Welcome to another episode of Ink and Impact! Episode 11, to be precise. As I was reflecting back on the fact that ten episodes have aired, I wanted to just take a moment to reflect and think about, “Am I meeting the initial mission of this podcast? Or is it time to change things up a little bit?”
I have been reviewing all the fabulous guests that have shared their time and their fantastic resources and information, their experiences with us. I’ve learned a lot from them and gleaned a lot of great information from them and I’m sure that you have as well. I’ve heard back from several listeners who have appreciated what they have learned.
And yet, I still feel that nudge to do something more … to do something different. And so this episode is going to be something different. This is unscripted.
I had a few ideas in my mind of what I was going to talk about, but I don’t have anything written out. I just wanted to share my heart with you a little bit, possibly about my experience, but also provide value to you, too, because that’s the whole point of this. I know that you’re giving up your valuable time to listen to this podcast and I want to make sure that I’m serving you well.
Toward that effort, if you ever have any suggestions for what you would like to hear on this podcast, what you would like to learn, what you’re struggling with so I can know what to better address in the coming episodes, please send me an email to info@inkandimpact.com.
Writing in Community = Encouragement
I’m recording this on a Wednesday, which is Writing Wednesday, and it’s the day that I hold The Inkwell. It’s a free weekly write-in for writers.
- We just get on,
- we talk for about ten minutes, and then
- we write together.
Our volume is muted, so we aren’t disrupted that way, but we have each other still on the screen for accountability.
It’s what I need; it’s what I find works best for me. And we actually write!
- We work on blog posts,
- we work on podcasts,
- several of us are working on chapters of our books,
- we have had people who have written submissions for contests.
It’s whatever type of writing that you’re working on as a Christian writer, and today was such a blessing. Our limited chat time was full of just phenomenal encouragement for each other as writers.
That’s really what I want to carry over into this podcast: I want you to be encouraged. I want you to be strengthened in your walk with God. I want you to just embrace the calling that he has given you. He has given you a message to share. Whether that is a devotional, or a Bible study, or a book on one specific topic – a nonfiction book on a topic – or whether it’s a fictional book.
Are You Doubting Your Message?
I’m currently working on a historical fiction novel. And for quite a while I struggled with that because in my mind, I didn’t know if that was “Christian” enough, right? Was I not sharing the message enough? Maybe I should be writing a Bible study instead.
But the Lord had placed this story – this true event that happened – in my lap, and it just would not let me go. And then I came to realize that through the characters and through their development on the page, I can share God’s truth through them, too.
It doesn’t have to be an outright Bible study or devotional to share God’s truth. We can do it in all areas of writing, and all genres.
So I want to encourage you today if that’s something that you’ve been struggling with. Know that whatever story, whatever message, God has placed on your heart, be bold to share it.
That was one of the discussions that we had at The Inkwell today was about being bold. God is calling us to step out in our faith. Now more than ever, we need to be sharing His truth. I want us to become strong and mature writers for God.
The 3 M’s of Writing
We all start at the beginning and especially at those times, we’re overwhelmed with all of the aspects of writing.
We think it’s just simply writing a story on a piece of paper and then we come to find out there are so many other moving parts to becoming an author or even a blogger. To become a regular blogger, there’s a lot of behind-the-scenes work there, too.
It is a learning process. And I want to be able to help you in any way that I can, including through what I call the 3 M’s of Writing:
- There’s your Mindset, that’s a constant, whether you’re just starting, or you’ve been doing this a long time; we all struggle with our mindset from time to time.
- And then there’s the Manuscript itself, or those blog posts; you know, the thing that we’re writing. There’s so much to be learned as far as craft, and the publishing aspect of it, and all the details around that.
- And then the third “M” is our Marketing. Ah! The dreaded M-word for us writers! So many of us, myself included, tend to call ourselves introverts. Not all of us; I know a lot of extroverted writers. But there are a fair percentage of us who are introverts and just the thought of marketing our books is just, wow – it’s intimidating. And it can be pushed to the backburner. A lot of times, authors will write their entire books and have it ready to upload to self-publish, and then start thinking about marketing.
But that is something – like mindset – that we need to be working on throughout every phase of our writing process. Writing is a journey, and it’s what they call the long game, right? Even after we finish one book, we most often are thinking of another.
Even if we aren’t thinking of writing another book, we need to continually market our existing book.
How to Magnify God in Your Writing
As I was reflecting back on the past episodes, I was thinking of how I wanted to move forward, and how I could best serve you, and what the Lord was wanting to do through this podcast, and being open to His prompting and calling as I was reading through Psalms. And I wanted to share this with you this week, as well.
One phrase that came up and stuck out to me. These are a couple of bullet points; like I said, this is unscripted, but it was what I had written down when I was reading through the Bible. So it was Psalm 70:4 – “Let God be magnified!”
If that isn’t needed now more than ever, I don’t know what is.
I think that that’s what God wants us to do as writers – to magnify His name. Let other people know about Him in all that we do.
As I was reading, I actually flipped back to Psalm 69:30, which says, “we magnify Him through thanksgiving.” That’s an easy way to praise our Lord – by sharing in our writing about the things that he has done for us in our own experiences.
Then in Psalm 71:15, we can tell of His righteousness and salvation. There’s a world out there who … so many people who are unaware of who Jesus is. And they don’t know what that salvation story is; they don’t know the Good News. We can share that in our messages and in our blogs, and in our books.
Psalm 71:18, says, “declare His strength to the next generations.” That is so important! If we sit back and rest on our laurels right now, our knowledge of God and all that He has done for us will be lost if we don’t document it and pass it down to the next generation, to let them know about the goodness of God.
And then in Psalm 71:22, we can praise God and His faithfulness. He has promised to never leave us nor forsake us; He is always going to be there with us. And so even when the writing process seems overwhelming, or difficult, or challenging, or all of those things, we can know that God is faithful and He has given us a message to share.
In Episode 9 with Alicia Greer, she spoke about how God taught her that a finished book isn’t just finishing the writing on your computer. A finished book is putting it out to the world to share that message. We need to share our messages, whatever those are.
So that has been what was on my heart, what God has been sharing with me recently. I know this is super quick and a short episode compared to some of the others where I’ve had guests on, but I don’t want to waste your time.
These were the messages that I received. I’ve shared them with you. I hope that they speak to you as much as they have spoken to me. And like I said at the beginning of this episode, please do contact me.
Let’s Connect!
I am over on Instagram and I would love to connect with you there. Send me a DM, introduce yourself, let me know which episode that you have gleaned the most information from, what kind of topics you’d like to hear in the future. Or email me info@inkandimpact.com and let me know what you would like to see addressed here, share any testimonies, share your writing heart, what you’re writing about.
I would love to hear what you’re writing, what genre my listeners are writing; I would love to know that. So like I said, feel free to send me an email. I read each and every message, and I’ll be sure to respond to you.
Free Short Story Coming Soon!
I want to close out with just a reminder that I have a free short story coming available to you. If all goes well, it should be available on my website by the end of this week. Made to Fly is a World War II-era, historical-fiction short story. That’s a mouthful to say, isn’t it?
It’s going to be what they call a “reader magnet.” And so it’s going to be my freebie for anyone who loves to read historical fiction to get on my mailing list, my email list. That’s going to be for readers. So if you love to read historical fiction, please do sign up for that.
I will be sending out that download link very shortly. Like I said, hopefully by the end of the week. If you know anyone else who loves World War II-era historical fiction, please do let them know about that as well.
Join The Inkwell
I do believe that is it for this week. Oh, and I have mentioned The Inkwell several times. If you’re interested in joining The Inkwell – if you’re a writer who would like to write alongside fellow scribes every Wednesday at 10am Eastern time – know it’s free, but you do need to register to be able to get the link to join us every Wednesday.
So, with that, I thank you for listening. I wish you all a blessed day and I will speak with you again next week!
