Even the most famous authors once struggled as aspiring writers.

GalleyCat contributor Jeff Rivera interviewed novelist Nicholas Sparks for mediabistro.com’s So What Do You Do? feature. The author shared some candid memories about his early days as a struggling writer.

Here’s an excerpt: “at 28-years-old, I had realized I didn’t want to move my family every couple of years. I also knew at the same time that I didn’t want to be a pharmaceutical rep for the rest of my life. So, I had an epiphany. I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to give writing another shot’ and you know, I came up with the story for The Notebook, and I had two small children at that time. I had from 9 a.m. to midnight to work and so I did, three or four days a week. Six months later, I had finished the novel. Three years prior to that, I hadn’t written a thing.”