Notebook. That's what drives me now. It's the challenge of it because I do find it challenging. It's not the love of writing.

29:27As I said, writing is easy, but you got to edit it. You got to do this. Sometimes the muse doesn't flow. And then writing well is really, really tough, plus the editing, plus sometimes the

29:40Rob Lowe:muse doesn't flow. I think it's the Mark Twain quote, right? I hate writing, but love having written? Oh, gosh, that's me. I love the previous books I've written. They're my favorite. I mean, I do. I mean, I like them so much more than the novel I'm currently working on. I mean, they do nothing but give. They're happy. They're complete. I love them. But the one I'm working on, bug. So when you reach the level of you, or I know you're a big Stephen King fan, as am I, I was very lucky to do a number of adaptations of his, not the least of which was The Stand, that he actually wrote the screenplays to.

30:23Rob Lowe:And was on set. So got to spend a great quality time with Stephen. And, you know, talk about prolific. Like, I don't even know. Do you ever have aspirations to be, I mean, you're very prolific, but Stephen's other level. Other level. No, I don't. I mean, I suppose you could aspire to it. But I might as well aspire to being like Michael Jordan or someone else, right? Some people just have things that you don't have. I think that Stephen truly loves writing. I mean, I think if you read his book on writing or you read some of the things he says, he feels like a day isn't complete without writing.

31:10And I think originally he would write around 2 ,000 words a day. I think I read, and I could be wrong, he's somewhere around, because he's older now, 1 ,500 words a day. That's great. I mean, my favorite days are days I don't have to write, right? I'm done with the book. I could set it aside. Go see the grandkid. Don't worry about it. That's how I feel. We're wired a little bit differently and more power to him and God bless him. And I'm jealous that he loves this. If I was like him, well, okay, we can do the math, right? I mean, math is great. All right. So a typical novel of mine is, let's call it 100 ,000 words, right?

31:56But let's say you got to do 130 ,000 to get the 100 ,000 you're writing. Okay. Stephen writes 2 ,000 words every day. So, okay, 65 days. He would be writing five novels a year if he was writing my length novels. Well, he's done, of course, way more than I have. You know, 100 novels or 80 plus short stories or whatever. And he's done big, thick, thick, thick books, you know, It or The Stand like you just mentioned. The GFK book. Yeah. I mean, these are big, big, big, huge books. You know, if he was writing my stuff, and let's see, I've been doing this 25 years, I'd be talking about my 125th novel instead of talking about my 25th.

32:42It'd be great, right? But just He's got it, man. He's got the magic.

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35:37Rob Lowe:I'm always just blown away with people like you, Stephen, Grisham, who just... Yeah, they're the big three, kind of. They're the big three, you know, right? And then you see other guys who figure out a way to kind of, like, I'm not mentioning your names, but they kind of like, it feels like a shop. And you're like, I don't know, did he really write that? Oh, there's the other, I see the co-writer. You know what I mean? and it's like a brand that keeps going, which is a whole other thing. My sense is it would be awfully hard for a certain type of writer to give up their voice. Well, yeah, sure.

36:21Rob Lowe:I mean, and collaboration is one thing, but it's like, here's the, okay, let's talk about the celebrity memoir. I've written two of them and they, like people always assume that there was someone else involved. and I'm not against it, but I, I, first of all, I don't know what the point would be if it's my voice. It's my voice, not somebody else's voice. And then, and then there's also the, the, just the notion of, of by the time I would speak it to somebody and they would write it. And then I would just do it myself. Right. Sure. But not that many people do it in, in the celebrity memoir. I mean, one of my favorite ones is the Agassi book and is spectacular.

37:09Rob Lowe:But then - It's great. But then you go, oh yeah, but that's a Pulitzer Prize winner writer writing with him. Sure. So it's, you can get great results no matter how you do it. But I've just found it's very, I can't, it's like if somebody gives me something to like, how about the new, my other favorite in that world is the Wall Street Journal op-ed when it's clearly written by the society or the organization or that you're there to write about. The celebrity just signs their name on it. Well, hey, I think it goes to what I said earlier, right? Writing well is hard. And I'm glad you did it. I mean, you know, right?

37:55If you've lived in that world, It is, there's a lot that goes into writing something that you're proud to have written, especially when it's an extended narrative like a book or a novel or a memoir in any way. I don't begrudge those that can't. They hire co-writers. Look, I'm too busy worrying about my book and what I'm doing and my family and my kids and my life. More power to people. I suppose we could get caught up in it. I hear what you're saying. But there are some people that might be, you know, I did, I love the Agassi book, but there are probably some celebrities who don't have the ability that you do.

38:37And the only way to get their books out is through the help of someone who does spend their days writing and they're used to writing.

38:47Rob Lowe:I always am talking to people who I admire, who are maybe older, going, begging them to write a book about their lives, begging, begging. And they like, I'm not a writer. And that's where you go, well, get somebody to write it. Cause you, you, you have such amazing insight to share with people. I was talking to, talking to, to Lou Adler's kid, Lou owns the Roxy and like, you know, the Sunset Strip, like every band, everything from the 1960s to currently. I'm like, I want to know that life. I'm dying to know that life. Let me ask you this. If you could pick someone who hasn't written a book about their lives, that you would love to look underneath the hood, who would it be?

39:41Rob Lowe:Do you have somebody? And will this person be 100 % honest? we have to assume to me that's to me that's baked into the premise all right let's go with um elon musk oh i think it would be really interesting a yeah south africa well let's start with that's a love him or hate him that is one pretty smart dude yes everything from satellites to rockets to battery technology and oh he'd started other businesses before that. So that's one smart dude. Let's start with that. But then what a family, you know, you know, a little bit about his dad, his upbringing. I'm like, I just wonder what it would, wonder how he viewed his childhood, let's say.

40:28I mean, he was the smartest kid in the room probably ever since he was what, four? Yeah. Two? Yeah. Right. He's, you know, at what point was he out thinking his parents, right? How old was he, do you think?

40:44Rob Lowe:Three, four, five? What I make up, my writer, mine makes up is how scary that is for a four-year-old to know that there's no one coming. It's just you. I think it just would be fascinating. And of course, and I don't know the man or anything like that. I've read, or maybe I didn't, that some people say he might be on the spectrum or not, all fascinating to me. I mean, that would be fair. I have a son on the spectrum. So that part is fascinating to me. But is he? I don't know. I truly don't. But if it was honest and it was interesting, you know, he's coming from South Africa. When did he get to Canada?

41:23When did he get to US? What was his first big break? You can Wikipedia this and do that. But I'd love to hear his story and his voice about how, what he was thinking as he was going along that journey. so to speak you know and he's throwing the fact he's he made a lot of babies out there it's just it's they're not trying to pass any judge you said who who could write a memoir okay there's a guy okay this i i this is fascinating to me this whole situation and really what it what fascinates me most is subtract the babies subtract all the political stuff. It's like, what in the world is it like to be that smart?

42:07Rob Lowe:Right. You know, could he even put it into words? That's great. I don't know.

42:19What would you say to him? I mean, you've met him, hi, great, okay, but whatever you say, he's probably thought it out 35 times and whatever. What can you say? I just find the whole concept fascinating.

42:37Rob Lowe:What a great character, the smartest man in the world. Right. This might be a, you might have to talk tonight about this. I could see him doing smartest man in the world. What is that really, where do you go with that? Like, what does that make you, that superpower? Right. It is superpower. It's a superpower. You know, it's interesting to me. The whole thing is. Have you seen the theory that he has actually had the Neuralink implanted in himself? That theory? I'm vaguely aware of that. Is that true? I don't know. How great would that? But that's the version I want. But I'll say, well, I don't know.

43:18That seems kind of new. And it seems like he's been smart for a mighty long time already.

43:23Rob Lowe:Oh, the Neuralink. Yeah. Under the theory. Don't get me wrong. The theory isn't that that's why he's smart. It's only that he's smart, invented it. And he was like, I'm the guinea pig. Give it to me. And like, that's why you'll see him in the interviews when he's sometimes asked a question, just the blink, blink, blink, blink, blink, blink. He's going through the screens in his eyes. Sure. Crazy, right? Yeah, I have, yeah. I mean, I'm not gonna - This is what writers do. We're pitching. We're pitching to each other right now. Yeah, I just think, anyway. Yeah, that's one person I think would be, I think that would be fascinating.

43:55What do you read in your spare time? Oh, gosh, I read, I really like nonfiction. So I read a lot of history. I read economics, I read theology, I read sociology, various psychology. So it really spans the gamut. And I really particularly like well-written books about esoteric pieces of history, like, for instance, Empires of the Sea, which covers the siege of Malta and the Battle of Lepanto in the 1500s in the Mediterranean. when the Ottomans were coming in from the east and then you had Western Europe, but they were all bickering with each other and were the Ottomans going to take everything?

44:42And anyway, there were these two major battles, which pretty much continued the delineation up to that point, Eastern, Mediterranean and Western. But the Ottomans wanted the whole thing. So that kind of stopped it. But look, I went to nice high schools. I went to Notre Dame. I don't remember reading anything about the Siege of Malta or the Battle of Lepanto. So I like those kinds of things. Or you get a book, what is it, by Dana Sobel or something called Longitude. And you're like, okay, let me read a book about longitude. And it's the development of clocks that could be so accurate so that sailors would know where they are going east to west across the ocean.

45:26so they're not crashing into rocks or sandbars or whatever. What a great book. Like I will tell, I'll give you a highlight of this book. So they needed a super accurate clock. So this guy, and remember, this is back in the 1700s. We don't have high precision tools and machinery to do this. So his goal was to build a clock essentially that was accurate to within, And I don't know, it was supposed to be like three seconds per month on a rocking ship. Wow. So he builds the first one and it's like two feet by three feet tall. You're like, okay. And because he's trying to win this contest, government puts up a contest.

46:11And then he says, no, he pulls it back. So then he builds a second clock. It's a little bit smaller and it's, you know, two feet by a foot and a half. And all of these are, by the way, are in a museum in Greenwich, England. Then he builds a third one, kind of the same thing. Then he vanishes for 10 years. And then, because he's working on a new clock, clock number four, because they still haven't given him his prize. And it's a watch this big, this big. Went from this, this, this, to this. And remember, this is back in the 1700s. And it worked and it was amazing. I don't know. I like that stuff.

46:51Just learning about, okay, because longitude changes. changed the world in a way, right? It just changed the world. You know, For Matt's Last Theorem, or what is his name? Yeah, For Matt's Last Theorem, that's a great book, kind of the history of math, whatever. That's the kind of stuff I love to read. And then, of course, novels. And that Stephen King, many of your well-known authors write, I'll really enjoy Stephen King. I like Lee Child. I like Harlan Coben. I think Mike Connelly's very good. I read literary fiction. What else do I read? Some selected foreign fiction. If it's really good, something like Carlos Zafon's The Shadow of the Wind is really quite extraordinary.

47:33But yeah, when you're reading a book a year, here's the sad thing. If you read a book a week for a year, 50, book and a half, let's say I do 75 books a year, maybe of those 75, four or five really stick with me. and I say, wow, that was great. And the other 70 were fine. They were good. They were well-written, but they're not particularly, they don't stick as well. Sure. I love finding those four or five a year that really stick with you. It's like going on a treasure hunt and you found some. Yeah. It's really great.

48:09Rob Lowe:I'm currently obsessed. I love historical fiction and I'm reading about the Donner Party right now. Oh, The Indifference Stars Above? It's great, yes. That's the one. Good for you. Good call. Yeah, I've read it. Fabulous. Oh my gosh. So sad. So sad. It's like I thought, and I'm actually shooting a movie right now at Donner Lake. So I'm actually there and reading it. Have you gone exploring? Oh, yes. I've done the whole thing. I've been to where the cabins were. I've literally walked from where they, how long it would have taken them had they just gotten to the, and you cannot believe, this is my latest Donner Party thing.

48:50that the guide told me at the park

48:53Rob Lowe:that isn't in any of the books. So the snow drifts were anywhere from 15 to 20 feet. Right. So they're waiting for the lamentable party to return and they've got a fire going and obviously the fire melts the snow. Right. So they're digging farther down to get near the fire, get closer to the fire. and they literally realized now they are in a hole 20 feet deep. And they were in that hole for three weeks. Yeah. Oh, yeah. It's in the book. Oh, yeah. I read it. I mean, it's just a series of - My dream is to make that - Terrible decisions, you know, just bad. Not even terrible. Certainly decisions not made with malice or anything.

49:46Rob Lowe:That's the thing that's always made the Titanic. The wrong decision. It's the Titanic thing. It didn't work out. It's a series of incremental decisions, any one of which, had they made the right one, changes everything. Right. And the cumulative effect is a tragedy of unbelievable. I'm obsessed with that storytelling mechanism, right? It's great. It's great. I mean, and the guy who wrote that one was great. You know, you should read Isaac Storm by Eric Larson. That's great. That's about Galveston Hurricane in 1900. and it was, it's unbelievable. I'm aware, I'm super aware of that event, but I didn't know there was a book.

50:23Rob Lowe:Oh, that's great. It's called Isaac's Storm because Isaac was a, Isaac Klein was the head of the National Weather Service in Galveston. And he's putting out a weather report for the next day, Saturday, you know, fair skies, increasing winds, might be a little rain tonight. Of course, Galveston gets, it's horrible. I don't know why I'm laughing. It's just, I'm laughing at what he put out, not what happened. Really sad. Here's my other one you got to get into is the Halifax explosion. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, bro, this is unbelievable. It was the biggest explosion. It still is the second biggest non-nuclear explosion in history.

51:17Rob Lowe:If you've ever been to Halifax, you know how big that bay. It's the second largest bay in the world. Blew the water out of the bay. And I think it killed 3 ,000 people. And it's the biggest bay in the world, and yet it's a head-on collision that did it. So in the biggest bay in the world, these two ships managed to hit each other head-on. And one was literally a dynamite nitroglycerin ship. You can't make it up. and they knew it was coming. Now, when was this? World War I. Yeah. And the flash was so bright that it blinded hundreds of thousands of people. And the reason we have the modern eye care that we have is because of the experiments from the Halifax, the blinding of the Halifax explosion.

52:09Rob Lowe:It's unreal. Yeah, I will definitely. Look, you gave me, thank you for that. I love a great book recommendation. Is that what the book is called, Halifax Explosion? There's a bunch of different ones. And to be honest, I've never really found the definitive one. But I'm sure that there's one. There is one called the Halifax Explosion. But it's a good one. I'll figure it out. I'll figure it out. Yeah, those are the things. I mean, over the summer, I went through a World War II kick. I really got into reading what happened in the Pacific theater because I knew quite a bit about the European theater, theater, both from earlier readings and Rick Atkinson's wonderful trilogy.

52:47And then I found a really great trilogy on the Pacific theater, finally finished. It's by Ian Toll and three books, really big books, but excellent, you know, and really a great oversight and really gave me some insight into the battles in that particular area. So yeah, anything like that. If it's interesting and well-written, I'm going to read it. That's great. Look, I like reading a lot more than I like writing. Reading is so joyful. It just gives to me, right? All I have to do is put my eyes down and there is a gift just waiting there for me. I don't have to move. I don't have to do anything.

53:29It's just there, especially when you find a book or a novel that is really great. Like I said, to me, it's just still one of the great experiences.

53:41Rob Lowe:Well, this has been a great conversation. You've inspired me because I am on a deadline of my third book. And I've been being a very bad boy. I have been a procrastinating bad, bad boy. And I think we were meant to have this conversation today, if for no other reason, for me to be serious and go back and try to get this thing over the finish line. Well, you know, I'll tell you what, and I don't give advice, but here's one of the tricks that I do and take it for what it's worth. You're having a little trouble getting back into it. Okay. Just do what we talked about earlier. Go grab what you've written.

54:24Look, just tell yourself, look, I'm not going to write today, but start at chapter one. And just, you know, if you do it on a computer, you know, change things, highlight however you make your edits. Pencil, paper, however you do it. Start there. And then, hey, get through 10 pages. Like, okay, that's good. You can't do it tomorrow, the day after that? Do the next 10. And pretty soon, by the time you're edited up, which will only make what you've written even better, by the way, it's even going to be better. You're going to be back in that story and know exactly what you want to write. That's great.

55:01Rob Lowe:That is, and by the way, that is exactly what I do do. And it works like a charm. Like you said, it feels different. It's a different gear. Yeah, it's not overwhelming. You don't have to create. You're just fixing. Fixing is different. Fixing is, remodeling is different from the ground up, man. We've all built homes. We know what that's like. Exactly. No question. No question. Well, thanks. This has been really, really great. I've been a big admirer. And, you know, the next 50-something, you know, romantic lead you write, I'm expecting you to call me. That's all I'm saying. Will do. Will do. I appreciate it.

55:42Rob Lowe:Hey, thanks for having me on again. This has been a lot of fun. Always great talking to you. Thank you, brother. Talk to you soon. Thanks. All right. Talk.

55:55Rob Lowe:That was fun. And by the way, if you want to see The Notebook, you can get your tickets at notebookmusical.com. Notebookmusical.com. That sounds like an emotional night. I think I'll take my wife to that. Maybe get lucky afterwards. I don't know. Anyway, thanks to Nicholas. Thanks to you for listening wherever you are. Always appreciated. And I will see you right here next week on Literally. you've been listening to literally with rob low produced by me sean doherty with help from associate producer sean calvano research by jeff fox engineering and mixing by joanna samuel our executive producers are rob low for low profile and nick leow adam sax and jeff ross for team coco booking by katherine cook music by devin bryant special thanks to hidden city studios Thanks for listening.

56:53We'll see you next time on Literally.

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