Writing – Page 2 – Lauren Miller

Parting Ways

After several months of hard deliberation, I am now in the process of transitioning out of my role as Director of Communications for the St. Louis Writers Guild (SLWG), a position I’ve held for the past four years. This was announced at the December 2018 meeting but I’d like to take a few minutes to expound on this decision in more detail.

I first got involved with SLWG over six years ago, when I began writing for their literary journal, The Scribe, as a reporter on guild events. Over time, I had several pieces published in their journal and anthology, and went on to be the content editor for an annual anthology, The Scribe 2016.

Earlier this year, I announced that I would be partnering with SLWG in launching a new literary journal, 1764. Since that time, I was privileged to read a number of wonderful entries by talented writers, as part of this project. If I were not busy enough, this summer, I also began a literary internship which has been an amazing opportunity that I would like to give more attention to.

Consequently, after evaluating my future goals and the best interest for me as a writer, and for the guild as a whole, I have made the difficult decision to step down from heading 1764 as the Managing Editor of this debut project, in addition to my responsibilities as Director of Communications. Ideally, this will take place over a transitional period to help everyone adjust as responsibilities are reassigned and new volunteers found.

After four years, I am ready to explore new paths and pulling myself in too many directions would only result in mistakes made, deadlines dropped, and less than my best effort for any one party.

SLWG deserves more than that.

Metamorphosis Literary Agency deserves more than that.

And so do I.

My hope is that in stepping into this new path and parting ways that 2019 will find us all that much stronger as we continue to grow in this writing community and as individuals. God bless you, and never forget to keep reaching higher.

A Literary Internship!

Happy Fourth of July! This year, I’ve got a lot to celebrate. The nice folks over at Metamorphosis Literary Agency have welcomed me on board as a literary intern to learn more about the publishing industry. Metamorphosis represents a variety of commercial fiction, and I’m especially excited about the fantasy and sci-fi genres, as seen from some of their past work featured on their Facebook page. An enormous thank you to Stephanie Hansen (owner) for taking me on, Patty Carothers (agent) who has already been an absolute delight to work with, and Meghan Pinson (editor, My Two Cents Editing) who referred me to Metamorphosis in the first place.

I even got a nifty bio added on their website! (see below:)

Don’t worry — I’ll still be occasionally blogging here but expect a lot of my free time over the next several months to be spent working on this internship. I’m always astounded by the twists and turns God brings to our journey. Here’s to discovering what lies beyond the next bend in the road. Keep reaching higher!

On Losing A Mentor

I was disheartened last week to read Jane Friedman’s post (here) at and Writer Unboxed (here) that she will be scaling back her writing advice column. I joined the Jane Friedman bandwagon late but have found her style of writing conversational and appealing.

If you’re unfamiliar with Jane Friedman, she is the former editor of Writer’s Digest, and is now the web editor at Virginia Quarterly Review. It’s partially due to the new job that she’s made the decision to stop offering advice for writers. As someone who’s been a regular reader (if not a subscriber) to her blog, my emotions are conflicted by this shifting of gears.Continue reading “On Losing A Mentor”