#125: Let's Write! Join Me for a 15-Minute Writing Session

So let's go ahead and move into a time of writings. You can choose a blog post, you can choose even an email, social media post, a letter to somebody. But if you do, if you are working on a book, I encourage you to spend some time working on that. We're going to do it for 15 minutes and this is really powerful to write in a group setting. So we do this in our monthly virtual writing retreats in Christian Book Academy. So it's usually the end of the month, the last Friday and Saturday and we do it on a Friday, Saturday. So if you work during the week, you can come on a Saturday. If you prefer to come during the week, you can come on a Friday. You don't have to come both days, you don't have to come the whole time. But we kick it off, C.J. and I, with some encouragement and prayer and then we have Butterfield is our virtual writing retreat host and then she leads you through those two days and basically you're in a group setting but then you all go and do your writing and then you come back and you share how it went, you ask any questions. So it's really powerful. It's based on the Pomodoro technique. The research that's been done on it says to write or work for 25 minutes, take a five minute break and then 25 minutes, five minute break, do that for two hours and then take a longer break. And typically they don't recommend you use this more than four hours in a day. So our virtual writing retreats are four hours on a Friday. Total writing of total writing. We have a kickoff, you know, time too, but, and a break time. But it's probably about six hours total. But today we're going to do 15 minutes and. But the three step process I recommend when you sit down to write is pause, pray and pen. I love alliteration. So memorize this and or write it down on a sticky note and put it in your writing area. Pause, pray, pen. So we're going to start off with just a few breaths. Science has shown us that God has given us a gift in breathing. Breathing out longer than breathing in helps calm your nervous system. And then when you use your diaphragm like you allow your stomach to expand it also the, it triggers receptors in your body that help you to calm down. It is crazy. Like it literally decreases the, the stress hormone cortisol in your body. So I recommend you do this anytime that like you're getting ready to do something and you're feeling a little bit anxious. So let's just go ahead and do that together. This is the pause section of the Pause Pray pen. So just breathe in and try to breathe in through your diaphragm. Let your stomach come out.

And then breathe out.

Let's do that two more times. Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

And breathe out.

Do any of you already feel a little bit better? It's amazing. Three breaths, but if you need to, you can keep going. So that's the pause and then the pray. I just recommend spending one or two minutes praying and asking God what to write about. So I'm just going to set a timer for one minute. And this is like a mini business meeting with God. We recommend that you spend time each week asking God what to do, you know, in your, in your book, in your marketing, you know, where if you're stuck in a certain place in your plot or whatever. So just go ahead and get out a pen and paper if you can. It's powerful. Research has shown when you actually write something out that it does something in your brain that helps much better. So whatever. You have a little notebook. If you have something like that, just for one minute and just say, God, what do you want me to write about? So you may already have an idea of what you're going to write and he might say, yeah, that's good, write about that. Or he may say, I want you to write about this story and maybe that story goes in to a book later or you share it on social media or I don't know, maybe you never share it, but go ahead. And I'm just going to go ahead and start the timer for one minute, just pray and just say God. And you might not even write. You just may just listen in your spirit, like what am I to, to write about right now?

It.

All right, we're winding down here.

All right. If you feel comfortable, share in the chat box what you sensed God saying. For me personally, I'm not working right now on a book. I have about a dozen ideas, but most of us do, right? But I just felt like the Lord just told me just to spend this time journaling and a specific thing that I've had some angst over lately and just to kind of work through that with him. I like to do two way journaling and in Christian Book Academy I have an entire course on how to hear God's voice. So if this was awkward to you or weird for you, we have that for you. Christian Book Academy, that's in there as well. So pause. Just take three deep breaths through Your diaphragm. I like to do four counts in, four, seven counts out. There's all sorts of different breathing techniques out there. Then to pray. Spend one or two minutes praying and asking God what to write about. Now it's time to put pen to paper. So pause, pray. And now it's pen or your fingers to the keyboard. But I just love the alliteration, right? So I encourage you to write and not do much self editing during this time. Just let it flow. Get out the messy first draft of whatever you're working on, and then you can edit it later. That's something that we have learned over the years. Working with writers is if you try to write and edit at the same time, they conflict. And then it can shut down the creativity because you're. You're criticizing. You know, it's like your inner editor, the inner critic is saying, oh, you didn't spell that right. Oh, that's not right. You're not right. Not right, not right, not right. And then you're like, oh, and you get shut. Go. Just let it flow. You tell your inner editor, I got you. We're going to come back and edit this later.

And then just having the mindset of we get to do this versus have to, or feeling pressure or dread with our writing sessions. And just know, sometimes you need a writing warmup. Like, you know, what I'm going to do is just, you know, about a journal. I'm just going to journal, and I'm going to use paper and pen. But you might need a writing warmup. Before you actually get into your book or other major things, you might want to do some ritualistic things like, you know, like this pausing, breathing, and praying. But then lighting a candle or having a certain kind of tea. I have my green tea with me right now. CJ does coffee, but you might want to play certain background music. But I'm going to set the timer for 15 minutes. Just go ahead and remove all distractions. Turn off your phone for right now. Just for 15 minutes. And let's see what will happen when you just, you know, have 15 minutes and can focus on your writing. I'm going to go ahead and start the timer right now. I'm going to go quiet and just spend this time. Yeah, Yves, I'm not working on a book, so I'll just be journaling. Yeah, journaling is great. It's actually where a lot of my book content came from in the beginning. I went back through my journals, and I found things that God had taught me or had said to Me and so journals are, are great too, but. All right, well, I'm going to go ahead and start the timer for 15 minutes and go ahead and start writing and I will see you back here and then we will share what God did in our writing. Time.

About five seconds left. So just finish up what you were working on.

All right. 15 minutes. How did it go? What did you accomplish? And remember, no comparing to other people. Stay in your own lane of what God is doing in your own life. I was journaling and God gave me some really good insight on this thing I was having angst on. I was like, oh, that's so good. God has the best ideas and if we, even if we just stop and take a few minutes and you know, ask him, he will show us. So how did it go for you? I. I missed a few comments earlier. Karen says during that one minute of time with God she got a few more points for her outline. Deb got the title for her devotion. That's amazing. One minute. One minute. And Sharon said that she was going to be working on thank you notes for kindnesses shown during my dad's illness in passing. Yes. So good. So share in the chat box. How did it go for you? Did. Did it feel like you could just keep going? Typically once you start and you get that 15 first 15 minutes, it's just like, oh, I feel like I could keep going. And so if you want to and you have time after this, you can keep going and love being able to help you experience this of like you can write a book in just 15 minutes a day. Even if you just sit down and do what we did, pause, pray, pen, and then set a timer for 15 minutes, you can finish your book. We have had Christian Book Academy members finish their book over their lunch hour break and they, they don't necessarily even write over the whole hour. Some people get up a few minutes early and so for. I hope that you enjoyed this group writing session. It's always so fun just to come together and to get some writing done. Go ahead. Oh yes.

This was just something. I just have to thank you for this because when you talked about two way journaling, it's been a really long time since I did this and I just wrote this whole poem like totally nonstop just right out of. Can I just read part of it?

Sure.

The last two words usually become the title of the poem. And, and it's called simply be, don't be hasty, Let it flow, Give it to God. Because God will know who to reach and who will learn. Give A push and take your turn Tea or coffee, music or not Give it to him. He's all you got Overwhelming options galore Find the lesson that's in store Others need what you can give Help helping heal the way you live and it goes on. But I'm just saying that everything I was struggling with got penned into this poem.

Wow.

The last line says, give them the wonderful secret of me.

Truly, completely the truth simply be.

I've got Chill. Susan, that's beautiful.

It's amazing. Yeah. And it's so. It's so beautiful what God will do if we'll just give him a few minutes, right? Yeah.

Yeah. Like, he totally answered my question. Yes.

Yeah. And through a poem. And that's a poem. Like other people are saying, I love this poem. Bless me. And Deb says, I want a copy.

So maybe you guys can connect. You can always connect privately too, through a message. But thank you for sharing. That's so beautiful. I got chills. And yeah, God is able to give us what we need when we feel stuck, when we don't know what to write in the next chapter, when we're. We're just like, what do we do? What do we do? Yvette said journaling was freeing to clear my thoughts so I can complete my work today for clients and myself. Thank you. Yeah, I call it a brain dump. And sometimes we just have to get that chatter out of our mind. And if we put it on paper or even just a to do list of things you don't want to forget, then it clears your mind for your other work or writing. Karen says, Wow, 15 minutes went fast. Just wrote the book intro with the hook to catch readers. That's awesome. Fifteen minutes, Karen. Deborah says yes. This was motivational. I wanted to keep writing. I know it's. You can once. Once I close this out. So I love that. I'm so glad you all were here and I pray that you were blessed by this session. And yeah, you just are able to just experience a little piece of what it's like to write in commun and to partner with God in your writing. That's what we do in Christian book Academy. We help you partner with God as you write your book and then you write in community. So we have so many different things. Virtual writing retreats every month, the progress pods, we have zoom calls. So like this, I have one every month called next steps. And you can get on and have coaching sessions with me. Wherever you're stuck, people get just. Sometimes you just need that little bit of information, you know, Just to go and do the next thing. And so we have a lot of ways to help you in there. Yvette said, this is my first time with you, but I've recently started following your work. What you're doing is powerful and amazing. Thank you. You're welcome. Deborah said, this was great. It is, it's so amazing. Like we, we are isolated as writers. I think the best thing we do in Christian Book Academy is connect you with each other. So a lot of times on our zoom calls, you'll have opportunities to go into breakout rooms. You don't have to, we don't force you to, but it is a really, really amazing time. People meet friends, like lifelong friends and get connected and you share and you pray together. Nothing is recorded in the breakout rooms. You know, you can just be completely honest. But I think that's some of the. In the progress pods. But I think that's some of the best thing that we do is connect you with God. First of all, partnering with God, but then connecting you with each other and having that community. Every month you'll have a chance to move forward because we're gonna be doing our 15 minute challenge. We have one week every month where we encourage you just to write 15 minutes a day and then we have prizes. And so it kind of is motivating and everyone checks in each day. And so we have that every month. We have a virtual writing retreat every month. You don't have to do everything. You might not even ever use the training in the academy. You just come to the events. But anyways, could talk on and on because we have some amazing members. We have about 300, over 300 members. So you'll, you'll get connected with Kingdom writers from around the world. So anyways, let me pray. Thank you for joining me today. We also do, we also host the Kingdom Writers Conference. Our next conference is coming up in October and I'm, I have a tentative topic, but I, I'm not announcing it yet, but you can also check out our previous editions@bookDOMwritersconference.com editions. You can sign up for free or get the all access pass afterwards. But anyways, just wanted to tell you that. Oh, and we also have the Kingdom Writers podcast. So if you are a podcast listener, check that out. Karen says been in Matt Tommy's mentoring program for five years. So I know Shelly and I finally met her at the last gathering of artisans. She's the real deal with the heart of gold. Glad to finally join her program. Yay. So fun. Yes, Karen, I, I just enjoyed so much. I, I was a, I led a workshop at his gathering of artisans two years in a row. But I've kind of transitioned a little bit away from my art. My art is now more for me personally and as a ministry and then I'm really focusing on what I do for writers, so. But I just loved meeting you and being his, his group as well. So let me pray for you. God, thank you so much for what you're doing, what you're doing in our lives. And thank you for just providing different opportunities to connect. Lord, thank you that we can partner with you as we write, whether it's just through a one minute prayer and little tiny business meeting or it's, you know, spending longer periods of time of just two way journaling. But Lord, we just thank you, we thank you. We thank you that we can connect with you through prayer and that we can have prayer teams even specifically for our wr, and then that we can connect with other kingdom writers that can encourage and help us on this journey. So we just thank you for what you did today, Lord, even in this short 15 minute group writing session. I pray that there would be no overwhelm in Jesus name, that the enemy would be bound in Jesus name, and that you would just use this to, to help people to really accomplish some of the goals that you have put in their hearts and the assignments you've given them, the things that they are to release into the world. And so, Lord, we just pray this is a bless blessing to many writers and we just pray this in Jesus name. Amen. All right, well, friends, love you all. Daniel says thanks for the meeting. So insightful. And thanks to everyone. You're welcome. All right, we'll talk to you later. Bye bye.