#151: The 3 P’s of Writing: The Simple Shift That Will Transform Your Writing Sessions
6 Feb 2025 · 7 min
Shelley Hitz presents a short, practical three-step routine to prepare for focused writing: Pause (a guided breathing exercise—four counts in, seven counts out—done three times), Pray (one–two minutes of journaling or asking God what to write), and Pen (a 15-minute uninterrupted writing block with minimal self-editing). She emphasizes diaphragmatic breathing to calm the nervous system, partnering with God in the writing process, using timers and brain-dumps as warm-ups, and separating writing from editing to preserve creative flow.
Chapters
I want to teach you my three step process that I recommend you do before any writing session. And so this three step process is to pause. We're going to do that together. To breathe, to pray or plan and pen. I love the alliteration. So I call this the three P's. And first of all, we just want to pause. And science has shown us that God has given us a gift in breathing. Breathing out longer than breathing in actually calms your nervous system and can help set you up for, for a successful writing session. So I, I also recommend breathing through your diaphragm, letting your stomach stick out. I know our, our culture, women says pull it in, but we're gonna let it just all come out. And we're gonna take three breaths together. We're gonna do four counts in and seven counts out, approximately. But I'm gonna lead you. Let's go ahead and breathe in. One, two, three, four. And breathe out. One. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And now I'm going to go ahead, I'm not going to count this time, but I just. You can put your hand on your stomach if you want, just to feel it coming out. So you make sure you're getting that into the diaphragm. That's part of the power of this. But just go ahead and take another breath in.
Breathe out.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
Let's do one more. Breathe in.
Breathe out.
It's not about an exact time. It's just more about breathing out longer than you breathe in. But I like that. Four, seven. There's a lot of different breathing exercises, but how many of you feel a little bit different, a little bit better after just those three breaths? You can always do more if you want, but I find that I already start to feel better, even just after a few breaths. It takes literally like less than a minute. Yeah. Jamie's saying definitely, Elizabeth, more calm. Debbie says more bodily relaxed and less tense. And so this is just a great habit to get into before you write. So that's pause. The second P is pray. So we recommend that you do business meetings with God and if you're new here, this might be something new to you. It's basically just connecting with God in prayer, asking for his wisdom, for your writing and for your, the planning and all the different things that are involved. It's partnering with God. That's what we help you do. Go ahead and get out a journal or a pen and I want you to be able to actually see if you can write it out. I know some of you like to type. But there is science that shows when we write things out that there it helps our brain to actually process things better. So what I want you to do is I just want you to start by asking God, what do you want me to write about today? Just ask him. You may already have an idea of what you were gonna work on, but just ask him and see if he says anything different. We're gonna give you two minutes. Just say, God, what would you like me to write about in this 15 minutes? It might actually be a prayer that he wants you to write out. It might be a journaling session instead of working on your blog post or your book or whatever you had planned to work on, just including God and partnering with him in this process. So the three P's. Number one is pause. We encourage you to take three deep breaths. Number two is to pray. And just spend two minutes praying and journaling and asking God what to write about. So, so literally just three minutes to prepare. And now we're gonna do pen, where we're gonna take pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. I just like the alliteration. But I encourage you to write for 15 minutes, not try to do much self editing. Now, if there's something obvious, go ahead and correct it. But what I have found in all the years of mentoring writers, and we've been doing this for a long time since 2010, is that when you put too much effort and attention on trying to edit while you're writing, you get in conflict. So your creative side is, woo, I got the creative flow. I want to go. And then your inner editor or your inner critic is, that's not right. You didn't do that. Why are you even trying to write a book? This is. You can't even write a sentence and then it shuts you down. Now, like I said, if there's something small or if you want to correct and it doesn't stop you, go ahead. Everybody is different. Don't try to shove a round peg into a square hole. But I encourage you, write first, edit later. So make them in separate sessions if possible. Let the words flow and tell your inner editor, you will come back and edit later. You will not forget. You will do it. And then just having the mindset of, we get to do this, instead of feeling this pressure of, like, I have to do this or I'm dreading our writing sessions. I remember years ago, I was just really struggling with some things related to Christian Book Academy and different things. And C.J. was like, Shelley, I just encourage you not to take this on and feel the pressure, but to see it as a privilege. And it is a privilege, right? And then sometimes you need a little writing warmup. So you might need to start with a brain dump. Just get all the to do's out of your brain. And the first couple minutes, maybe you're just writing out, like, all right, I'm. I just want to get this out of my brain and remember this. Have a little notepad close by and write anything down that comes to your mind. Because the enemy will try to distract us, right? That happens in prayer as well. And I usually have a little notebook in my prayer closet as well to write those things down so that I don't get derailed. But you might want to play certain music in the background or have coffee and tea. I have some green tea with me right now in my giant yellow mug. I want you to turn off all distractions. We want to just give God space, right? Create space for him to move in your writing today and what he wants to do through you. Now we are going to get into writing that thing that he either confirmed or showed you. Do you remember the three P's? It's pause.
Pray.
Pen. So embed that in your mind. And every time you sit down to write, take a minute to pause, take some breaths, Take a couple minutes, one or two, and just ask God, what is it you have to say to me today? What is it you want me to write today? And then pen. Put the pen to paper. Set a timer. Most of us, our brain does well when we set a timer. When I'm really dreading something or I'm resisting it, I have this little timer here, but. And I just switch it over and. And it goes to whatever I'm doing. But setting a timer, it just gives our brain a deadline and it helps us to stay focused. Okay, I'm only gonna. I only have to focus for 15 minutes. I can do this in Jesus name, right?