Paula Bee asked Gayle Forman:

What kind of relationship do you have with your characters?

Gayle Forman I know this is clichéd but they become like real people to me. I know them very well, even the minor characters. When I'm drafting a book, I think about them constantly. I like to think I'm in charge of them but really, they're in charge of me.

When I wrote If I Stay, I had no intention of writing a sequel.
IF I STAY SPOILER ALERT
But then Adam and Mia kept waking me up in the middle of the night, yelling at me: "Where have you left us?" Because though the book ends on a hopeful note, they had a really tough couple of years ahead of them. I started thinking about them and skipped over the band years, and landed a few years later, and Where She Went started to take form. Adam and Mia are quiet now, so I know I am done with them.

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