5 Christian Writing Mistakes That Keep You Stuck for Years

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersYou have been working on this book for years. Not sitting around doing nothing, actually working, and you are still standing in the same place. That is the part almost nobody talks about.CJ and Shelley walk through five Christian writing mistakes that keep Kingdom Writers stuck for years. What makes them costly is that every one of them feels like progress while you are doing it.Rewriting chapter one until it has been rewritten more times than the rest of the book has been written. Waiting for a big block of time that your season never actually delivers. Buying one more course, because preparation is safe and a first draft is exposure.Then the one that hides best: writing with nobody waiting for your next chapter. And the last one, waiting to feel qualified, as though a publishing contract were God's validation of your calling rather than a business decision made by a company.Anthony Trollope wrote 47 novels in 15-minute blocks while working full time as a post office inspector. None of these five mean you have failed. They mean you have been working without a way through.Have a thought on this episode? Share your comments on YouTube here.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersYou do not have to do all of it at once. That is the whole episode, and it may be the sentence you needed today.Shelley noticed an author she follows quietly release a leader's guide six months after her book launch, and it reframed something. Endorsements, a lead magnet, a study guide, a relaunch. None of that has to be finished before you publish, and an independently published book can always be edited later.So write yourself a permission slip. Do the most important thing now, let the rest come in layers, and trust God with the outcome.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersHow many years have you been carrying this book? Four? Twelve? Twenty-five? Somewhere along the way you may have started reading the delay as the answer, and decided it was too late to write your Christian book.It isn't. CJ and Shelley walk through five reasons the years behind you are not a verdict on the book in front of you.Delay is not a verdict. Joseph got the dream and then got the prison. Moses was 80 when the assignment came. Time passing tells you that time passed, and nothing more than that.There are three different versions of "too late," and they need three different answers: I'm too old, the moment passed, and I wasted the time. Naming which one you are carrying is what lets you set it down.Shelley also shares her mom's story. She started a book, walked through a multiple myeloma diagnosis, and the book she finished years later held a story she could not have written before.And the restart is smaller than you think. Not a new outline. Open the file, read the last page you wrote, and write one paragraph forward.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersWe put so much weight on the big doors. The launch, the numbers, the speaking invitation. Meanwhile God keeps opening small ones and we walk right past them.Shelley shares two stories from inside Christian Book Academy. Megan mentioned her book at her dentist's office, and the assistant there turned out to know teachers and librarians. Pam handed a book to a neighbor, and one single page in it carried that neighbor through a hard time.She and CJ call these divine appointments. She prays over you at the end that you would start noticing the small ones.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersA pastor in South Africa wrote a little book in the 1800s. Over a hundred years later it landed on our shelf in Colorado Springs, and it wrecked us. Andrew Murray never knew our names. His words traveled anyway.If you have been wondering whether the book on your heart will ever reach anyone, this one is for you. CJ walks through Matthew 8 and the Roman officer who told Jesus He did not need to come to the house, that He could say the word from where He stood. The word traveled. The healing happened somewhere the speaker never went.Your words can do the same thing. They can reach readers you will never meet, in places you will never go, long after you have forgotten you wrote that chapter.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersHow do you know God is actually calling you to write this book? Not "would it be nice." Not "people keep telling me I should." How do you know it is Him?Most of us are waiting for something unmistakable, and while we wait, we walk right past the ways He has been confirming it for years.In this episode CJ and Shelley walk through five signs you can actually look at. The idea that will not leave you. The material you have already been collecting without calling it that. The story that lines up with the message. The people who keep saying the same thing without ever having met each other. And the fifth one, the sign almost nobody counts, which is usually the clearest confirmation of all.No seminary degree required. No platform required.Have a thought on this episode? Share your comments on YouTube here.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersMost writing advice is really time management advice. Find the hour, protect the block, guard the calendar. But you can have the time and still have nothing left to give it.In this short episode from the Hitz Blitz archive, Shelley talks about energy management and why it matters as much as the clock does for writers.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersYou finished your first draft. And ever since, you have been telling yourself the same thing. I need to find an editor.Months go by. You Google Christian book editor, scroll through websites, bookmark a few, and never reach out.Editors are not hard to find. There are plenty of them. What nobody has taught you is what kind of help you actually need, and who you can trust with the message God gave you.In this episode I walk you through three steps: name the stage of editing you are at, know that affordable and trusted editors exist, and reach out with your word count and a request for a sample edit.One of our members, Pam, said it plainly. "Through the final draft stage, I was able to self-edit the book more thoroughly and figure out how to hire a professional editor." Notice the order. The self-editing came first.Once you know what you are asking for, and you are choosing from people who have already been vetted, finding an editor stops being a permanent stall and becomes a doable task.If you are already a member, pull up the recommended editor list inside Christian Book Academy and pick one editor to contact this week. If you are not yet a member, you can join us at Christian Book Academy.Have a thought on this episode? Share your comments on YouTube here.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersYour testimony is not only part of your past. It may be the very thing God wants to use to encourage, heal, or give hope to someone today.In this Hitz Blitz, Shelley reflects on Psalm 9:11 and God's invitation to tell others what He has done. She shares how her mom's healing story opened the door for an unexpected conversation in Michaels, and how one Christian Book Academy member turned her life story into a tiny testimony book that continues to impact readers.You do not have to write your entire memoir or wait for the right platform. Your story can give God glory through a short book, a social post, a podcast, or one conversation with the person He puts in front of you.

Before we jump in: CJ and I are live on YouTube every Tuesday morning at 11am Eastern teaching the Kingdom Writers Workshop, where we're learning to partner with God in our writing instead of doing it on our own.Every session comes with a free worksheet, and the replays are yours for life. Grab yours at https://trainingauthors.com/kingdomwritersFor a few years, Hitz Blitz was a private podcast. Short episodes recorded on the way to somewhere else, most of them under ten minutes. A blitz is defined in the dictionary as "a sudden, energetic, and concerted effort, typically on a specific task," and that's what these were meant to be. A quick burst of encouragement for your writing, not a full training.Now we're opening the archive up here on the Kingdom Writers Podcast.In this episode, Shelley explains what the Hitz Blitz was, why she's sharing it now, and what to expect. These land on Tuesdays, though not every Tuesday. They show up when there's one to give. Your regular Kingdom Writers episode still arrives on Thursday, same as always.Some of these run five minutes. Some run two. They'll feel different from what you're used to hearing here, and that's the point.