Anne Faye

The June 2012 issue of Writer's Digest features an interview with Lisa See. I would be unfamiliar with this writer, except for the fact that one of my oldest and dearest friends sent me a copy of Snow Flower and the Secret Fan: A Novel . She said that it reminded her of me because it talked about two women who had been friends since they were very young. While it was not something I would have usually picked up, I did enjoy it very much. In Writer's Digest , See shares: "I would say what I've always said to myself, which is that you've got to write what you're most passionate about. You shouldn't think that writing will change your life - but what it can do is create passion in your life . . . "Snow Flower and the Secret Fan was my fifth book. At that point I was what they called a "critically acclaimed writer." You know what that means? You get lovely reviews and nobody reads your books. . . "And so I had in my mind a numbe...

Writer's Digest was running a short story contest (the due date is tomorrow). The subject was "You return home to find out that your house as been condemned." Usually, I see these contests and pass right by them. I am insanely busy with a non-fiction project. Writing anything fiction right now just hasn't been happening, but I reached a major deadline in my other project and decided to give myself a treat and tackle this short piece of fiction. It had to be less than 750 words. I figured that was no problem. I write 500 word essays every week - hammer them out in about an hour. One night and I should have this in the bag, right? Wrong. I wrote, I revised. I had too many words and had to cut. I decided to go in a different direction . . . LOL It turned into a mini-saga all of its own. In the end, I think I spent about five hours on it. I sent it into Writer's Digest last night. I came in at 749 words! I have no expectation of winning, but it was still fun to delv...

Two time Pulitzer Prize winner Gene Weingarten told Writer's Digest that a story "must be about something larger than itself - some universal truth." All stories are about the search for the meaning of life. We all search for it. How does your story add to the search?

The November/December 2011 issue of Writer's Digest features an interview with best-selling writer James Lee Burke. He offers this reason for writing and keeping at it in the face of all the hardships and rejection: If God gives a gift to someone, it's for a reason. It's to make the world a better place. And you never forget that lesson. . . .God doesn't make mistakes when he presents someone with a gift like that. It's there for a reason. . . There's nothing worse than remorse about not using what you have.

I have to return the September 2011 issue of Writer's Digest to the library on Wednesday, but before I do, I wanted to share a couple tidbits of writing wisdom I found within its pages. In the article, "Ways to Harness Fear and Fuel Your Writing" by Sage Cohen, she advises, "Do What Scares You Because It Scares You." What do you fear most in your writing life? Take a moment to evaluate if it truly is likely to do you serious harm. If the answer is no, then I invite you to make a point of doing this very thing - as much as you can - until you exhaust fear's charge around it. Her own personal fear was public speaking which she has conquered by doing it as often as possible! The second tidbit comes from "10 Ways to Launch Strong Scenes" by Jordan E. Rosenfeld. It offers this checklist for making the most from each scene. Does your scene 1) Have a beginning, middle, and an end? 2) Launch vividly and engage the reader? 3) Have a rich subtex...

I have to return my copy of Writer's Digest to the library tomorrow, but I wanted to leave you with one last quote from an article by Dinty W. Moore (either that is not his real name or his parents had quite the sense of humor!): It's not what happens to us in our lives that makes us into writers; it's what we make out of what happens to us .

In the May/June 2011 issue of Writer's Digest , Natalie Taylor talks about writing  Signs of Life: A Memoir about her life as a young, pregnant widow, She states "I still wish I had been even more observant. As I went back through my manuscript, I realized it was the tiniest details that were the most powerful and most important to the story. You can never have too many of those in the bank."

I read the new November/December 2010 issue of Writer's Digest today. I'm always so excited to pick up the latest issue at the library. Unfortunately, the articles I wanted to link to weren't up on the website (at least not yet), but I did come across this one on Top 10 Productivity Pitfalls