Inside the Mind - Creg Effs

My journey into writing began with poetry. Writing became a way for me to express thoughts and emotions that I sometimes found easier to put on paper than to say aloud. Love, relationships, disappointment, hope, personal experiences, and simply observing life around me all became sources of inspiration. My first two books, Once, Twice, Three Times a Charm and So Many Things Mean Love, reflected that early stage of my journey. Poetry gave me a voice. But as I grew, my writing grew with me. I began to realize that words could do more than express emotions—they could encourage, educate, challenge, inspire, and perhaps even help someone through a difficult season of life. That realization eventually led me beyond poetry into personal development, memoir, and safety education. Although the subjects of my books have changed over the years, the purpose behind my writing has remained consistent: I want my words to mean something to the person reading them.

My latest published book is The Safety Blueprint: A Comprehensive Guide to Protecting Yourself and Others. This book is particularly meaningful to me because it brings together two important parts of my life—my work as a fire safety professional and my passion for educating and empowering people. Over the years, I have seen how much difference knowledge, preparation, and awareness can make when an emergency occurs. That experience inspired me to create something practical that could help ordinary people think differently about safety. The central message is that safety shouldn't begin when something goes wrong. It should be part of how we live, prepare, and make decisions every day. It also represents another stage in my evolution as an author. I started with poetry, moved into personal development with It Begins in the Mind: Empower Your Thoughts, explored my own experiences with love and heartbreak in Everyone Deserves Love: Finding Love After Multiple Heartbreaks, and then brought my professional experience into my writing through The Safety Blueprint. For me, each book represents a different part of who I am.

My published work so far isn't primarily character-driven fiction, so my approach to characters is somewhat different. Much of my writing is rooted in real life—my experiences, relationships, observations, emotions, professional journey, and lessons I've learned along the way. In my memoir, Everyone Deserves Love: Finding Love After Multiple Heartbreaks, for example, I am dealing with real experiences rather than creating fictional characters. When writing about people and experiences from real life, I try to focus on the humanity of the situation—the emotions, struggles, vulnerabilities, choices, consequences, resilience, and growth. Even in my poetry, I draw inspiration from human experiences and emotions that many people can identify with. I believe good characters, whether real or fictional, have to feel human. They need strengths, flaws, fears, motivations, and something they are trying to overcome. So if I eventually venture into fiction, I suspect my characters will be created much the same way I approach my current writing: by observing people, understanding emotions, and asking what makes us behave, love, struggle, change, and grow the way we do.

I don't really have what you might call a typical writing day. I balance writing with my professional responsibilities, community involvement, speaking, family life, and other commitments, so I have learned to write around life rather than wait for the perfect writing environment. An idea might come while I'm working, driving, having a conversation, reflecting on an experience, or simply sitting quietly. Sometimes it begins with one sentence or even a title. I try to capture it immediately, usually on my phone, because I've learned that telling yourself, “I'll remember that later,” doesn't always work! Then, when I have dedicated time, I return to those thoughts and begin developing them. A single note can eventually become a poem, an article, a presentation, a chapter, or even the foundation for an entire book. I've learned that there is no single correct way to be a writer. You have to discover the process that works with the life you actually live.

Without question, it is hearing that something I've written has connected with someone. Sales and recognition are wonderful, but there is something different about someone telling you, “I needed to read that,” or explaining how something you wrote helped them see their own experience differently. That's when writing becomes bigger than the writer. Being an indie author has also given me the freedom to explore very different dimensions of myself. I've written poetry about love and life, motivational material about mindset, a deeply personal memoir about heartbreak and finding love again, and a practical guide on safety. I don't have to fit neatly into one box. Every book carries a different message, but they all contain a part of my journey. I've come to believe that a book may carry the author's name on the cover, but its real value begins when a reader opens it and discovers something that speaks to their own life.

One of my biggest challenges has been balancing creativity with everything else that life requires. People sometimes see the finished book and don't realize how much happens between the idea and the final product. You have to write, rewrite, edit, make publishing decisions, promote the book, build an audience, and remain visible. As an indie author, you often have to wear several hats at once. Then you have your life outside of writing. There have also been moments of uncertainty—wondering whether a book will connect with readers or whether something deeply personal should even be shared. I've learned, however, that uncertainty cannot be allowed to make the decision for you. Sometimes you have to trust the message, do the work, release it, and allow it to find the people who need it.

My phone is probably one of my most valuable writing tools because inspiration doesn't make appointments! I use it to capture ideas, phrases, titles, notes, and thoughts as they occur. I also use digital tools throughout the writing process for drafting, organizing ideas, research, editing, and refining my work. I believe today's technology offers indie authors tremendous opportunities. We have tools that can assist us at almost every stage of the creative and publishing process. At the same time, I think it's important to remember that technology should support your voice, not replace it. My most important writing tool is my mind and the experiences I've lived.

Start before you feel ready. Don't wait until you believe you're good enough to call yourself a writer. Don't wait for the perfect circumstances, the perfect first sentence, or for everyone around you to understand your vision. Write. Your first draft doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, it probably won't be. That's why we edit. Learn the craft. Read. Accept constructive criticism. Improve. Understand the publishing process. And recognize that being an indie author means treating your writing not only as creativity but, if you want to reach readers, as a business. I would also tell aspiring authors not to compare their journey with someone else's. One writer may sell thousands of books quickly while another builds an audience one reader at a time. Neither journey determines the value of your voice. Most importantly, know why you're writing. When sales are slow, when promotion becomes tiring, when self-doubt appears, or when you wonder whether anyone is paying attention, your “why” can remind you to keep going.

I've learned that book promotion is really another form of storytelling. Readers don't only want to see a book cover and a message saying, “Buy my book.” They want to know why you wrote it. They want to understand the person behind it, the story behind it, and why it might matter to them. So I use opportunities such as social media, interviews, podcasts, speaking engagements, and personal interactions to introduce people not only to my books but to the messages behind them. My broader Creg Inspires platform also allows me to connect my writing with conversations about personal growth, relationships, resilience, service, and overcoming adversity. I've also had to learn something that can sometimes be difficult for authors: you cannot be afraid to talk about your own work. If I genuinely believe that something I've written can educate, encourage, inspire, or help another person, then promoting it isn't simply about selling a product. It's about helping that message reach the person who may need it. For an indie author, writing the book is only part of the journey. You also have to help readers discover it.

Yes, I am, and I'm very excited about where this next project is taking me. The book I'm currently working on is titled Cultivating Confidence That Lasts: A Practical Guide. The idea behind the book is that confidence isn't necessarily something you're born with. It is something you can cultivate. And lasting confidence isn't about never experiencing fear, anxiety, uncertainty, or self-doubt. It's about learning how to respond when those feelings appear and still move forward in a way that aligns with your values. The book begins by examining self-doubt and the inner narratives that can hold us back. From there, I explore areas such as building self-trust, identifying your core values, celebrating progress rather than only outcomes, putting confidence into action, navigating visibility and vulnerability, and developing what I call humble confidence. I also explore the importance of surrounding yourself with people who support your growth, regularly reflecting and recalibrating, and even learning to rest without guilt. What makes the book especially important to me is that I don't want readers simply to read about confidence. I want them to practice it. That's why the chapters include reflection prompts, exercises, practical strategies, and opportunities for readers to examine their own lives. Ultimately, I want readers to understand that confidence isn't about becoming somebody else. It's about developing a stronger relationship with yourself—learning to trust yourself, live according to your values, take action despite uncertainty, and recognize how much you are capable of becoming. In many ways, this book feels like a natural continuation of my journey as a writer. I started by expressing myself through poetry. Then I wrote about the power of the mind. I shared my personal experiences with love and heartbreak. I brought my professional knowledge into a book about safety. And now I'm returning to personal growth with a deeper exploration of confidence. So what's next? More writing. More speaking. More opportunities to serve—and hopefully more ways to inspire. Because for me, that is ultimately what Creg Inspires is about: taking what I've experienced, what I've learned, and even what I've struggled through, and turning it into something that might help someone else move forward.