"Where do I start?"

You start by providing pictures. It's not possible to tell someone how to prune a tree sight unseen, other than cutting out anything dead, damaged or diseased.

Depending on where you live, your variety may not bloom until August. Cutting will not make them bloom sooner. You need to provide a zone, the nearest big town or city, pictures, bloom color, how tall are they now,etc.

Google "Crepe Murder" and you will get a zillion hits of what NOT to do.

I tried 4 times to upload a photo but this forum crashes every time. Please take your attitude elsewhere. Tigereye, they used to bloom much earlier so I was thinking maybe the bad care was a factor. Maybe I needed to water them more or something else was being done wrong. Thank you for the "crepe murder" tip! I'll go google that.

I gave you straight forward advice. We can't help if we don't know what is wrong. You still haven't said where you live. Put your photo in the comments. Lots of posters have trouble putting them in in original post.

Here are several posts on GW.

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/query/crepe-myrtle

I wasn't speaking to you in the beginning of my comment, don't be rude. I simply thanked you for the tip and went on my Google search. Googling "crepe murder" led me to a nice article on southern living that was very helpful to me. I can't believe the unnecessary attitude on this forum. I got what I needed so I will just delete it in a bit as to not offend anyone else with my lack of photos, but thanks again for the advice! Also, I did try putting it in the comments. Crashes. Not my fault.

Neither Floral or I were rude. I don't know why you have such an attitude. But since you know-it-all, have a nice day. By the way, you are too late to delete your post.

Oh my. Still rude. I'll just delete the account then, I can't believe y'all. Good grief 🤦‍♀️

Probably better for all concerned if you do.

There's many varieties of crape myrtles with a range of growth habits from miniature to trees over 30' tall. So if the kind you have is one that is genetically programmed to be more bushy than you want it may turn out to be somewhat problematic to get and retain a decidedly more treelike shape. With the plant constantly trying to return to the less arborescent form it had when you started working on it.

Other than that a way to get input besides that available from internet discussion boards is to engage a local, adequately trained and experienced service provider to come and view your plants in person, discuss them with you. And maybe also do some or all of the work needed to address your objectives for the planting. In my market area examples of such entities call themselves things like "consulting arborist" and "garden coach".

HERE is one of many youtube videos that should answer your questions. Pruning techniques are much easier to explain with an image or video rather than by text alone.