Master Class With Diane Sawyer

Last week, Diane Sawyer joined the line up of celebrities on Oprah's Master Class series on OWN. This award winning journalist has helped history unfold through her various jobs with Nixon, on Good Morning America, and on 60 Minutes, just to name a few.

"I read once, which I love so much, that this great physicist who won a Nobel Prize said that every day when he got home, his dad asked him not what he learned in school but his dad, "Did you ask any great questions today?" And I always thought, what a beautiful way to educate kids that we're excited by their questions, not by our answers and whether they can repeat our answers."

As a writer, we are challenged to be curious and remain curious about life. Whether we write fiction or nonfiction, our words and expressions present questions about life, its purpose, conflicts, resolutions. Invariably, there is not one single answer. As a result, a reader's curiosity is recharged through bookclubs, author's reader groups, and online chat sessions. What a great, robust community we share with our fellow readers. Thank you. Keep being curious.

"My dad, I think, still had the most beautiful, simple checklist for what you should do in life: Do something you really love that you would do it anyway. Do it in the most adventurous place you can do it. And make sure that it helps other people. And if you feel there's a genuine need for it, and that through that need, you can help other people, you're home."

I see that "home" as the goal of my writing career--helping others. The passion for writing can be nurtured into a discipline, if the craft comes late in life. Timing isn't what is important. Loving the craft, however, is an absolute necessity. There are too many obstacles that stand in the path of success and that can hammer away at a writer's stamina for that love not to be a factor.

When I enter my world to write, I make it as comfortable as possible. I'm not talking about the physical logistics of a desk and chair, proper lighting, snacks, etc. That colorful world in my mind, where I enter on my own and settle down for long periods of time is as adventurous as my story needs to be. In that world, there is no place for critics and naysayers, no time for doubts. Voila, a story is born (if it was so easy).

At the end, when our books go out to the readers, we, writers, provide escape, entertainment, even therapy. Success. And then, we do it all over again...with love.

Writers, encourage your readers' curiosity with the passion of your writing.