American author Jodi Picoult has written 13 bestselling novels including Harvesting the Heart, Salem Falls, Perfect Match, My Sister's Keeper, Vanishing Acts and, most recently The Tenth Circle. She lives in Hanover, New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Jodi took time out of her busy schedule to reveal her writing tips and top five reads.
Jodi Picoult's top 5 writing tips
1. Give yourself dedicated time to write.
Even if it's only a half hour each day - if you carve a spot out of your busy life and devote it to writing, the chance of getting something done increases exponentially.
2. Write what you love.
If you are crazy about fantasy fiction, or romance, or historical novels - then stick to that genre. You have to be engaged before you can make a reader engage.
3. Don't stop.
At some point, every novice writer decides that what's on his/her screen is surely the worst drivel to ever be introduced into the world... and deletes what's been done so far. The problem is if you keep doing this, you'll never know if you can finish anything. So, when the doubt strikes, keep writing. Force yourself. When you get to the end, you can THEN decide whether to scrap it or to edit it into something you adore.
4. Write for yourself.
If you are busy thinking of what your readers will think, or your future publisher, or even your Aunt Mabel, your writing will not be as pure and as heartfelt as if you create straight from the heart.
5. Be a student of the world.
That's a nice way of saying that eavesdropping is a professional requirement, for a writer. Listen to folks fighting in airports, chattering on buses, flirting. It gives you a sense of the natural rhythm of language and dialogue - and just might inspire a story.
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
I love anything by Alice, but this is a particularly good one. It is about a girl who comes from a family of gifted women and whose personal gift is to accurately predict how someone will die. The real joy of the book, though, is the writing - Alice Hoffman can describe love like no one else I've ever read.
2. The Breakdown Lane by Jacquelyn Mitchard
A terrific story about the dissolution of a family, and the way it fits itself back together into something new. It's written in multiple narratives, including a teenage son who is heartbreaking and hilarious all at once.
3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
A book about an Indian boy shipwrecked on a rubber raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with a 500lb Bengal tiger - but it's REALLY a story about faith, and the power of stories in our lives. This is one of those books I finished and said, "I wish I'd written that."
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
What a debut novel! It's the story of Henry, a time-traveling man who can't control his episodes of vanishing and reappearing, and Clare, the woman who loves him and is always left behind. It's not sci-fi as much as a love story about the people we meet in our lives, and how in the same life, we might be at different places.
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
Narrated with perfect pitch by an autistic teenager who is out to solve a mystery about a dead neighbourhood dog but who winds up unraveling a family mystery instead. This book is quiet, original, and heartbreaking.
American author Jodi Picoult has written 13 bestselling novels including Harvesting the Heart, Salem Falls, Perfect Match, My Sister's Keeper, Vanishing Acts and, most recently The Tenth Circle. She lives in Hanover, New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Jodi took time out of her busy schedule to reveal her writing tips and top five reads.
The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman 
2. The Breakdown Lane by Jacquelyn Mitchard 
3. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 
5. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon