11 Things We Learned at the Veronica Roth #BNAuthor Event

In her first college writing workshop, her classmates ripped her to shreds. “I went home and I cried. But later I read their notes and realized if I took them to heart I’d get a much stronger story. It’s important to be around people better than you and realize you have room to grow. Accept criticism without anger or criticism. Let critique settle in.”
She needs to write. “I am driven by the stories of my characters. I need to write them. I’ve done without doing other things, like sleeping and eating, but I need to write. I’ll be doing it whether people read it or not.”
She just finished (and loved) Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, by Caitlin Doughty (A 2014 Barnes & Noble Discover winner!) I’m on a nonfiction kick. I just finished another book about North Korea. And I’m always reading YA.”
She’s not a whole lot like Tris. “Tris is impulsive, reckless, and kind of mean. I actually like that about her. She’s tougher than I am by a huge margin.”
But they have one thing in common: “The preoccupation with the goodness of the things she does. If she’s done something wrong it haunts her. Neither of us are as compassionate toward ourselves as we should be.”
In other words, she’s hard on herself. “You know when you’re in the shower and an embarrassing memory stabs you in the brain? I call those mem-stabs, memory-stabs. I think about something awful I said and want to go on Facebook and send someone from my high school a message that says, ‘I’m so sorry I was mean to you in the cafeteria that one time.'”
Divergent was originally told from the perspective of Tobias. “The reason it didn’t work is because his actions didn’t seem surprising and there was not that sense of urgency. It’s what young men will do. It’s something we expect them to do. Tris is meek and petite. The choices she makes are fascinating.”
She takes medication for anxiety. “I think it’s great. It makes life easier.”
She is a fan of therapists. “Don’t be afraid to go to a therapist or talk to someone who knows more about your brain than you do. Take care of your brain.”
She loves talking about Caleb and usually nobody asks her about him. “When Tris forgives Caleb it’s her best moment of heroism. She chooses love over bitterness and hate. Whether Caleb deserves the forgiveness or not is irrelevant. I know I love my siblings and I’d like to think that deep inside me is the grace to forgive them for anything.”
Three books she thinks are underappreciated: The Summer Prince, by Alaya Dawn Johnson; Rapture Practice, by Aaron Hartzler; and Proxy, by Alex London.
 
Pick up the movie tie-in edition of Insurgent