#142 Lauren Darroch overcame “writer’s guilt” and finally started writing consistently. She’s more productive than ever, publishing book twins (two books at the same time) and is now working on her third one
Podcast interview (Shelley Hitz with guest Lauren Darroch) about Lauren's journey to consistent writing and publishing two books simultaneously. Lauren discusses completing a long-term novel (The Road From Damascus) and a companion devotional (short, four parts tied to the novel's characters), overcoming "writer's guilt," and learning productivity habits through Christian Book Academy (CBA)—notably 15-minute writing blocks, scheduling/time-blocking, and persistence after health setbacks. She had worked on the novel for about seven years, used a vision board goal to publish, and describes emotional benefits of regular short writing sessions.
Questions this episode answers
The Road From Damascus
Short, in four parts tied to the novel's main perspective characters
About seven years (worked on it off and on)
Chapters
Lauren Darrah. She is part of Christian Book Academy as well. But the really cool thing. Tell us, Lauren, about your birthing of book twins.
Yeah. So as Shelley explained, I actually wrote two books, so I've been working on my novel the Road From Damascus for some time. So this is the novel?
Yes.
I don't know if we can see that very well. But anyway, I've been working on that for several years off and on. Not really feeling like I had enough time for that and sort of decided when on lockdown that, you know, I've got to get this done if it's going to be the time now, you know, this is when I'm going to have time. So I ended up joining cba. I'd had some minor sort of health blips, but pushed through that. And during that, I'd also sort of had the idea for a devotional. So CBA really helped me push through that and figure out my.
Goals and sort of realize that I can. It's okay sometimes if you don't quite make your own personal deadline. You know, we have to do the pace of God's grace, as Shelley always says. And for me, I think joining CBA helped me sort of figure out productivity a little better in terms of my writing because I would spend a lot of time at times working on it, and then I wouldn't suddenly have no time to work on it. And it was sort of learning how to use time, blocking in my schedule and at the same time make time. So even if I only have 15 minutes just doing that 15 minutes, because at least I'm getting that out. I'm getting my creative, creative, creative outlet out there. And that's very important for me. I found for my emotional, well, being, God made me to write and be creative. And if I don't do that, I don't feel very good. And I find that Even doing that 15 minutes helps me feel better and productive. And then I don't feel guilty if I'm not spending, you know, hours and hours on it because I'm actually making time for it instead of stepping away for a few months and then coming back to it, which isn't consistent, and it makes it hard to get anything done.
Yeah. And, you know, you've been working on this novel for seven years. You know, that's kind of like a biblical number, right? Seven days of creation, all these things. And, you know, I remember when you joined cba, you were just like, oh, you know, I had this goal to finish on at this date. And then, you know, you pushed it back and like, oh, now it's this date, and now it's this date. And so, you know, it was, it was hard at times because, you know, you had your idea, like you said, of when you wanted to publish, but you were also writing and publishing two books and this was your first time. So you're learning the process at the same time. And your devotional book, it kind of ties in with the themes of the novel, is that correct?
Yeah, the devotional book, there's four parts, it's short and it follows each. There's four. The main perspective characters, one of them isn't as much of a perspective character as the other three, but it's sort of go through different themes. Themes in relation to their journey. I picked a theme per character and wrote that out, included a few stories. Some of them are more personal to me than others, but.
Yeah, and so that's like a little tip if you are writing fiction, you know, there might be a time when you might want to include some sort of like devotional or companion journal or, you know, something like that that goes along with the themes. But I just love that that you, you finally gave birth to those twins. And we'll just say it was God's perfect timing, right?
Yeah. And it'll be God's perfect timing when they take off too, right?
Yes. Yep. One step at a time. But you really talked also about learning, you know, this, that productivity and you know, you talked about having writer's guilt, you know, and just, you know, feel. Feeling like you wanted to write, you wanted to finish this book and yet not feeling like there was progress. How does it feel now, like, to have seen these two books published into the world?
It just felt really amazing to know I finally accomplished that goal. I sort of had done a little vision board at the beginning of the year and my goal, one of them was to get my books published. And, you know, being able to check that one off was.
Yes.
Awesome. After all these years.
Yeah. And inside Christian Book Academy now, every month we have like a 15 minute writing challenge where we have you write like five days for 15 minutes. I remember when we were first doing this, you had that aha moment of like, oh, I can write in just 15 minutes. And that you really enjoy it, like, it fills you. It is your creative outlet. Right. And so I just love that you have really discovered that. And anyone listening, that is a great tip because you really can accomplish a lot. Even if you're just writing 15 minutes at a time, you can accomplish so much. It's amazing when we have these. These just little mini challenges in cba, like what you can accomplish. So thank you so much for sharing, Lauren. We're so excited for you.