No tears for the writer...

Accomplished lately: Check out some of my most recent clips. I also joined Facebook. Freaky.

Music mood: Think, by Aretha Franklin

The greatest compliment I have ever received as a writer came (mumble) years ago when I was working for The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, CA.

I wrote an article about a woman whose young daughter was dying of cancer. She had no money for a funeral, so the principal of her daughter's elementary school was raising funds. The day the article ran, I got a call from a man I had written about in a previous article. He was crying as he told me that the article was beautiful and touching, and that he would be donating money as soon as he got off the phone.

I was happy that he was moved to donate, but what moved ME was his tears. To be able to write something that evokes such strong emotion in someone is a writer's greatest accomplishment... and greatest challenge.

Robert Frost once said, "No tears for the writer, no tears for the reader." I am reminded of that every time I put my fingers on a keyboard. If I don't feel something while I'm writing, how can I expect readers to feel anything while reading?

Fiction writers understand this. When I'm working on my book, I know a scene is failing if I don't feel anything while I'm writing.

But journalists can have a hard time with it. We're supposed to be OBJECTIVE, right? And doesn't it ruin our sense of objectivity if we let ourselves FEEL a story?

I used to think so, but not anymore. It is possible to tell both sides of a story -- to be fair -- while also injecting emotion into a story. Emotion can be conveyed through the use of detail, quotes, and your voice.

In this recent story, I cried when I wrote the last line. And my mother cried when she read it. True, she's supposed to love everything I write, but it still meant a lot to me that she was moved to tears. It meant that everything I felt while reporting and writing came through in my written words.

And that is what I consider a successful story.