History Creator / NicholasSparks

** Couples in Sparks novels tend to [[LoveAtFirstSight sense their connection instantly]], simply by [[WindowsOfTheSoul looking into each other's eyes]]. Within weeks or even days, they will [[WhatIsThisFeeling recognize this feeling]] [[LoveEpiphany as love]] and [[FourthDateMarriage commit to each other for eternity]]--emotionally, anyway, since something will [[StarCrossedLovers usually require them to separate]] soon after this.

Nicholas Sparks (born December 31, 1965) is the screenwriter behind the films ''Film/MessageInABottle'', ''Film/AWalkToRemember'', ''Film/TheNotebook'', ''Nights In Rodanthe'', ''Literature/TheLastSong'', ''Dear John'', ''The Lucky One'', ''Literature/SafeHaven'', ''The Best Of Me'', ''The Longest Ride'' and most recently, ''The Choice''. He reportedly began writing during his first year of college at Notre Dame after a track injury and a long recovery. He took a string of jobs from [[http://www.biography.com/people/nicholas-sparks-562686 waiter, real estate appraiser, telemarketer, orthopedic manufacturer, and pharmaceutical sales]]. Finally in 1994 he tried one last time and produced ''Film/TheNotebook'' which launched him to fame.

* ObliviouslyBeautiful: All Sparks heroines are beautiful, well-dressed, and slender, but he goes out of his way to emphasize [[UnkemptBeauty how little effort]] they put (or appear to put) in being so and how little they realize that [[HelloNurse all men find them attractive]]. On the other hand, there is an undercurrent of contempt for female characters who are [[VanityIsFeminine excessively preoccupied with]], [[ProudBeauty or conscious of]], their own beauty. The heroine is juxtaposed with one or more of these women, often her friends or co-workers, to emphasize [[NotLikeOtherGirls how much more real she is]].

* BittersweetEnding[=/=]DownerEnding: What a ''ridiculously'' abundant amount of his books end up having, and in the rare instance that they ''don't'' [[spoiler: the ending of ''True Believer'']], then the follow-up book will.

* ObliviouslyBeautiful: All Sparks heroines are beautiful, well-dressed, and slender, but he goes out of his way to emphasize [[UnkemptBeauty how little effort]] they put (or appear to put) in being so and how little they realize that [[HelloNurse all men find them attractive]]. On the other hand, there is an undercurrent of contempt for female characters who are [[VanityIsFeminine excessively preoccupied with]], [[ProudBeauty or conscious of]], their own beauty.

** [[DrinkOrder To drink]], sweet tea before dinner and beer or red wine afterward--unless a DesignatedEvil character is doing the drinking, in which case they'll take hard liquor.

** Six--[[https://nicholassparks.com/stories/the-return/ soon to be eight]]--Sparks heroines have names ending in ''-ie''.

** Six--[[https://nicholassparks.com/stories/the-return/ soon to be seven]]--Sparks heroines have names ending in ''-ie''.

* MonochromeCasting: The number of minority characters in his books/movies can be counted on one hand. Characters who are not white, Christian, or heterosexual are so few in Sparks stories that they are [[TokenMinority tokens]] within the entire canon:

* DamselInDistress: Several Sparks stories feature the man [[TheDulcineaEffect immediately feeling compelled to rescue the woman]] ([[BigBrotherInstinct and her child]], if she is a GlamorousSingleMother) from something.
** She may need to be rescued from a HateSink, usually her RomanticFalseLead, who is typically identified as a threat by [[StandardFemaleGrabArea grabbing her upper arm]]. This rescue may require a CockFight. Invariably, the villain will suffer a [[spoiler:KarmicDeath.]]
** Alternatively, she may need to be rescued from an accident or act of God, in which case this trope may overlap with HeroicFireRescue or DivingSave.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: ''The Guardian'', ''Safe Haven'', and ''See Me'' are more thrillers than his typical love stories.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: There are two types of characters who exist on the periphery of the central romance: [[ShipperOnDeck those who support it]] and [[ShippingTorpedo those who oppose it]].

* OneTrueLove: [[SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism The ideal]] Sparks promotes above all others. If there is one iron-clad rule of his stories, it is that no half of a Sparks leading couple is allowed to be truly happy with anyone but the other half.

* BlackAndWhiteMorality: There are two types of characters who exist on the periphery of the central romance: those who support it and those who oppose it.
** People in the former group are typically a [[TheConfidant confidant]] of one of the leads, who may form half of a BetaCouple with a partner who exists for the same reason. They are always able to [[EveryoneCanSeeIt recognize the developing romance before the people in it do]], and they primarily exist to [[ShipperOnDeck keep the central romance moving]] with their sage advice.

** People in the former group are typically a [[TheConfidant confidant]] of one of the leads, who may form half of a BetaCouple with a partner who exists for the same reason. They are always able to [[EveryoneCanSeeIt recognize the developing romance before the people in it do]], and they primarily exist to keep the central romance moving on schedule with their sage advice.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: ''Safe Haven'' is more of a thriller rather than his typical love stories, with DomesticAbuse being a major theme and the heroine fleeing and consequently being stalked by her husband.

** StaticCharacter[=/=]DynamicCharacter: Usually the case when one half of the couple is in [[TheMourningAfter mourning]]; they are unwilling to move forward with life, while the other half is ready for a big change.

* HollywoodAtlas: Sparks portrays the South only with its most positive stereotypes: gentility, family, faith, tradition, hard work, and enormous oceanside houses with white picket fences and trees dripping with Spanish moss. Characters who embody less comfortable Southern stereotypes, among them [[HeteronormativeCrusader homophobia]] and [[DrugsAreBad drug use]], are DesignatedEvil or mentioned briefly without being seen.

** InterclassRomance: Usually the man is a WorkingClassHero, or at least has a job that requires getting his hands dirty in some way, although he may have literary HiddenDepths. Meanwhile, [[UptownGirl the woman]] is a [[HigherEducationIsForWomen college girl]] with more artistic interests. When she has a RomanticFalseLead, he is always a WhiteCollarWorker, which we are meant to view as less masculine and/or down-to-earth.

** ''The Notebook'' and ''Nights in Rodanthe'', plus one of two storylines in ''The Longest Ride'', are all [[FramingDevice framed]] as a story being retold to another character.

* StalkingIsLove: ...when a [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality protagonist]]--such as Theresa in ''Message in a Bottle'', Noah in ''The Notebook'', and Logan in ''The Lucky One''--does it.

* HasAType: Several heroines in his books are described as dark-haired with a "hint of olive" to their complexion.

* HasAType: Many of his heroines are dark-haired with a "hint of olive" to their complexion.

* StalkingIsLove: ...when a protagonist--such as Theresa in ''Message in a Bottle'', Noah in ''The Notebook'', and Logan in ''The Lucky One''--does it.

* TheBadGuysAreCops: In ''True Believer'', ''The Lucky One'', and ''Safe Haven''.

* StalkerWithACrush: In ''The Guardian'' and ''Safe Haven''. [[StalkerWithoutACrush Averted]] in ''See Me'', although the stalkee does suspect at first that the stalker is someone she knows to have a crush.

** ''The Best of Me'' and ''The Longest Ride'', released within months of each other (the former in October 2014, the latter in April 2015), both feature the young lovers in question being counseled by a sage older man.

* HateSink: A RomanticFalseLead is often this. Their loathsomeness may take one of several forms: