No Need for Detriment

Is it possible to squeeze eighteen novels, two short stories and a play out of an almost prefect childhood, a mother-daughter bond as strong as diamonds, and a dream job? In Jodi Picoult’s eyes, yes. Behind her stories there is an inspiration, so what is this inspiration that has pushed Jodi Picoult to the top of the best sellers list 18 different times? From age 5 –is now 45–Picoult has always wanted to be a writer. Her first story was called The Lobster Who Was Misunderstood.

From then on writing became one of her main focus and a big part of her life. What is a Princeton student, pushing her way through college, supposed to write about? Picoult had an uneventful childhood that she thought would be no help for her writing future. “I thought when I was younger I would have to cause detriment because I couldn’t figure out what to write about,” (“Jodi Picoult: Biography”) Picoult states. When she had to write a paper for one of her writing classes she could not think of an interesting topic. “I remember calling home and asking my mother if there was some family scandal or incest she may have forgotten about that could bring life to my paper,” (“Jodi Picoult; Biography”)Picoult says.

As you may have guessed she found that bit of information that later became her incentive. That stimulation isn’t as scandalous as it seems. Picoult found that the simplest forms of drama were easier to write about. She based some of her books on her own rubble of relationships. Like most college students with a dream to go big suddenly becoming a reality –she had two short stories published in Seventeen Magazine– she still found time for some fun.

Picoult had many boyfriends through her time at Princeton while studying creative writing, but she still had not found the right one when she left Princeton to go pursue her career of teaching. Yes, Jodi Picoult was a teacher. Not many people know that this was a part of her inspiration. For awhile she taught an eighth grade English class. Picoult then went back to school. She received he masters degree at Harvard. There Picoult meet her current husband. After dating for awhile they were married, soon after she became pregnant with her first son. At this time Picoult wrote her first novel, Songs of a Humpback Whale. Her newest novel Sing you home, is a lot about relationships.

This goes back to her first inspiration and shows the hurt and sorrow of some of her personal relationships. Most people forget their roots. Well Picoult is taking this on in a whole new way. Most authors end up talking at schools or cafe’s or somewhere at one time or another in their career, but Picoult is here for a different reason than most. She does not go to schools to promote her new book or to tell kids to read.

She is here to inspire. Her old English class had inspired her to go back to school, which after a series of events helped her make her first novel. So now Picoult is talking to middle school students to help them become the best writer then can. In other words she is going back to her roots. Her roots of incentives.

Traumatic and life shaking are two words most people think of when they hear the word inspiration. Picoult has broken those boundaries of inspiration and changed the definition. She showed us even little things can reach the top. Picoult points out a writer can have a life as boring as the next and no detriment needs to take place to show your inner imagination. Picoult can sing home (pun intended) as yet another Picoult novel has reached the best sellers list.

So there you have it, an inspiration that supplied a life time of novel’s and possibly more to come. Yet readers are still puzzled by what Picoult will think of next. More drama? Love? Adventure? You never know with an inspiration like the one she has.