After graduating from Kenyon College, Green spent about five months working as a student chaplain at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.[3] He has cited this experience as inspiration for his story:[4]
I tried to write that book for almost 10 years. Ever since I worked as a chaplain, I would go back, I was trying to work on what I called the Children's Hospital Story, although in all of its previous incarnations, it starred this 22-year-old hospital chaplain, who was, like, surprisingly handsome and, like, hooking up with doctors. It was very embarrassing. I hope that — it was just terrible. But you know, I would go back to that story and go back to it and go back to it. Then in 2010 a good friend of mine died of cancer, a young friend, and I went back to the story, and I went back to it angry and needing to work.
This young friend who died was Esther Earl, who is named in the book's dedication.[5]
Green worked on The Fault in our Stars in 2011, while staying as a writer in residence in Amsterdam at the invitation of the Dutch Foundation for Literature.[6]
Two books served as an inspiration for the fictional book An Imperial Affliction: The Blood of the Lamb by Peter De Vries and Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace.[7]
