Anne Faye

Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction by Tracy Kidder and Richard Todd New York: Random House, 2013 Tracy Kidder, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and Richard Todd, long-time magazine and book editor who teaches in the MFA program at Goucher College, have a working writer/editor relationship going back to 1973 when they met at the offices of “The Atlantic Monthly.” In “Good Prose: The Art of Nonfiction,” the two share the story of their years laboring side-by-side as well as the knowledge about writing they have acquired along the way. They both believe that while talent and inspiration certainly come into play, one can learn to write better. “Writing is revision. All prose responds to work.” As Kidder states, “We rarely get the kind of chance in life that rewriting offers, to revise our pasts, to take back what we’ve said and say it better before others hear it.” To make the most of that opportunity to make one’s words be the best they can be, Kidder and Todd offer advice on be...

I'm still finishing up my third draft of "The Rose Ring," but I've already started working on my next book. My boys (who are in 6th and 5th grade) have been asking me for a while to put aside the romance and write an adventure story that they would enjoy. Totally not my genre and I've been declining. But, then, I thought about it. What do I really have to lose? At the very least, I will have written something for them and they will appreciate the effort if nothing else. The best case scenario - I write something that's actually good. I let them know that as soon as I was finished with my story, I'd start work on theirs. Even though I'm not technically "finished" we have gotten started. At first, they wanted something with lots of things blowing up, but I let them know I was more interested in writing a Harry Potter/Percy Jackson sort of story with an actual plot and character development as opposed to the annihilation of the western world...

I finished typing/editing my second draft today and sent it off to Staples to be printed. The final total of words was a little under 45,000. Here is a photo of the story in my binder. It is always exciting to see something you have created take shape and become a "book." There is still work to be done, but for today, this is a reason to celebrate!

Today I was reading the December 2012 issue of Artist's Magazine and came across this quote by artist Candice Bohannon. It applies to writing as much to visual art: Allow yourself the time you need to create the art you dream of. Push past the fear that what you're making may never be as great as you hoped it would be, and give it your all; give it your everything. Great art requires great bravery.