#327: Writing Well: If You're Going Slow You're Doing it Right

Welcome to Kingdom Writers, where we help equip and empower Christian writers of all genres to share your unique gifts with the world. We're your hosts, C.J. and Shelley Hitz.

This podcast is filled with spiritual encouragement as well as prayers to help you overcome the resistance you face as a writer. Your story matters.

Welcome to this episode of Kingdom Writers. My name is Shelly Hitz. And before we dive into this topic of if you're going slow, you're doing it right, I wanted to remind you we have a free ebook all about writing strategies that can help you get more done. So it's called Writing Wheel and you can get your copy@trainingauthors.com writingwheel you're gonna learn five proven writing strategies you can use to get more writing and really just to finish the writing God has called you to do. So again, if you haven't gotten this yet, we've had tons of really great feedback over the years on this content. Go download it now@trainingauthors.com writing wheel. So this episode we're talking about, if you're going slow, you're doing it right. So it's so easy as a writer to beat ourselves up or as one of our Christian Book Academy members recently said, to have writer's guilt or you know, feel like, oh, I should be writing or God gave me this book idea and then just a heap on this guilt or these negative emotions that you're not doing it right. And the thing is, the enemy wants to keep you paralyzed. If you feel overwhelmed, you may get paralyzed. If you are just crazy busy, you just don't have time. But I want to tell you that you, even if you're making slow progress, you're making progress. So wherever you're at right now in your projects, and it could be a writing project, it could be a marketing project, it could be something in between, I want to encourage you to consider breaking it down into smaller bite sized pieces and think about what if you could devote even just 15 minutes a day or a few times a week to your writing. Because then your brain is like, oh, I'm making progress. You know, even if you're going slow, you're doing it right. You're making progress, you're investing, you're putting money in the bank, so to speak, right into your, your writing bank or marketing bank, whatever it is. And I love the, the verse Galatians 6, 9. Anytime you know it, it feels overwh or I start to get tired or I just don't know if I can do this and this is the new living translation. It says, so let's not get tired of doing what is good at just the right time. We will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't give up now. There is great wisdom in knowing when to rest, friends. We need rest and we need time off. And yet there's also great wisdom in knowing when to push through. And sometimes we need to just get some more butt in the chair time. Let's just be honest here, let's just be real. There's so many things competing for our attention in this day and age. Our smartphones being the number one thing. Turn off your phone, put it on airplane mode. Tell all your people, I'm going to be unavailable for 15 minutes. I mean, it doesn't even have to be five hours, you know, two hours, it can be 15 minutes. Leave your phone in the other room. No one's going to die or have an issue, you know, if you leave your phone in the other room for just 15 minutes. Now people are dying every minute. And I know there are crises that can happen. So I don't want to, I don't want to underplay that. But, but you, you know what I mean? Like you, you can be away from your phone for 15 minutes, you know, and you know it's the small consistent habits over time that can change your life. If you haven't read the book yet, the book Compound Effect by Darren Hardy is great inspiration, motivation and he shows real life examples, research all the things to show you that it's the small consistent things you do over time that are really going to make a difference. If you want to finish your book this year, put it on your schedule. 15 minutes a day or one chunk every week. Like maybe there's a two hour chunk of time. Are you a chunk writer or a consistent writer or a little bit of both. I personally tend to prefer chunk writing. CJ tends to prefer consistent writing. So find what works best for you and then like commit to it. If you could see me right now, I'm like getting excited.

Because there are people right now waiting for your book to get done. Now every month in Christian Book Academy currently we are hosting a 15 minute writing challenge. We have found these over the years to be so transformational. And so once a month for five days, you know, we have accountability and check in posts, we have some prizes, but most importantly, just giving you a reason to move forward in God's call on your life to Write even just 15 minutes a day. And so I just wanted to share a Couple of the responses that we've gotten from, you know, people who have gone through our challenge. And Karen says, I completed all five days, and my average was 425 words per session, which was a total of 2,125 words. More importantly, I want to finish my book, and it doesn't seem like a huge chore. Breaking it up into 15 minutes made the project seem doable. Now I'm about to print it out and see how the Lord will arrange it. So excited. And then she says, I'm a writer. Wait, I'm a kingdom writer. And that's what happens. You start to get some momentum even with 15 minutes. Friends, if you're going slow, you're doing it right. And then Lauren says, I wrote a total of 2,967 words. And I just want to take a minute to say, we don't compare word counts around here. We celebrate every word written. And so whether you get 2,000 words, 3,000 words, 1,000 words, 10 words, whatever you get, if you're going slow, you're doing it right. It's progress. And so our motto in Christian Book Academy is, celebrate every word. All right, so let's get back to Lauren. Lauren says, I wrote a total of 2,967 words for my novel sequel's first draft. It was exciting to see what a small commitment per day can add up to. I'm going to write a bit more today, and I'm hoping to make 15 minutes of working on my sequel but part of my routine while I work on getting my first book published. That's amazing. And it is. It really is exciting to see what a small commitment can add up to. And so I encourage you that are listening, can you Commit to just 15 minutes? Close your door, turn off your phone, and just sit down for 15 minutes? And what I actually encourage you to do, take one minute first to invite the Holy Spirit. Take another one minute to ask the Lord, say, this was what I was planning on working on today. What would you want me to work on today? He may confirm that, yes, that's what you're to work on, or he may actually change it up. That happens to writers that are with us. We encourage you to do this on our virtual writing retreats. We host those once a month in Christian Book Academy as well. Two days. But we encourage you to ask the Lord, you know, and many times it can change, but it is exciting to see what can happen in just 15 minutes. And then Paul said, I finally did it. I finished all five days and got the chapter of my book finished that I'm working on. Well, at least the first draft. Thank you, Shelley and CJ for this opportunity to jumpstart my book writing. And that's again, what's called momentum. If you're going slow, you're doing it right. And guess what? You are going to start building momentum in your writing or in your marketing or whatever it is that you're working on as you finish that one thing and then that next thing and then the next thing. Even in just small, small segments can add up over time. And so I want to encourage you today, what small, small commitment can you make to your writing, publishing, or marketing today? And what is it that God is calling you to do? Let me just pray for you. So, Lord, thank you so much. For every kingdom writer listening right now. I pray that you would just be working in their lives, in their hearts, helping them to move forward in your call to write in their life and let them know, like, if they're going slow, they're doing it right. Small, consistent progress over time and adds up to so much. And yet we celebrate every word. So, Lord, I just pray that you would just give flow, give favor, give words, give ideas. And may every kingdom writer listening move forward to the next step that you have called them to do. And we pray this in Jesus powerful name. Amen. And I wanted to mention as well, if you haven't taken our book writing lab workshop yet, it's available, you can go sign up right now. And what I do is in this workshop, I help you get your book out of your head and onto paper using our three simple book writing formulas. So you'll learn our book topic formula so you can know exactly which nonfiction book to write first. And the answer may actually surprise you. Many times it does. I've hosted this live so many times. But number two, the book outline formula. So you can create your book outline today, start writing your book tomorrow. Plus, by using this formula, you'll forever put an end to writer's block. And then number three, our book content formula so you can finally finish your book in the next 90 plus days to start impacting lives. And you'll use the strategy and timeframe that works best for you so it's customized to you. It's only $27 really great workshop. We've helped hundreds and hundreds of writers get their book out of their heads, onto paper, get moving, start to get that momentum. Once you take the workshop, you have your topic, you have your outline, you have your plan, then you can implement what we talked about today. Start to write in 15 minute segments or more, but you can get the the workshop@bookwritinglab.com and we have tons of resources for you to help you do the things that God has called you to do. We are cheering you on. We love you friends and I will see you in the next episode. Bye bye.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Kingdom Writers. We believe that you as a Christian writer have a specific role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven to impact lives for eternity.

And because of this, we choose to pour out our lives into encouraging writers like you to not only tell your stories, but to take the courageous step of self publishing your stories in books that will outlive you and leave behind a powerful legacy. This podcast is sponsored by Christian Book Academy where we help you give birth to your books. We invite you to join our community Community of Kingdom Writers.