#379: Writing Well: Unlock Your Writing

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 Foreign.

Hey, Kingdom writers, this is Shelly Hits, one of your hosts here at the Kingdom Writers Podcast. And today I wanted to talk about unlocking your writing. And we are already in the sixth month of 2023. Can you believe it? We are here in June. And I know many of you have this burning message in your heart. You have this call that you know from God to write. This is part of ministry. It is a stewarding of the gifting and the message that God has given you. And yet, let's just be honest, life is busy. We are bombarded every day with so much information, with so much content, it just feels hard to even catch our breath, let alone write a book or market our existing book. And that's why we have decided in Christian Book Academy for this month In June to June 2023, we are hosting our first ever unlock your writing program. This is a four week program. It will run through the month of June and we are super excited to help you actually get writing done. So whether you are working on your first draft, which we just recently did a survey and many of you said you're working on your first draft, this is for you because you can, we can help you move forward in that call to write your book. Now if you are in the publishing or marketing phase, there's a lot of content to still write as you market your book. So you could be writing blog posts, you could be writing emails, you could be writing social media posts, you could be writing pitches to podcast hosts. I mean there's so much writing that goes in to marketing and so we can help you as well. And so how this works, if you're a Christian Book Academy member, you're already in, you already have received information about this and if you would, would like to join us, we are starting today. And so you can join us now and still take part in this week. You can go to ChristianBookAcademy.com you can sign up for $39, stay for a month, see if it's a good fit for you and then you can continue on with the membership or you can cancel anytime. It is not something that we keep you hostage. You can cancel in two clicks. But we would love for you to stay as part of our community of Kingdom writers. But I initially had the idea to run this program as a separate fee, so it would be $97 to sign up to join the program. And I just felt like in one of my business meetings with God, you know, we recommend that you have these business meetings as well. And when I was having a business meeting with God, I was just praying about that. I really sensed that he wanted us to do this for free. Inside Christian Book Academy so you can get access to this program that I was really planning on charging $97 for just $39. Sign up for this first month and then go from there. But we want to see what God will do as you show up and allow him to flow through you. It is time, Kingdom writers, to unlock your writing. Amen. So. So how we're gonna do this is the goal will be for you to write at least 15 minutes six days a week. I really believe any of us can carve out that 15 minutes, whether it's getting up 15 minutes earlier, it's maybe doing it in the evening, staying up maybe 15 minutes later, or on your lunch break. Many of our. Our academy members have written books on their lunch breaks. You can do it in your car while you're waiting in the pickup line for your children if you're a par. And you can dictate on your phone or. I mean, there's so many options, but 15 minutes at, you know, six days a week. Or you could do an hour and a half in a big chunk. So maybe you prefer, like, just on a Saturday or Sunday, just to sit down for an hour and a half and just to write in one big chunk. So we always say, like, you can either be a chunk writer, which is writing in a bigger chunk, or a consistent writer, which is writing a little bit every day. Now, you. You can also have a mixture of both. And the. The cool thing is we're going to be giving prizes every week, so it's just that little extra motivation to do it and then to check in with us each week, and then we will have a bigger prize, some bigger prizes for our final celebration. Call for those of you that check in every week of this program. So you could choose if you want to just participate one week. That's cool. You can do that if you want to participate. All of that's awesome, but it's really up to you, and you'll have the encouragement. So CJ and I will be recording breakthrough prayers for you that we will be releasing each week. I will be recording a writing key. So this is A just a writing strategy that can help unlock your writing if you felt stuck. Or it might just help the flow go even faster or, you know, just receiving from the Lord even more. And I'm gonna be sharing a different one each week that you can try different things, work for different people. I always say don't try to shove a round peg into a square hole. And so it doesn't mean that this is prescriptive. It's just giving you ideas. And they. And there might be one of these keys that I share that really helps unlock something deep down for you. And then we will be having our productivity parties again. So we're bringing these back if you have been a member in the past or if you have been with us previously. We used to have these every week for one hour. Deborah Butterfield would host them and she ended up moving into hosting our monthly virtual writing retreats, which is amazing. I know all of our members love that. It's a two day virtual writing retreat on Zoom and we meet and we write four hours each day. It's so powerful. C.J. and I kick it off with encouragement the first day. However, we've heard from some of you that you would like to have those back. And this is also another way to help move move forward in your call to write, publish and market your books. And so we're going to be bringing those back. And we have two mentors that are willing to host these. So we're going to be having them on Tuesdays at 11am Eastern and at 8pm Eastern. So you can join one or both times and get some of your writing done. But also in community meeting other Kingdom writers, doing it with others, it can be so isolating and so lonely. And the thing is, like I said, we're in overwhelm. I mean truly, truly in overwhelm with content. And so to have this kind of accountability. So every week we'll have those opportunities for you to get on the productivity party calls and then we'll have our virtual writing retreat that month that you can also come to and get writing done in June, it's the 23rd and 24th. Typically it's the last Friday and Saturday of the month. We do that so that if you work during the week, you can come on Saturday. If you prefer to to come during the week, you can come on Friday. And you know, some people come both days, but it is going to be fun. Like, I am really excited. I have not been this excited about something in a long time because.

It'S not about giving you More information. It's actually about helping you get the words out of your head and onto paper. And we're doing that with encouragement, with some practical training of, you know, I'm not going to be going on and on and on in these writing keys, but those will be released each week and then with the accountability. So you'll have those productivity parties every week, but also a check in post every week. And then our two day virtual writing retreat, which we have every month as well. But this is going to be fun. So we're hosting this for the month of June. If this interests you at all, come join us. Go to ChristianBookAcademy.com get signed up and you can get started right away in our private group. Our private group is off of Facebook so you don't have all of those distractions. But in our private group there's a specific channel just for this program. It's called unlock your writing. You'll see it there, all the information will be there. And then in our private group also there's an events tab and you can find all the events and everything there. But this is going to be really exciting just to see what God does. And just to let you know, my dad is coming to stay with us for five weeks. Those of you that know the story, my dad had a brain injury. He was assaulted in 2009. And God has just done so much physical healing in him. But there's also been some amazing things that have happened where my dad has an incredible story of forgiving his assailant. Like just so many things going on. So my dad has really wanted to share his story to impact more people's lives. And I don't know, but I'm just surrendering it to the Lord. And maybe during this time because my dad will be here for the month of June staying with us, maybe we'll be working on his book as well. So you know, I'll be sharing some little tidbits along the way as, as we're doing that. But I'm, I'm excited. If you're a Christian Book Academy member, you can go to our, our private group, get started right away. If not, join us ChristianBookAcademy.com feel free just to join for the month but we to have you stay longer if it's a good fit for you. But let's get some words out of our heads and onto paper to impact lives, to do the things that God has invited and, and gifted us to do. Amen. Let me pray for you. So God, thank you so much. For every person listening right now for every Kingdom writer. Lord, I just pray for a flow for, you know, for you to unlock those doors in them that have been shut, that have been. It just, you know, the procrastination or the fe. Or the, you know, just perfectionism or whatever is going on. Lord, I just pray God that you would begin to do things that only you could do that unlock words and there would just be a flow and holy spirit downloads and God that, that you would do miraculous things. This month we are pressing into you. We're asking you, Lord, we are asking you to do things that just don't even seem humanly possible but that books could get finished, that marketing materials, all the things, Lord, that you would. And we just pray this in Jesus powerful name. Amen. Amen, friends. So I'm so thrilled to be here with you and cannot wait to see what God's going to do this month again. If you're not yet a member, come join us. Check out the unlock your writing program this month at christianbook Academy. Com. I guarantee if you come and you're just willing to invest 15 minutes a day that there you're. You're going to see some amazing things happen by the end of the month of June. Amen. All right, I will talk to 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 of Kingdom writers.