Reflections on an ANWA Conference

By Liz Adair

Congratulations and thanks go to the leaders of ANWA for the marvelous conference held yesterday. I think this is my fourth conference, and two other members of my local chapter were able to attend as well. They agreed with me that it was worth the 1500+ mile trip.

The presenters were awesome, the lunch was great, and everything seemed super organized. I got some good marketing tips and discovered goal->conflict->somethingorother->reflect-> anotherthing->finalthing. (I can see Sterling holding the little triangle that Kerry Blair made as she taught the concept, and I finally understand what she was teaching, but I can’t for the life of me remember all the terms.) I’m interested in learning more about it, and what I've learned makes me want to analyze my books and see if I’ve been using that technique effectively.

However, though I’m a little hazy about some writing terms, I’m dead clear about the importance of ANWA. I don’t think all of us will rise to be forces to reckon with in American literature. Very few will. However, collectively, we are an incubator for the gifted ones, the ones who will rise to greatness. I remember my son Clay expressing, in the years he sat on the bench as a high school football player:

I know I’m of value to the team. I may not play many minutes during the game, but I give it my all during practice, and that helps the first string.

Anyone who has just begun to write soon discovers that no one wants to read an unpublished writer’s manuscript. Because of that, many writers labor alone with no one to read and critique their work. But in ANWA there are multiple LDS women willing to do for their sisters what friends, children, spouses will not. We who may not have the gift or luck or chance to be that break-out, nationally acclaimed, New York Times Bestselling author can yet participate in her success by being part of the team that helped her along and believed in her when no one else did.

More importantly, ANWA reaffirms that each voice is important, whether listed in the New York Times, posted on a blog, published by an LDS press, or ensconced between the covers of journal. Strengthened and cheered on by ANWA sisters, we will continue honing our craft and writing. That’s what we do. We’re American Night Writers.

Where Does The Inspiration to Write Come From

For Valentine's Day my sweet husband ordered "Becoming Jane" from netflicks. He gift wrapped it and promised to watch it with me, which for him was slow torture (he likes shoot'em up, mindless action), which is why I thought it was so sweet. So we sent the children to bed early, put in the movie and it was the wrong one! We ended up watching another movie which neither of us liked but its the thought that counts.

The reason I brought this up is last night I finally got to watch "Becoming Jane." When the show ended, it left me unsettled. Bottomline, the reason she wrote the stories she did was a result of her failed relationship. It was a way that she could vicariously "rescript" her unsatisfying existence. When I was at college, I was horrified at the background of each of my favorite writers. It seemed like the writers with the most fire were those with the most tortured lives. (see more at http://www.dailycardinal.com/article/874)

Looking at my own situation, I know the first draft of my first manuscript was exactly that. It flowed as I whipped out all the clever phrases I wished I had said to women that had been so catty to me. I twisted the plot to give them their just desserts or to wake them up to what they were doing. I ranted for nearly 800 pages and it was marvelous therapy but it wasn't great writing. After many edits, I totally threw away the main story but found during the entire event, I wanted something special to balance the story and created an uplifting and amazing subplot. It was when I polished this idea, that I felt I had something that was of real value.

Facing my next project has been an interesting challenge. Without the drive of emotion pushing me forward, I don't feel compelled to write but want to. A great story seemed to blossom in my mind and when I try to reach for something else, it wiggles out and won't leave me alone. It's a nice feeling, like a friend coming to visit and I'm enjoying this process.

The difference between venting and inventing is substantial. I don't believe good writers need to be tortured, although writing is a great way to figure out what is really happening to ourselves and our lives. But I do have to ask the question, how much of your writing is spurred on by personal conflict. Like a painter who works off a still life or Norman Rockwell who used photographs that he interposed into Americana scenes, isn't the well we draw from our own experience?

Perhaps it is because I am such an inexperienced writer that most of my characters are friends or people I have met or observed, cast into the roles in my story. Then I simply imagine what they would say in that circumstance. I try to be true to their motivations and driving forces through out the story and have them come to some new truth through the experience.

I'm curious how you do it...

Going, Saying, Doing

By Kristine John

In my teenage years, music was a powerful influence in my life.

I would spend much time pondering the meaning of lyrics, and if they were meaningful to me, I would then memorize them so that they would always be a part of me.


As I have "matured" (and had multiple children) the luxury of pondering over the lyrics of a song is gone.

In fact, I am lucky if I can catch the words of the chorus...let alone the general meaning of the entire song!

I'm more influenced by the meaning of the song than how it sounds, and without spending the time to understand a song, I don't gain the same level of power from a song that I used to.

It is because of this fact that I have not made music a high priority in my life.

(Although I hadn't ever spent the time to contemplate why...behold the power of writing!!)


Sunday, however, I was deeply touched during our rest hymn.

(Funny, how even with kids crawling and walking all around me on the bench I was able to catch the power of these words.)

p 270

I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go
Verse 2


Perhaps today there are loving words

Which Jesus would have me speak;

There may be now in the paths of sin

Some wand’rer whom I should seek.

O Savior, if thou wilt be my guide,

Tho dark and rugged the way,

My voice shall echo the message sweet:

I’ll say what you want me to say.



[Chorus]I’ll go where you want me to go, dear Lord,

Over mountain or plain or sea;

I’ll say what you want me to say, dear Lord;

I’ll be what you want me to be.



It made me think a lot about not just the spoken word, but of the written word, and how often lately I have felt compelled to send someone a note so that they understand that their life is having an impact on mine.

I truly believe that the Lord has a purpose in giving me the ability and desire to write...and although I have struggled to find the specific path He desires me to take, I am finding that if I daily try to do His will, I end the day feeling as if I have accomplished something.

It may not be a "big" thing in anyone else's eyes...but when I say what He wants me to say, I know I have been an instrument in His hands, and I want to do more.

I truly do want to be what He wants me to be.


(originally posted 4-17-2007 on my personal blog)

Scriptures - Our Personal Notes From Home

By Kari Diane Pike

The Gospel Doctrine teacher in our ward introduced a recent lesson by asking his wife to share a testimony building experience of their twelve-year-old daughter. Lyndsie was feeling the frustrations that come with being sandwiched in between a couple of obnoxious brothers and, trusting the messages she was getting from her Young Women leaders, decided to read her scriptures and ask Heavenly Father for help. One evening, Lyndsie burst into her parents’ room and exclaimed she finally knew that Heavenly Father really does understand each of us individually and truly knows what we are experiencing. Then she read the scripture that turned that light on for her. It was 2 Nephi 2:1 “…And behold, in thy childhood thou has suffered afflictions and much sorrow, because of the rudeness of thy brethren.”

I love it! I laugh when I read it, but I also feel the love that Lyndsie must have felt as she felt the Spirit witness the truth to her. Heavenly Father does love us. He does know us on an individual basis. The scriptures teach us that we existed as Intelligence before the world was created. (D&C 93: 29…Man was also in the beginning with God. Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither can be.) Our Father clothed our intelligence in spirit and created this earth so that we could obtain these physical bodies. D&C 93: 36 then teaches us, “The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth.” We are His glory…we are light and truth. Our divine nature, our inner core, is full of light and truth!

One of my own personal experiences with the personal nature the scriptures take on as we diligently study them, came when I was particularly frustrated with my own children. I wondered why children, whom we love more than anyone, can bring us the most misery. Then I read 2 Nephi 2:23 with a new perspective. “And they would have had no children; wherefore they would have remained in a state of innocence, having no joy, for they knew no misery; doing no good, for they knew so sin.” We have children so that through them we come to truly know joy…through misery. Our Father in Heaven has a great sense of humor.

And then there’s the youth that justified their practice of TP’ing houses as fulfilling Biblical prophecy: Zechariah 5:1 “Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.”

I don’t think you can get more personal than that!