tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post23209511194210076..comments2024-03-29T09:08:53.181-04:00Comments on The Write Conversation: The Birth of a WriterEdie Melsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03902312441667526147noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-13797910752892259092013-04-11T22:42:14.447-04:002013-04-11T22:42:14.447-04:00Dear Sally, I love your encouraging story. Wow, I ...Dear Sally, I love your encouraging story. Wow, I want to be you when I grow up. By the way, I have bins and bins of needlecraft UFOs that I have around the house, always believing that someday I will drag out and finish. I wonder if that is what will happen with our writing. Twenty years from now we might pull out a story or poem and say HEY! I finally know how to fix that! Sometimes I wonder if writing is merely cheap therapy. Whether it is or not is irrelevant. I really believe what the experts say, "Just keep writing". It is what we do. Thanks for stopping by.<br /><br />Blessings,<br />Laurie1writerlaurieepps@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12257614630313547483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-30228260433769548782013-04-11T22:35:02.932-04:002013-04-11T22:35:02.932-04:00Hi Carina, I think we all feel like we're tryi...Hi Carina, I think we all feel like we're trying to fill our mother's shoes and just toddling along in our awkward state. But oh, we want to fill those shoes! <br /><br />As a senior in college, I have to say the growth as a writer has come with some pain. As a junior I learned that not everything I write is going to be brilliant. What? What did you say? You heard me, sometimes it is all nothing but rubbish. The tabloids wouldn't even accept some of the trash I dared to turn into my professors. But yet, I have learned so much not only about writing, but also about myself, and life along the way. I have learned the beauty God has created on the inside too, not just in myself, but also in friends and fellow writers. Writers may at times seem like a neurotic lot, at the end of the day, we see things that other people don't see.<br /><br />Doubting and me are pals. We should start a club, or more of a doubters support group. I wish I could tell you how many answers I got wrong on a test due to self doubt, or how many tense moments I have had in relationships due to doubt. (divine or otherwise) If you find the cure for doubt, be sure to share it with all of us. We'll keep the light on for you.<br /><br />Blessings,<br />Laurie1writerlaurieepps@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12257614630313547483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-79019314963414949182013-04-11T22:21:40.172-04:002013-04-11T22:21:40.172-04:00Hi Sherry, Although I love to write, I do relate t...Hi Sherry, Although I love to write, I do relate to your story. I had uterine cancer, and that is what made working so difficult. In the middle of the night I would be awoken to story ideas. These ideas have ranged from poetry, to short stories, to prose. Sometimes I end up with a very different product when I am finished. Often, God uses those painful and confusing moments to just channel through us. As servants of Christ, we have to allow this to happen. When battling cancer my mantra was, "It's not my life, it's God's life." Now that I have faced a recent divorce and academic overload in college it is being slightly altered to, "it's not my talent, but instead God's talent." May God continue to channel through you.<br />Blessings,<br />Laurie1writerlaurieepps@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12257614630313547483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-51857197438840645752013-04-11T22:14:17.578-04:002013-04-11T22:14:17.578-04:00Hi Jeanne, It is so funny how we all need that val...Hi Jeanne, It is so funny how we all need that validation. When I told Edie I was a writer after Patrick Caneday said it a few times, she said, "I told you were...." and touche, so she did. The irony is that it didn't gel in my mind till an award winning journalist and other writers told me I was. I will continue to write, and I am sure there will be bumps in the road, but we will encourage each other along the way.<br />Blessings,<br />Laurie1writerlaurieepps@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12257614630313547483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-90020217057253815892013-04-10T15:29:48.113-04:002013-04-10T15:29:48.113-04:00When I went to my first writing workshop about thr...When I went to my first writing workshop about three years ago, I only went in order to spend the afternoon with my daughter. She later got busy with college life and for some odd reason, I kept writing. <br />I thought it was a whim that would eventually get tossed in the drawer like my beginnings of cross-stitch, latch-hook rugs, needlepoint (& whatever other projects I never finished). :0<br />As soon as I was felt like hanging it up, God would send me an encouragement to keep going. I won books from writers' blogs twice (one was from this blog!). Other times it was a word of encouragement or an acutal acceptance of something I wrote.<br />The first time I really accepted the fact that I am a writer was at Christian Devotions Boot Camp January 2012. They made us say it so often, I began to believe it. <br />Sally Mathenyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12714597631578160195noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-64238251583311122932013-04-09T22:18:25.326-04:002013-04-09T22:18:25.326-04:00I've always wanted, longed, yearned, (what'...I've always wanted, longed, yearned, (what's more intense than all those verbs combined?) to be a writer. There's nothing I've ever wanted to do with such passion as sitting down in front of this computer and telling stories (especially novels). <br />I'm still not calling myself a writer, or feel VERY awkward when I do. It's like, wow, those shoes are TOO big for me. (So for the time being, I'm a blogger and a wannabe, would-be novelist). <br />Four months ago, thanks in part to Jamie's blog and Edie's now famous phrase, I decided I WAS going to write. WHATEVER. The novel is still an undownloadable mess in my mind (today two of my characters, and all of them have been frighteningly silent since I decided to finally write their stories, paid me a VERY short visit but their conversation was too short to be worth typing) but definitely a project. <br />Have I mentioned that I'm an incorrigible procrastinator, and a serial doubter, and that my panic is greater than my desire?<br />Edie, I think I need you to give me a big dose of that famous phrase of yours!Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17936946937484720529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-42575215129806197882013-04-09T13:40:35.627-04:002013-04-09T13:40:35.627-04:00Although I LOVE to read, I never wanted to be a wr...Although I LOVE to read, I never wanted to be a writer. Only God knew I would do this someday. <br /><br />I worked in a hospital for several years before I became an engineer. I was at Johnson Space Center for almost ten years when I was laid off. That's when God began to whisper to me about writing. I told Him there was no way, but He eventually won the argument. Doesn't He always? <br /><br />Even though I was filled with doubts, a few friends encouraged to go to the BRMCWC for the first time. God used that conference to confirm His calling and my first book, Storms of Life, came out in Dec, 2010. I still struggle with the idea that I'm a writer, and I can't say I love to write, but I do love knowing I'm pleasing my Father. Sherry Carterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11059720425746960468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-90945318820070667742013-04-09T13:36:56.049-04:002013-04-09T13:36:56.049-04:00Laurie, I so enjoyed your story. We had miscarriag...Laurie, I so enjoyed your story. We had miscarriage/infertility issues too. :) I only started "trying" to be a writer about three years ago. I started calling myself a writer within the last year, after finaling in a couple contests, and after an encouraging friend, who's also a writing mentor assured me I AM a writer. :) Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-26579623234519143292013-04-09T12:00:32.901-04:002013-04-09T12:00:32.901-04:00Hi Jamie. Edie is definitely good at that. She has...Hi Jamie. Edie is definitely good at that. She has changed my writing, and my life forever. Thanks for stopping by.<br />Blessings,<br />Laurie1writerlaurieepps@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12257614630313547483noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2907737240492304428.post-43465700252634783502013-04-09T10:39:05.759-04:002013-04-09T10:39:05.759-04:00Laurie, I can relate to your story. I can remember...Laurie, I can relate to your story. I can remember when I first identified myself as a writer. Actually, I didn't...Edie did. It was at her NCompass Writers Retreat a couple of years. We were sitting together at lunch one day and talking about the fact that I didn't see myself as a writer. She had me turn to her and say, "I am a writer." Her response was, "you're now a writer because Edie Melson said so." That's been almost 3 years ago, but to this day I go back to those words. Those may not be significant, but those words changed my life.Jamie Britthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01137889974210281622noreply@blogger.com