#103 - Silencing the Inner Critic as a Writer

As a writer, how do you overcome the constant voice that says you are not good enough? Hi, my name is Shelley Hitz, and I help writers get their books out of their head and onto paper using my book writing formulas and monthly virtual writing retreats so that you can write words that outlive you and self publish books that fulfill your calling. It's time to let your light shine. And in every Ask Shelley episode, I promise to to share at least one thing that will help you write, self publish and market your books so that the message of your books can impact lives. I received this question, Shelley, how do you overcome the constant voice that says you're just not good enough? And it's seemingly backed up by evidence of failure. Being obedient to what God's calling you to do, but feeling like you let him down by not actually being able to succeed, that's a big one. And I know a lot of you face this and deal with this on a daily basis. First of all, it's something that most all creatives face. There's a resistance to putting our work out into the world, whether you're a Christian or not. But when you are a Kingdom writer, a Christian writer, even if your content is not faith based, there is an additional spiritual battle. The enemy does not want you to use your gifts, fulfill your calling, and see God use you to impact lives. So this is a big one and it can definitely stop you. And one of the things that I want you to know, first of all, is God has told me over and over again, success is obedience. And if we do what God has called us to do, if it reaches one person or 1,000 or almost a million, I mean, CJ&I's books now have reached almost a million people. And it's just really mind blowing. But wherever you're at on that spectrum, God just keeps reminding me, Shelly, success is obedience. And so I want to tell you, you are doing it right. You are doing it right because you are moving forward in the call to write, publish, and market your books. So keep going. The other thing that I want to mention is, number one, we need to, as believers, as Kingdom writers, know our identity in Christ. This is a very basic thing. And I know some of you are probably thinking, okay, but I really just started to dig into this even deeper. Even just like six years ago, it was 2017, and God did some really deep work in me about identity. And he's continuing to do things because we're works in progress, right? That's sanctification. But knowing who we are being rooted in that identity as sons and daughters of the king. That makes a huge difference. And really having the viewpoint of what God sees as success. Right? So that's number one. Also, as you know, your identity, sometimes we do need healing from what? Julia Cameron from the Artist's Way, she calls them creative injuries. And as I was going back through some things, I realized I needed healing regarding creative injuries related to music. And I have a whole story about that. But, you know, there may be some things where people either spoke over you or something that happened when you were young that was perceived in your little heart. You know, whether you were 7, 8, 10, 12, 18, I don't know. But you took that in as you're not good enough, that you're a failure. Maybe it's words spoken over you, maybe it was an experience. But that is something to definitely come to the Lord with and say, God, do I have any creative injuries from growing up? So, number one, know your identity and ask God to heal you from any creative injuries. Number two, this is a biggie. It's learning to not only identify the lie, so this lie of you're not good enough, it is not the truth. It is a lie from the pit of hell, from your enemy, the devil. That is not the truth. So identifying the lies and then replacing them with God's truth. Now I go into this in depth in my workshop, the Kingdom Writer Renewal Workshop. And you can get that inside bookmarketing shop.com. it's also in Christian Book Academy. If you join as a member. It's in the Kingdom Foundations module. This workshop was transformative for me. And what I teach in the workshop, I should say was transformative to me in really breaking free from an addiction to Internet pornography almost 20 years ago. But not only that, I've used the same concepts over and over again in my life just to see God bring breakthrough, especially in these areas of mindset. And it's a huge topic. But I have a really great workshop for you. It's called the Kingdom Writer Renewal Workshop. I encourage you to check that out and just really ask the Lord, like, what are the lies that I'm believing? And.

What are you saying about this? What does your truth say? And I recommend getting that from God's word from the Bible so there could be lies from. From your inner critic. We have a very loud inner critic. Amen. And you can just fire your inner critic, say, you know what? I don't thank you for being here all these years, but I don't really need you anymore. And Then other people, you may have other people in your life right now saying, why are you even doing this? Why are you wasting your time? You're not a good writer. Da, da da da da. I mean, it could be so many things that other people are saying over you. And so those lies can come from the enemy, it can come from our own inner critic, and it can come from others. So, number one, knowing your identity and healing from any creative injuries. Number two, replacing any lies with God's truth. And then three, we just. We really do need to continue to grow our skills as a writer and to continue to grow as a writer. So that means getting continuing education, taking courses, learning. Learning things, reading books. I mean, you can go to the library and get an entire education on how to write books just from the books there that you can get for free. But we have tons of free training on our podcast, our kingdomwriters conference.com. there's tons of free training there for you as well. But you have the opportunity to continue to grow as a writer. And so if you feel like you're not good enough.

There may be some things that you can continue to grow in. Doesn't mean that you're where you're going to be as a writer. And this is where you're stuck. And so you can't move forward. No, you can continue to grow. You can learn how to add more emotion to your stories. That's a huge thing that can make an impact. You can learn more about your target audience and reaching them and what they need. You can learn how to market in an effective way and test track and tweak. And yes, we are going to fail many times. But failing is just trying, right? Frequent attempts in learning. That's what the word. Fail. That's an acronym for fail. Frequent attempts in learning. We're just learning. We're figuring this whole thing out. And you know what? No one expects any of you to be perfect ever. First of all, we could never be perfect this side of heaven. Whew. I feel like I'm starting to preach, but no one expects anyone to be perfect the first time. I have improved so much in my writing. I have now written and published over 50 books. Like my first book, it's gone through two different rounds at two different times of professional editing. And it's still kind of. It's more rough than what I would write today.

It just is what it is. I wrote that in 2007-2008. I'm a different writer now. I'm a different person. God has taught me even more lessons. And I would write that book differently today if I wrote it today. But you know what? That book is still impacting lives. It's still reaching teen girls for Christ. And I put it out there. And then I kept practicing, I kept learning. And I'm continuing to learn and continuing to grow as a writer. So I hope that this has encouraged you. First of all, we just need to know our identity, but also heal from any creative injuries of the past. Number two, recognizing those lies, whether it's from the enemy or from our own inner critic or other people, and replacing them with God's truth, which is in his word, we've got to be in the Bible. And then number three, just continuing to grow as a writer. So a few years ago, CJ and I did an entire series called the Breakthrough Series for Writers, all about, like, when you don't feel qualified, when you feel insecure as a writer. And one of the sessions that people really had a lot of good feedback on was when you found, you know, experience shame as a writer. Shame is I'm not good enough. And so that one might be especially helpful for you to check out. I will include the link to that entire series, and then you can see all the different options there. And we would love to help you in Christian Book Academy, sometimes you just need some mentors speaking into your life, reminding you of the truth, right? And then we have all of these lessons for you in Christian Book Academy as well in the Kingdom Foundations module 2, just to help you get that mindset to move forward. So we'd love to have you join us@christianbookacademy.com and I pray that God gives you breakthrough in this mindset issue so that you can move forward in your call to write, publish, and market your books.