When I made the decision to pursue writing more seriously, I determined to call myself a writer. To make it feel more true and to psych myself about it, I began sharing my triumphs with the people around me, very few of whom were writers. This included announcing my awards during the Relief Society "good news minute." I suppose these announcements (or the publications in The Friend, which continue to gain me more respect than any award for poetry ever could) were why a woman in my ward called me and asked if her son, who had written not just a novel but a trilogy, could talk to me about what he should do now.
When I wondered to myself whether I, who have yet to publish any book-length work, would have anything at all to share with him, I realized that I actually did know quite a lot about the journey he was setting out on--and I had gained this knowledge mostly through attending writers conferences. More...