Are you hoarding your writing?

By Laurie Epps

Are you hoarding your writing? It's obvious when notebooks and journals are stockpiled and you find them everywhere. Then you, my friend, are hoarding your writing.

• Other questions to ask yourself are: Have you written for years, but never shown it to anyone? 
• Have you written so much that it's much to the dismay of your movers?

Well everyone, I'm raising my right hand. "My name is Laurie Epps and I am a self proclaimed hoarder of my writing." Ok, I feel better. I got that off my chest. But it's true. I've been writing since I was seven years old, and it wasn't until recently that any of it has ever seen the light of day.

Budgeting Your Time at a Conference

By Laurie Epps

The first big writers conference is overwhelming for most of us. It was for me too. Though I was so excited about all that I'd be learning and the contacts I'd make, I still arrived, and as you learned at my last post, I got lost right way. 

Because it can be so overwhelming, it helps to remember why you decided to come in the first place, and pace yourself. You may have a commando approach like I did, where you just want to dig in, and learn as much as possible, but allowing for mental breaks will best optimize your time.

Reflections from My First Writers Conference

By Laurie Epps

Pictured with Edie Melson

Most of you will recognize the wonderful lady to my right (your left). After attending my first writers conference, I can tell you that there were some things I was, and wasn't prepared for. I knew I'd be meeting industry professionals, but somehow it didn't register that I would also be forging friendships.

Today, I'd like to talk to you about what to expect at a writers conference.

Mixing Work and Pleasure

By Laurie Epps

Memorial Day marks off the unofficial kick-off of summer, but how do you use that time with your writing? Summer for me is often the same as the rest of the year, only hotter. But I'd love to be in a lounge chair sipping on mai-tai's with a cute cabana boy while researching my next novel. For me, that is not reality. Today we're going to talk about combining work and pleasure, and it may spin off some ideas for you that would otherwise lead to a financially difficult fall.

Containing Powerful Emotions

By Laurie Epps

When you're in love, sometimes it's next to impossible to write. The only rubbish you can mumble out is, "I love you, I love you, I love you." What a boring story that makes for your readers. I have to often think of something else to write about, you can't write about love when you are in love. For me, that's next to impossible. But give me a good break-up and I can write about that for hours. Sometimes, the greatest tragedies in our lives makes for the best writing we have to offer.

Branding: What's in a name?

By Laurie Epps

As writers we have a need to be heard, a need to be recognized. We have the desire to be out there, and we want to leave our mark on society. But at what cost? There is a huge part of writing that isn't glamourous. It is us, with a pen and paper, trying to reshape the world. The thoughts and ideas are but moments or impressions in our lives that we hope to share with an unsuspecting world. Today I'd like to talk to you about our innate need to be heard, but the path to get there may be spent in seclusion. Prepare for battle. It is time to buckle up.

My Writing is Starving

By Laurie Epps

When we don't know what we're going to talk about, it's important to get back to basics. Don't stare at a blank screen. Instead, actively think about what we all need every day. We all need to breathe, eat, and be loved. Our experiences bring a unique array of senses, and as writers it's our job to bring forth those moments. If we get back to the basics, we will become the writers we are meant to be.

The Emergence of Thought

By Laurie Epps

No matter how many books I read on writing, I keep seeing the same hint. Journal, or free-writing is the pathway to greatness. But due to my own artistic expectations, sometimes I don't feel the greatness. That is when things like doubt, boredom, the fly on the wall, or your kid in the next room seem to be louder than ever before, demanding my attention and calling me. There are days that I would swear that those feelings of doubt and insecurity are sticky out their tongue at me.

Good or Maybe Not So Good Writing Ideas

By Laurie Epps

The Grand Canyon—there's just something about the vastness and the magnificent majesty of it that keeps drawing me back. So when I was asked to write a non-fiction essay about nature for class, it seemed an obvious choice for me.

Today, I want to share my story, about how good story ideas go bad, and about my hardest lesson as a writer.

The Birth of a Writer

A.K.A. The Moment I Finally Admitted, "I Am a Writer" 
by Laurie Epps

Writing isn't a glamorous profession, but it is fulfilling.

Life often isn't fair. Those who dream of being writers aren't, and those of us who really are writers have to fight to prove it—often to ourselves. Sometimes it's external, due to lack of support from friends and family. Or it's due to the input from those in the industry who sneer at you until your first full-length novel is published. But by and large we are a sensitive, unique, and observant lot. Let me share with you the moments that made me believe I am a writer.

SOS: Writing in Peril

by Laurie Epps

S.O.S. My writing needs help! 
We've all been there, when we have too many deadlines, and too little time. Although in some ways this is a good problem to have. It also gives us an opportunity to see the stuff we're made of as writers. This malady also comes with its own share of pitfalls. Last week this happened to me, in a big way. 

The Sweetness of Writing

I just love chocolate, don't you? Now as a woman, I have cornered the market on blaming everything from PMS to hormonal swings for our craving for chocolate. Truth is, chocolate is just good. It melts in your mouth in positively sinful decadence.

What you may not know is that today is National Chocolate and Caramel Day. Not only do I love chocolate, but a box of high quality nuts and chews just calls my name. Appropriately, today is also my birthday-- yet another excuse to buy a box. 

Girl Scout Preparedness

Did you know that today is National Girl Scouts Day? Most of us look forward to the girl scouts selling their cookies every year. This year alone, I bought six boxes for me and my girls. Sad to say, we need to find more....I forgot to get thin mints.

When we think about writing, we can learn a lot from watching our younger counterparts, or reflecting on our own childhood.

Writers Are Artisans of Words

By Laurie Epps

Writers are artisans of words.  Simply stated this might seem like a very straight-forward thing to say. But it is an advanced concept, and has been deliberated by Philosophers for centuries. 

But what is Art? My definition of art is anything that completes the creative process, and yields itself to that process. If I've learned nothing else by going to college, I've learned that everything in life has a process.

Selecting a Writing Program for College

By Laurie Epps

Choosing a college program is a daunting task for anyone, and with the recent surge of interest in Mathematics and Science degrees you may think that writing positions are obsolete. But yet, someone is writing all the media mail trying to attract you to these colleges, and someone writes the textbooks you are reading.... Surely, somewhere out there is a college waiting to be discovered. Where do you start? Look down at the keyboard, the answers are out there, just start typing.

Focus: Cultivating the Message Within

by Laurie Epps

You have a deadline, you have to turn something in to your boss or professor and you're running out of time. 

What do you do? How do you fight with the blankness in the recesses of your mind? You can't think.... You have no ideas, or too many ideas. Mentally you are swimming, but the deadline is there. That looming deadline is staring you in the face, and sticking it's tongue out at you.