As an avid NICHOLAS SPARKS fanatic, as soon as this Q&A hit my inbox I was reduced to a melted mess on the floor. Being more a visual girl and not so big on reading, it surprises me that Sparks - author of 'THE LAST SONG' - is one of my all time favourites. I'm not sure why I love his novels so much, or even more so, when the novels are developed into films! I wish that I was lying when I say that 'A WALK TO REMEMBER', 'THE NOTEBOOK' and 'NIGHTS IN RODANTHE'... and now 'THE LAST SONG', are in my top ten movies of all time. Seriously, I could happily watch them on repeat if ever need be. [Noted: I probably just lost a few friends...]

'The Last Song' was written under very interesting circumstances, as you will find out in the following Q&A. Let's just say that MILEY CYRUS has quite a lot of influence. Not that we weren't already aware of it - just weird to have it confirmed and acknowledged by such a successful writer.

"The Last Song centers on this moving father/daughter relationship - as well as Ronnie’s relationship with her younger brother (Bobby Coleman). There is also a powerful romance as Ronnie falls in love with a local boy, Will (Liam Hemsworth). The film explores the turbulence and wonder of first love. And it focuses on the poignant journey of a girl who is searching for meaning in her life."

What was it like working with Miley Cyrus?
NICHOLAS SPARKS: She is a remarkably mature young lady and it was very obvious from the beginning that she was very passionate about the project and that always makes it easy to work with someone. She gave me a lot of input which was great.

This is a different, much more complex role for Miley isn’t it?
SPARKS: Yes it was a new experience for her, but I think that’s what she wanted to do. She’s getting older and wants to have a long career so I think she wanted to have a good transitional role to take her to that next level. That kind of role is really hard to find. Her mom and her older sister had read a lot of my novels, so they were already very interested in working with me.

So what exactly happened?
SPARKS: The Cyrus family approached Adam Shankman (producer) and he called me asking whether I would be interested in writing something. I said ‘yeah I’ll think about it’ but I didn’t commit to the project. I guess that was in late June and I didn’t commit to the project until August because I wanted to make sure that I had a really good story. It is hard to come up with a really good idea for a novel. I really try to write novels that will be remembered for a long time; whether I do or not that’s up for you to decide. I try to make them original. And at the time I was actually already thinking that I would like to write a story about a teenage girl. If you look at the last of my books that have come out, they were characters aged from 20 to 50. 'The Notebook' still lingers in people’s imaginations. So I thought it would probably be better to do a story about a young girl. I was leaning toward that age range anyway. That was when I got the call coincidentally, asking whether I had anything that Miley might be interested in. So it worked out well.

How long did it take for you to come up with a good story?
SPARKS: I just spent the next six or seven weeks from that day in June trying to come up with a story. By August I said ‘I have a story’ and I knew that this was going to be my next novel because I had just spent a lot of time thinking about it and I had the whole story mapped out. I had talked to Miley and it was written for her, but there was also a really good novel behind the screenplay.

When you and Miley talked initially, what did you discuss?
SPARKS: I asked her whether there was anything particular that she wanted in the film. She said she really liked animals so we’ve got some turtles in there <laughs>. Seriously, that is why there are turtles in the film. Then I asked her whether or not she wanted to sing, because that was very important, and I asked her whether or not she would have trouble playing someone who might be a little angry and shows a lot of growth in the film. So I was aware of what Miley wanted.  One of the reasons the Cyrus family was very comfortable with me and I was very comfortable with them was I never have extreme behavior (sex and drugs) or any of those kinds of things in my books. I don’t even put profanity in my novels. So it all worked out well.

Why do these novels work so well when they are transferred to the big screen?
SPARKS: All of my novels have certain similar elements in them. There’s generally an element of tragedy in them. If you’ve seen 'Message In A Bottle', there’s some tragedy in there and 'A Walk To Remember'. Also, generally they have very universal but likeable characters and they tend to be strong on loyalty to family. When push comes to shove, it is your family that matters, so I don’t have wives for instance running off with their lovers and leaving their kids behind. And knowing certain things about Miley helped me with the plot. I knew that music was going to play a role of course, because it was Miley. If Miley wasn’t in the film, there may have not been a musical element. But there would have been something that her father did with her that would develop in the story.

What criteria do you have for writing your novels?
SPARKS: I certainly care very much about the craft and the artistry and style. Anything I do has to meet my own high standards. Look, I had lots of sleepless nights writing 'The Last Song'. That is just me getting the story right in my own mind and getting it down on paper the way I really wanted to do it.

Can you explain how you write your novels?
SPARKS: I come up with the story first, which does include the plot and by that time I know the beginning, the end and six or seven of the turning points in the novel. And then from there I know some very general things about the characters, their age and whether or not they’ve ever been married or whether this is first love or whatever. Then I go from there and I really try and create in my own mind the ideal structure to amplify the story, because you know 'The Last Song' as a novel is very linear. It starts at the beginning of the Summer and ends at the end of the Summer. However the novel I’m currently working on is a three-part story, each story is set 20 years apart. So in that kind of novel, you are flashing back in time and writing about the present and writing about the future. The same is true with a book like 'The Notebook'. Depending on the structure you can write in different ways. With 'The Notebook', it could have been different: here is this couple at 16, here are they are at 28 and here they are at 80, but it wasn’t like that. It started in their 80's, went to 40 and back to 20. So you work on the best structure to make the story the most memorable I guess. And then from there, once you have the structure, you do the same thing with the voices, you work to make the best voices to amplify this particular story.

How does that technique apply to this film?
SPARKS: If you look at 'The Last Song', in order to really amplify this story from beginning to end, you needed Ronnie to have a lot of redemption. So what that means is that in the beginning she’s got to be a little harder. You can’t be redeemed if you’re already perfect. You know, you’ve got to start a little low <laughs>. But you’ve got that fine line that you don’t want to cross so that the audience is turned off. It is a fine line in the novel and in the screenplay. So I make her angry, then show her humanity and then show her growth. She is who she is, but her voice matures. Then once all that is  clear in my head, I sit down and start writing. Hence the seven weeks it took me to think of all this stuff <laughs>.

Do you do a lot of extensive research to get into the minds of the characters – in this case teenagers?
SPARKS: I do very little. I have teenagers and I coach teenagers, I can relate to them and I feel young at heart. But that kind of research is not part of the creative process for me. I say: ‘If I am this person, how am I seeing the world?’ Then I create the voice. My process as a writer is of course very different from other writers. There is no right and wrong. Stephen King will give you a totally different explanation about how he does his writing. These are very different kinds of novels. Most authors write about external conflict. You’ve got the bad guy at the magic school, the killer shark in the water, you’ve got dinosaurs running loose and you are turning pages. It is very hard to stop a chapter when the bad guy is right outside the window with a knife about to kill the hero and heroine. The internal conflict I write about is different: will she fall in love? Is he the right person? Will I forget my dad? Try ending those chapters on cliff-hangers. So I have to be much more clear because I don’t have any real easy hooks to hang. That is just my thought on it all.

Who have been your literary inspirations?
SPARKS: I am a big fan of Stephen King. As far as literary style, I really like the work of an author named Ethan Canin. I don’t know whether anyone has heard of him but I like him a lot.

There is invariably a shoreline, water and plenty of rain in your novels, why is that?
SPARKS: Because that is where I live. I try to make my stories as original as possible, granted you all know they are love stories and they are all set in North Carolina by water and they all have likeable characters. But other than that the stories are different. I vary their ages and the characters themselves, the type of people they are and their dilemmas and what they are currently facing, how characters are brought together. However, audiences do like to know a little bit about what is coming and part of that is the area of the world in which I write. We don’t have much there <laughs> I make it look real pretty but basically there are farms, pine trees and rivers and some beaches. We have no mountains and no really grand old cities, we don’t have those things. So I work with what we have.

On the set did you actually see the fantastic chemistry between Miley and Liam?
SPARKS: I saw right from the very beginning that there was great chemistry, because I was there in the very early stages. They are both really great young people. It was lucky the chemistry was so good because that is a very important element in a film like this.

Do you have any one huge literary dream or book that you are longing to write?
SPARKS: Boy that is a difficult question. I don’t know. That is a big lofty goal and I don’t know that setting out to do something like that - a major work - is really feasible anyway. I can say that 'The Notebook' was a big one for me. It is taught in schools around the United States, it is a classic example of a late 20th Century love story. I don’t know if it is my best work but it was a good one.

Have you always been writing novels?
SPARKS: I wrote my very first novel when I was 19 and it was a horror story believe it or not - it was never published. I was not Stephen King I found out. I love Stephen King though, because he never loses sight of telling a good story. That is what I tried to do in 'The Last Song'. I tried to write a good story. Writing has always been a driving force for me. I don’t write in order that maybe my books will one day be regarded as classics. I try to write something that stands on its own and hopefully will be timeless. Hopefully, in 40 years people will be watching this film and enjoying it. A girl in the future could watch 'The Last Song' and think: ‘I am an angry, rebellious teenage girl, I understand and relate to what Ronnie is going through’. That is what Jane Austen did, that is what Balzac did, they created characters who are still very real and that is what I always aim to do.