#136 Tanecia Mitchell gained a strategy to take the first draft of her manuscript to a finished book

My name is Tanisia Mitchell, and during the day I am a scientist and professor at a local institution. So I write every day for work. I write grants, manuscripts, and publications. And at night, I come home and write even more because I love writing. And I'm here to really share about my book, which is called Renew the inner U. And the subtitle is a practical guide to counting your thoughts, emotions and responses. This book was really birthed out of a lot of experiences of pain and frustration and just having so many different emotions in a really difficult time of my life. And I remember God telling me to start writing this book, and I really questioned him. I said, are you really sure about this? I don't think I'm qualified to even talk about emotions because my emotions are all over the place and I'm losing it sometimes. So I need you to help me. Are you sure you want me to talk about this and put this in a book? And so I wrote the first outline in 2016, and it was just published last week. So it took me five years to get this done.

Yes. And congratulations.

And I want to highlight the importance of recognizing that it is God's timing. You know, a lot of times I was like, oh, man, I'm really ready to get this done, this book done. Every New Year's, I'm like, for 2020, I'm getting this book done, 2019, et cetera, I'm getting this book published. And, you know, I would start, I would stop, I would start and stop again. And it really was just a difficult process because I had to deal with all of these different emotions. So my book consists of several different emotions, such as anger, frustration.

Even wanting to feel like you want to quit or worrying. And I just have whatever, what's called a five step or five plan strategy that God has given me to help me deal with those type of thoughts that enter into my mind and how to combat them. And so there are scriptures, prayers, and confessions, as well as short practical steps. So the objective really was just to marry the natural component as well as the spiritual component to really address those emotions. So that's what my book is about. But I really want to highlight how CVA has been a blessing to me because when I found cba, which was in, I think, September, when you had a training authors conference, I was right before then I literally, like a week before, similar to Jennifer's testimony, I was praying to God, I said, all right, I have a draft. I just don't know what to do next. I've talked to Other authors, and they give me a little bit of advice here and there, but I'm a person that really kind of likes a blueprint, and it's just. It's a lot easier. You know, the path is really laid out. So that was one thing I really appreciated about cba. So I really appreciate your effort, Shelly, and also your husband as well. But I like to think of you all as midwives of authors. Like, you just really give us the strategies and the tips to get those books out. And then I remember going through the modules, and I'm like, wow, they really have thought of everything. Like, I cannot believe this. Like, you really have put so much thought and effort into the process. So I remember thinking several times, there's no way. No one cannot publish a book if they go through cba. Like, there's no way. Don't. It's just because you don't want to follow the steps, because they are literally, literally written from A to Z in such a simple way. And they're also not very time consuming because for me, I don't have a lot of extra time. But I made sure to squeeze in the time, and they've been extremely beneficial. I wrote down a couple of tips, so I hope it's okay if I share more than one for the authors.

Yeah, go for it. Let's get some bonus tips here, too.

Yeah. So one thing that I really appreciated was how you encouraged us to have the business meetings with God. And so I bought a special journal. This is my business meeting with God. And I take this journal with me, and I go through the steps that you gave us. And I decided to be really intentional about it. I made it every Sunday morning, or if I couldn't do it in the morning, I would do it right after church. And I strategized. I said, all right, let's go to the library. After church, you're going to have your business meeting with God. And after you finish that meeting, now we're going to just go ahead and write a little bit. And it was a great adjustment to my life because it helped me to really write my grant. I mean, excuse me, my book. I'm so used to saying grant, my book. And so I really want to encourage people is this is a temporary phase. You have to make some sacrifices and adjustments. I lost some sleep, but it was by the grace of God. I woke up in the morning as if I had eight hours of sleep because I was focused on what he wanted. So he will give you the grace, the energy, the strength to get it done. It is just a matter of making some sacrifices. And then the other thing that I started to do was I have to do lists all the time. So it's just something I do every single day. And I remember right now to do lists according to, you know, the advice you would give us through the modules. But what I found myself doing was once I completed something, I moved it to a completed list and I put the date by it and it motivated me to keep getting more things done. And, you know, I realized it didn't matter how big the task was, it still was a victory. So that meant I created my KDP account. Oh, that was a victory, you know. Oh, if that meant that, you know, what else did I write on there?

I bought a vellum package for formatting my book. So I wrote that down. It didn't matter if it was big or small. I wrote it down and eventually the list got longer and longer and I'm like, oh, I'm making momentum. This is great. Just keep going step by step. Tanisia. And I found that when I did that, I really saw that God was moving through me and helping me. And so I would just really encourage people to remember that you don't have to do it by yourself. Holy Spirit is there. And the fun part about it, I just love him. The fun part about him is that he gives you this tailor made strategy for you. So what works for someone else. Shelly gives us a great blueprint and it's solid. I'm telling you, it's solid. But he also will say, okay, make sure you do this, do that. Okay, you don't have to do that part. And that's the fun part. It's not so much a tour. I think you just have to also, like renew your mind and your perspective about it. Like God is chosen you or us to fulfill an assignment, to share something that's on his heart with the world. And it's not something we have to do in our own strength and we get to partner with him to carry it out. And so when we start thinking about it that way, instead of, oh my gosh, this is year three and I'm still working on it, that doesn't help. So I would recommend. All right, let's try to shift your perspective because at the end of the day, it's not about us, it's about him and really just being used as his vessels to carry out what he wants to be shared with the earth.

Awesome. Well, I'm so excited for you. This was a five year pregnancy, but now you birthed the baby.

It's time to message out. And I'm so excited for you. I just know it's God's timing for you and that there is an anointing on you for what he's called you to do. So I love that. Where you said, you know, to write what you've accomplished and put a date on it. That was a great tip. I think that is, you know, it's like you, you, you're you're acknowledging. I worked with a life coach one time, and she's like, Shelly, you, you aren't really even acknowledging what you are doing. You know, it's just so easy to keep, you know, think of the next to do list. The next to do list. And so I love that you did that. And that's a great tip.