Early on in my book-publishing journey, I was blessed to learn of and then attend the first Kingdom Story Writers retreat (in 2023). I had recently self-published my first book, Friend of God, in simple obedience to God’s leading and was eager to continue writing, but was wrestling with imposter syndrome, convinced I was ‘not a proper writer’, and with no idea of how to get there. In my mind, proper writers made a living from it, won awards for their work, and generally knew what they were doing – none of which applied to me. But it was the ‘kingdom’ aspect of the retreat that called to me, as a word that God and I had been chatting about a lot at that time, so I stuffed down the imposter feelings, and went anyway.
The retreat was a blessing on many levels, but there were two lasting impacts that I am most grateful for: the enduring friendship of some brilliant, Godly people; and my confirmation as/ commissioning to be a kingdom writer. I was released from the pressure of being a full-time professional writer, striving for recognition or awards – or even publishing deals – and released into the blessing of simply writing for God, in the company of others with the same calling. I am free to write everything with the purpose of seeking His kingdom first. I do my best for Him, but I’m not chasing awards or a full-time income, or even a publishing deal, just the certainty of knowing I am writing as He leads, to help people get to know Him better. The rest is entirely in His hands, and I have found total, genuine peace in that.
But the funny thing is, that verse about seeking first the kingdom, has a second part to it:
Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)
Since I was released just to write as God leads, without checking to see what comes of it, I have been contacted out of the blue to do three separate paid writing/ editing jobs this year! One of my books –Finding Jesus in the Wilderness –has been short-listed for ACW’s Book of the Year 2025 award! And I have started a Substack column with two subscription tiers: free, and paid (both at God’s leading). I fully expected all my subscribers to choose the free option as I would, and in fact have repeatedly told them the paid version doesn’t properly start until January ’26. And yet, 20% of my subscribers have already signed up for the paid tier (see today’s screenshot from my Substack)
I even had a message from Substack this weekend to say that I am now in the top 50 writers in the ‘faith and spirituality’ bracket! (though I sadly can’t find the message to share now).
AND on top of all that, as I have been tithing the very small amounts of money that come in, God has been getting money to me in other ways, to make sure I have enough in my account to pay for the next book! Honestly, I am overwhelmed. I haven’t yet covered all my publication costs so far, but I am heading in that direction, thanks to Him.
I’m not saying any of this to brag on me, but rather on God, and how faithful HE is to keep His Word. As I have genuinely sought to serve Him and His kingdom, He has been promoting my writing. I still don’t care about the awards – it will be lovely if I win but I don’t expect to – I’m just thankful for the vote of confidence from other writers that took me to the shortlist. And as much as I would love to do this paid, full-time – that’s not what drives me. If the money stops tomorrow and nobody else subscribes, I will still write for God, because it’s knowing that I’m co-labouring with Him in it all that is more fulfilling than anything the world can offer.
But I just wanted to share this testimony for anyone else who may be struggling with their identity as a writer. You don’t have to follow the world’s ideals. Let go of your worries and just write your best for God and His kingdom, and the rewards – in this life and the next – may or may not look like mine, but they will be more than you can possibly imagine!
Near the beginning of the year – it may have been in a conversation with my adult sons about jobs, earning money and all that malarkey – I came across the question, “If you could do anything and make a living from it, what would that be?” The question niggled at my subconscious until I realised I need to answer it for myself. You see, I have a year left of home educating my youngest son, and then – after fourteen years of this amazing Home Ed life – I will have no job! And I’ve been vaguely wondering what I might do next, while trying to stay focused on the necessary evil of GCSE studies first. But as I tried to satisfy the question that refused to lay down and be silent, I realised there was something I would love to do. If I could be paid for anything at all, the thing I would love most of all, would be to write. Particularly if that involved writing Bible Studies (I’m a bit of a Bible nerd). I mentioned it to God in passing and thought no more of it.
Sometimes praying requires lengthy periods of standing in faith, hope and trust while everything looks increasingly disastrous until the breakthrough finally happens. But on this occasion, God seemed to take my passing comment as something to act on immediately. For within that week I had two people contact me, offering to pay me for writing work!
*imagine me with my jaw on the floor*
I don’t know if this will develop into ongoing employment, but how lovely if it does! Meanwhile, I’m thoroughly enjoying myself…
The first job was a close structural edit of the very lovely memoir written by a fellow kingdom-writer. Next to Bible-studies, memoir is a passion of mine: I love helping people to share their testimonies. I believe every Christian has a story of God’s goodness, and I want to help people get them out into the world to encourage others. So I thoroughly enjoyed that work, and was brought to tears when the money landed in my account. It’s been over twenty years since I last earned any money. I’m grateful to God and hubby for the finances provided through hubby’s work, but it has been a challenge to my sense of worth at times, not to be able to financially contribute. Hence the tears – of gratitude.
And that brings me to the second job: ghost-writing (that is, writing on behalf of someone else, not writing about ghosts!) The book I have been asked to write is part-devotional, part-teaching, with a lot of Bible – yippee! But of course, ghost-writing – even with the Holy Spirit’s help – is entirely out of my comfort zone. Again. So today as I reached the end of (the first draft of) another chapter today, I wanted to write down everything I have learned so far on this super steep learning curve (perhaps that should be a learning mountain?). It might help someone else, but more importantly I want to remember this if I do it again in future…
(Holy) Ghost-writing Lessons:
1/ Draw up a contract. Even if it’s between friends, it’s important to establish boundaries and manage expectations from the beginning. Be clear about time frames, payment terms*, and rights. Thankfully this part was straightforward as I was happy to be flexible about most things** but we were both pretty like-minded on everything anyway. *re: payment terms, Woodbridge Publishers give a helpful starting point for newbies like me. You just need to agree whether you will be paid per word, per hour, or per completed chapter/ project etc – and how much. **the only non-negotiable for me was that I was not interested in the kind of ghost-writing that involves pretending to be someone else. I think it’s dishonest. So while I didn’t care about the royalties, I did feel it important that I was acknowledged for writing it – as I would insist on acknowledging anyone who wrote something on my behalf.
2/ Agree on a clear outline, word limit and target audience. It’s a hard one for a self-confessed pantser, but without an agreed structure, you will find yourself writing a lot of vague and rambling words that end up being edited out. It’s just a waste of time.
3/ Schedule regular interviews (in person, or video call) AND RECORD THEM. I haven’t found a better way yet of capturing the official author’s voice, tone, priorities etc. For small queries, voice notes work well if the author is willing, but for chapter direction, progression, content, style, interviews are invaluable. *Note to self: find a better transcription process next time!
4/ Schedule regular feedback. This can be at the same time as the interviews, but it’s easy to spend too much time on the feedback, so be strict! And prepare specific questions about the kind of feedback you need, e.g. ‘Does this flow/ progression make sense to you?’, ‘Does it sound like you?’, ‘Is there anything I have missed that’s important to you to include?’ and so on. I guess ghost-writers of fiction would have questions more to do with plot, characterisation etc.
5/ Go for it! If over-thinking and lack of confidence can be crippling when writing for yourself, it can be even worse when writing for someone else. Just write, and make sure you are open to whatever the author comes back with – even if they change their minds about direction etc. It’s their book, not yours – and that is actually kind of liberating!
So that’s it for now. More lessons may follow – I’m not finished with the project yet. I just wanted to note these down while they were fresh (ish) in my mind. I’ve got to say though, I’m loving it! Feeling very blessed…
It’s funny how Pavlovian our brains can be. Once an association is made, it can be painfully difficult to detach. Take, for example, the Mick Ray song from 1978, “I get so excited Lord every time I realise… I’ve forgiven, I’m forgiven” (yep, showing my age there). It’s not a song that crops up often nowadays, but if it did, my mind would no doubt jump straight to the memory of my husband and friends in mischievous mode, deliberately mis-singing “every time I realise… I’m a gibbon, I’m a gibbon”. Then there’s the more innocent association of not being able to hear a sermon about the disciples without remembering my first child in all his adorable infancy unable to pronounce the word, so calling them “surprisels” instead. Heart-achingly cute, and all the more poignant because said adorable child is now a 6ft 5in grown man with stubble and a razor-sharp wit.
Whether these word-associations/ mispronunciations are deliberate or innocent, they cling stubbornly to our psyches, and can sometimes even interrupt our Bible reading. I’m thinking of Isaiah 60:1 – “Arise, shine, for your light has come…” a verse which I rarely read past the first two words without an inane chorus of hand-puppets taking over my mind, singing “and give God the glory, glory”. Please reassure me I’m not the only one…? Who else has a tripwire in worship or the Word?
See, reading the Bible can be hard enough without the distracting combination of an active imagination and the conditioning espoused by Mr Pavlov.
But when I read Isaiah 60:1-2 the other day, something remarkable happened. The chorus appeared as they usually do, but then so did the Holy Spirit. And I read, “Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you.” (NKJV)
And another, mercifully non-puppet association came to mind: Matthew 5:14-16 says “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
God has spoken to me from this part of Matthew 5 before, convicting me of His desire for me to embrace that dreaded of activities, “promo”, as a way of lifting high the light He has given me to share, for all to see. So it’s already a treasured verse. And this time as I read both verses together I had a sudden mental image that was nothing to do with Pavlov, but – I believe – a lot more divinely inspired.
I saw a room filled with candles, of all different shapes and sizes. Fat, thin, tall, short, and in a whole spectrum of colours. The light in the room drew dim, until it was so dark you couldn’t see the candles at all. But then a match was lit and began to touch the candlewicks. And as each candle started to burn, the room became filled with countless identical flames, each one adding to the light in the room. No matter the size or shape of each candle, each one burned with an equal flame, adding to the beauty of the glorious light, and together causing the darkness to flee.
And I felt God say to me, “Wouldn’t it be pointless for these candles to compare themselves to each other and write themselves off as a result? They just each need to embrace their purpose to shine their own light, and in doing so, add to My glorious Kingdom light that pushes back the darkness.”
And I remembered times when I have fallen into the trap of imposter syndrome, thinking, “I can’t be a proper writer – I’m not as good as ** at writing Biblical epics, or ** at writing poetry, or ** at reigning over Social Media” etc. But that’s just like looking at other candles, whether fat, short, or beautifully decorated, and deciding that because my little candle is not like theirs, it’s inferior. So what if my candle (book) is skinnier than a big fat Biblical epic, or plain white next to a beautifully decorated, skilfully written novel? If I let that stop me shining my light, the world would be dimmer for it, especially if the people who read my little book didn’t read the others. And the point is, as Isaiah and Matthew both shared, we all have a light to shine: the light of Christ. We don’t need to compete; we just all need to shine our kingdom light in our own way. For to disqualify ourselves from writing – or whatever you love doing for Jesus – would be to cease shining. And the world is an increasingly dark place that needs us ALL to shine so everyone can see the Father for themselves. So let’s keep writing, and shining our light…
And now I can’t read Isaiah 60 or Matthew 5 without seeing that mental image of the room filled with candles. To be honest, the puppet chorus is still there in the background – in fact they’re now singing “this little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…”. But as associations go, that’s not such a bad one. I’ll take it.
This is a long one, but I hope will be really helpful to those considering writing a book of their testimony/ memoir…
Since I published my first book, Friend of God – a memoir – I have become aware of multiple Christians embarking on writing their first book, also in memoir form.
In my personal experience I have observed that Christians seem more likely to attempt a memoir than other first-time writers. While it may be that I am more aware of this because of my own story, I also suspect that there could be a wider reason: that although many never considered themselves as – nor even aspired to be – writers, they do have a testimony of God’s goodness that they feel compelled to share with the world. And this is a great reason for writing!
However, it can present a problem. Writing a good memoir involves more than simply telling one’s story. First-time writers are often unprepared for the discouraging and time-consuming hard work of editing and polishing that follows the first draft (I know I was), and this can prove even more brutal for non-writer Christians with only honest intentions and a good testimony.
So, I just wanted to share a few tips from my perspective. Bear in mind: I have NOT arrived. Some of these tips are things I wish I had known before self-publishing my own memoir – I may re-write it yet. And if you read my book (please do!) you could find areas where I did not follow the advice that follows. But still, having reviewed several memoirs for first-time-writer friends, I wanted to share some helpful guidelines that can help you take your first draft and turn it into something more suitable to send to beta-readers/ potential publishers… (NEVER send your first draft to beta-readers or editors!)
Especially if you are a pantser like me – someone who writes ‘by the seat of their pants’ without much of a plan besides getting the story down and letting it unfold before them – the chances are your first draft will be rough. Even if you were writing to a plan (hopefully using the points mentioned below as a guide), you will have poured your heart and soul into it. Assuming it’s a memoir, you will probably have relived the agony and the ecstasy of key moments from your life. You are probably exhausted and thoroughly relieved to have finished.
So now it is vital that you ‘put it to bed’. If it’s in paper form, put it away in a drawer. It it’s a file on your computer, close it. Now leave it alone for several months. I would suggest two months as the absolute minimum needed to really forget what you have written, which is exactly what you need to do so that when you come back to it you can read it with a more detached (critical) gaze.
When you and your manuscript have rested well, it is time for your first edit. This is where you need to read with a critical eye. And these are five areas you need to watch out for. Ideally you will have had these in mind as you wrote the first draft, but whether you did or not, these will be really helpful as you work through each chapter:
1/ Readers Who are you writing to? If you want non-Christians to read your book you MUST watch out for jargon and any areas where they may not understand your experiences. If you cannot leave out jargon/ religious terminology, make sure you explain it in footnotes or endnotes. Ideally have someone you know in mind who you are writing to – it will help your voice stay consistent. Imagine that person reading it – will they understand? If not, you know you need to clarify.
2/ Message Other than simply telling your story, what is the point your book is trying to make? Ideally you will have had an idea of your message before you started writing, but I confess I didn’t – not consciously at least. It was only as I edited mine that I realised I most wanted to write about my developing personal friendship with God in such a way that it invited the reader to find his friendship too. If the stories in your book do not help build your main point/ message, LEAVE THEM OUT (however fond you are of them) – they will only distract, and potentially confuse your reader or lose their interest.
Also, assuming you are writing a Christian memoir, make sure God is the star of your story by including “but God” moments. I spelt them out literally at the close of each of my chapters (eg “I made a mistake BUT GOD saved me”). You don’t have to do that so obviously, but it is important to leave your reader with the clear sense that on your own you would not have made it without God stepping in. Testimony is meant to glorify God, not us.
3/ Structure With memoir it is usually best to write chronologically, so the reader can take the journey with you. Ideally you will start with a dramatic ‘crisis’ moment or pivotal point in your life that will draw the reader in, then you can go back to the beginning and show the journey that brought you to the opening moment, and then follow the story through to its resolution. But generally, especially if you are an inexperienced writer, I don’t recommend more jumping about too much in a timeline: sticking to chronological writing is most accessible. And remember, you need to tell a story with a beginning, middle and some sort of conclusion.
Where possible, use dialogue – it can really bring your story to life. But don’t shoehorn it in so it sticks out and jars the reader with a sudden change – you want it to flow naturally.
And have logical chapter breaks. That may be as simple as one year per chapter, but it is more likely to make sense if you stick to a separate theme per chapter, as life events rarely limit themselves to within a single year. Treating each chapter as a mini-book is really helpful: let each one have a start that introduces the theme, then the story itself, and then an ending that at least partly concludes that theme. Each of these mini-themes will contribute and build towards the over-all message, so remember to keep that in mind, but try to make sure there is a challenge or a revelation (or both) to each chapter. For example, I had individual stories in all my chapters that each showed a different aspect of God’s character, but I also made sure that throughout the book there was a progression showing how my friendship with Him developed – through good times and bad.
A really helpful practice is to draw up a chart like the example below from my own memoir– either before you write, or as you edit. I did mine in the edit stage and it greatly helped me to track the over-all progression, and to weed out the chapters that weren’t necessary because they had no fresh point to make…
Chapter/ Title
Event
Point to chapter – aspects of God’s character
Main Theme – developing friendship
1/ My Beginning
Intro, meeting God, & wardrobe falling on me
God my friend who watches over me
Discovering God’s presence
2/ Troubled Teen
Shoplifting, God speaking while in Germany
God found me when I was lost
First time hearing His ‘voice’
3/ Clueless but Protected
The groomers
God protected me when I was ignorant of danger
Learning (failing) to recognise His Spirit warning me
etc…
4/ Description Use description. Don’t just stick to bare facts as they can quickly become boring. You’re telling a (true) story and want your reader to take the journey with you, which is best achieved through descriptive writing that draws them in. Especially in your key scenes, practice using the five senses to help describe the surroundings and make it easier for your reader to picture and ‘enter in to’ the scene with you. I also recommend finding some resources on “show not tell” (not one of my natural strengths, so I had to work hard on it!) as it can make your writing much more vivid and accessible.
5/ Tone Writing the way you talk (as if you were writing a letter to a friend) is the best way to find your natural voice. You can polish the punctation and grammar later.
The absolute key principle for tone in memoir writing is that it needs to be open and honest, so try to avoid writing as the “omniscient narrator”. Even if you are writing in the past tense, writing as one who now has all the answers can be boring and very off-putting. Present yourself as you were at the time of the event. Be open about your short-comings and the things you didn’t know at the time, and your reader will be more likely to relate and take the journey with you, discovering the mysteries as they unfold before them. And as you are writing memoir, it must be honest (so don’t use a pseudonym). None of us can remember everything with precise, objective detail, so it can help to ask others who were around at the time for their memories of the events you describe. If you or others can’t remember certain details, a little embellishment is fine, as long as it does not detract from the truth of your story. For example, in one part of my memoir I described a Christian meeting, and I wanted to portray how overwhelmed my senses were when I walked in. I could remember it broadly but not the specifics. However, I wanted enough detail to help draw the reader in, so although I couldn’t remember with certainty what particular scents were in the air, I took a guess at rose and incense. If it’s untrue I don’t think it matters as it wasn’t the main point of the story. I just wanted to help the reader enter in so they could access the truth of the story: that it was a sensory feast.
And do be clear. Make sure the reader understands the difference between the facts you are telling them and your thoughts and feelings. Both are important contributors to the story, but if you want them to trust your voice as authentic, you need to demonstrate self-awareness of your own limited perspective.
What’s Next? Once you have completed your first edit, it is time to send your manuscript (MS) out to beta-readers. You need to get a good balance of people who will encourage you but also be able to identify weak areas that need work. For this reason, I don’t tend to recommend family or friends unless they are writers themselves. One biased person can be helpful – they might think whatever you do is brilliant & not be able to critique much, but we all need that kind of positivity to encourage us on. But generally, you want to ask fellow writers who understand the craft. If you don’t know any, I recommend asking in the Kingdom Story Writers, or the Association of Christian Writers, both of which have groups on Facebook. Tell them how many words are in your MS, the genre, and if you have a deadline by which you would like their feedback (you need to allow at least a month or two, depending on the length of your work).
Now prepare to feel vulnerable and exposed. Especially when the feedback starts coming in. Unless you happen to have written a genius-level masterpiece, you will receive notes on the weak areas of your book that need work. This is normal for all writers, and does not mean your book is rubbish – just that your beta-readers want to help you improve it. Whatever you do, don’t get rid of your MS. Give yourself time to recover from any emotional sting that you may have received in the criticism, then read it with an open mind, and get to work on making the improvements they highlighted. You don’t have to make every change suggested – you are the author after all. But at least seriously consider every comment. Once you have gone through all the feedback (and tweaked anything else you noticed) you have completed your second edit.
At this point you may want to send it out for another round of feedback & subsequent editing (especially if there were a lot of changes made). Or if you are happy with it, you could now submit it to publishers. If you have decided to self-publish, employ a professional editor/proof-reader/cover designer. You want to make your book as good and accessible to as many people as possible. A good cover is essential – don’t skimp on that. But even if you can’t afford any of this, don’t be put off. Your testimony is important, and it’s better to have an imperfect testimony out there than no testimony at all. So get that book out there! And hooray for your courage and perseverance. Many give up before this step, so if you have got this far you, my dear writer, are an overcomer!
To wrap up the blog tour for Finding Jesus in the Wilderness, I wanted to hand over the reins to my lovely readers. And after I posted on Social Media asking if anyone had questions, I was delighted with the insightful questions some of you posed. They weren’t all easy to answer, either! But I loved it.
So here – with my thanks – are the answers to your questions about my latest books…
What is a wilderness? Spiritual wilderness seasons mean many things to many people, but most people use this term to describe those seasons that seem to come to us all eventually, when our walk with God just seems harder, drier, more difficult or less fruitful than before. Sometimes God seems to have withdrawn, or sometimes our prayer and Bible study feels less connected and meaningful than it did. We feel dry, thirsty, frustrated and it all often leads to us questioning our faith.
What are some examples of wilderness seasons that you or people you know have experienced? During my most recent wilderness season, I went from a time when I was hearing from God on an almost daily basis, to hearing Him much more sporadically, with no apparent reason why. I wasn’t seeing as many obvious answers to prayer, and my Bible-study time started to feel like a religious duty rather than a life-giving experience. And then something I had been praying into for a long time, that I felt God had promised freedom in, suddenly got a lot worse and I was left feeling lonely and utterly confused. It was a deeply distressing time. Others I know have had different experiences: sometimes suffering or bereavement can lead to questioning and the undermining of our faith; sometimes church leaders and friends can let us down, causing us confusion and mistrust of God; sometimes there is no obvious trigger but we just feel we have lost the connection we used to feel with our Heavenly Father. There are many different expressions of spiritual wilderness, but they are all dry, uncomfortable and difficult, causing us to feel lost and like God is far away.
Why did you decide to write a book about the wilderness? So often we see the wilderness as a place to be feared or avoided, but from my own wilderness seasons I have learned a lot from the examples of many Bible passages that demonstrate how God sees it as a place where He loves to meet us and bless us. I felt it could be really helpful for people to have those examples in a book to read while in a similar season of their own – a kind of hand to hold, or a helpful guide to navigate some of the more common wilderness locations (such as loneliness, delay, wrestling etc.) that many people visit.
Why do you think God asked you to write about the wilderness while you were still in it? and how do you think that added to its impact? Last year while still in a wilderness season of my own, I felt prompted by God to start writing right away rather than waiting until it was over. Much as I wanted to be able to offer the hope of “I survived, so you can too”, I felt God said it was important for me to write it while still experiencing it, so it would carry an authentic and relatable voice that doesn’t shy away or gloss over some of the very real difficulties there, so people could find HIS voice of compassion and presence with them in the midst of it all. From the feedback I have received since its publication, it seems that people are receiving that very comfort and hope that God wanted for them, so although it felt harder to write while still in my own wilderness, I am grateful He helped me to do just that. It was totally worth it.
How did you decide on your 40 chapter headings? As I read through my journals of the past three years (since my wilderness journey started), there were some themes and chapter headings that were immediately obvious. Place of Rest (chapter 2) was one of these, as it was the first one God showed me, and was key to the whole season. Others were more difficult, and only emerged as I wrote them. For example, Place of Romance (chapter 12). I knew the verse I wanted to write about (Jeremiah 2:2) because God had spoken to me so powerfully from it – but it was only as I wrote and edited the chapter, and asked God for the word that summed it up, that the word ‘romance’ really stood out as the surprising point from God’s perspective. Most of the chapter headings were decided through those two ways. Then finally when I was almost done, I had 39 chapters and knew something was missing, so I asked God to show me the final ‘piece of the jigsaw’ and He led me to ask my good friend Joy Margetts. As soon as I emailed her she replied immediately with the final heading, Place of Fear (chapter 25), and I knew exactly what to write. I’m so grateful for Joy and the rest of my Holy-Spirit-filled writing community!
How did you decide how to order the chapters? I deliberately avoided structuring the book in the kind of linear progression that some journeys (and many books) take, because every person’s journey through the wilderness is different, and they don’t all cover the same stops in the same order. That’s why in the Introduction I encourage readers to flip to whichever chapter is most helpful. I felt if I overthought the structure, it could become obstructive to the readers’ own journeys, so I asked God for His hand on the order of chapters, and then just did a read-through to make sure there was nothing too jarring in terms of flow from one chapter to the next. There were only a few elements of deliberate planning: I knew I wanted to start with Jesus’ own wilderness experience, because He is always our best example in life. And Place of Rest had to follow straight after as that was the start of my own wilderness season. Then I knew I wanted to finish with Gilgal as the great Place of Turnaround where Israel ended their 40 years in the wilderness. Other than that I had only one further guiding principle: to alternate the chapters so each heading that reflected a wilderness difficulty would be followed by one focusing on a wilderness treasure. In reality, every chapter involved a blend of both challenge and hope, but the titles were deliberately structured to show that for every hardship in the wilderness, there is blessing to be found.
Why did you write a prayer journal? This was written in response to some of my beta-readers who all asked for the same thing: questions to help them dig deeper for themselves. I hadn’t written any in the book because personally I don’t find them helpful. For me, questions like this sometimes feel too narrow or prescriptive, and can get in the way of my own organic conversations with the Holy Spirit. And I really didn’t want anyone who was already struggling in the wilderness to find this book too demanding or condemning if they ‘failed’ to engage with extra study questions. But as I asked God about the questions, He reminded me that – clearly – some people do find them helpful, and He didn’t want them left without that extra help. And He suggested I write the questions/ prompts in a separate book, so they weren’t intrusive for those who don’t like them, but were available for those who do, allowing lots of journalling space for them to explore their own journey. I was a little concerned that it would look like I was just trying to make more money by making people buy two books instead of one, but decided it was more important to trust God’s plan than worry about how it made me look. And I suddenly saw His bigger plan for both: that the original book would contain encouragement from the Bible accounts and my own experiences of finding Jesus in the wilderness, and that the Prayer Journal would help the people who need extra help to personally engage in finding Him there for themselves. What a beautiful picture of His heart for us all.
Are you still in the wilderness? Great question! Thank you for asking! I would say (with some hesitation, because the wilderness does tend to leave us more cautious, at least for a while), I don’t think I am. Years ago as I entered my wilderness season, God showed me a picture that likened it to a valley. Not everyone’s wilderness will be like a valley, but mine was. And recently God has been speaking to me a lot about starting to climb His mountain – the opposite of a valley. It is still hard work and requires discipline and courage, and it is slow steady progress rather than an instant miraculous deliverance, but there is fresh purpose, and His presence is with me. I am starting to see things with a new perspective, and there is excitement at the adventure ahead. But whatever is to come, I am deeply grateful to carry with me the treasures that Jesus led me to in the wilderness.
Thanks for the great questions, everyone! If anyone would like to get copies of the book(s), whether for yourself or a friend, you can buy them here* where I have a special offer if you buy both together. (*Amazon is better for international readers). And may God bless you richly in the reading xx
Oooh I do love a blog tour. I’m always blown away by the lovely people out there who generously give their time and platforms to review my books! And the genuine feedback offered through the Finding Jesus in the Wilderness tour has left me blessed and humbled by how much God has blessed them all through this little book.
Below is the tour host schedule. Beneath the graphic, each day has a link to the relevant post so you can click on it and be taken straight to the host’s website and article! If you’re on Facebook, Instagram or my new newsletter (subscribe here), you will find the links there too.
Start up the engines (or climb onto your camels!), and join me on tour…
Mon 27th Jan – Joy Margetts (click here for Joy’s review)
Tues 28th – Rob Seabrook (click here for Rob’s review)
Weds 29th – Worship Unlimited Ministries (click here for Alex’s review)
Thurs 30th – Sue’s Trifles (click here for Sue’s review)
Fri 31st – Vicki Cottingham (click here for Vicki’s review)
Sat 1st Feb – Great Adventure (click here for Liz Carter’s review and author interview)
Sun 2nd – Valley of Springs (click here for Jo Acharya’s review)
Mon 3rd – Liz Manning (click here for Liz’s review)
Tues 4th – Vicarious Living (click here for Maressa Mortimer’s review)
Weds 5th – Walking With God Through Illness (click here for Amanda Ford’s review and author interview)
Conventional writerly wisdom says that apparently every writer should send regular newsletters to their followers (aka subscribers/ readers/ cheerleaders/ fans/ supporters/ friends). And as regular readers know, that word tends to irritate me. I don’t make a habit of doing things simply because other people say I should. If I’m going to commit to regularly e-mailing people I want a good reason.
So I asked my lovely KSW chums for their insight, and they helped me see something really important. All the time and effort I put into my social media pages, hoping to communicate with those who are interested in my journey, is often thwarted by Meta’s programming. The sad fact is that unless I pay for endless adverts, only a select few (selected by who-knows-what algorithm) of the people who have liked or followed my page will actually receive my updates. The vast majority just will not see them.
In contrast, they said, newsletters have been proven to be a much more reliable way of communicating with those who want to keep in touch.
And as I considered the possibility and tackled head-on the subconscious whispers saying people won’t want to hear from me, or that I will have nothing to say, I chatted with God and He spoke to me about Project Lampstand (see my previous blog post). I started to see the potential in a newsletter where I could genuinely keep in touch with those lovely people who are interested in my books, my mission, my journey, etc.
So I’ve been learning how to go about it and am now biting the proverbial bullet (where DOES that saying come from? Answers on a digital postcard…?) So if any of you would like to hear from me once a month, please click here or on the subscribe button at the top of the right hand column. You will (assuming everything works) receive an instant confirmation email with a link to a free chapter from one of my books, and then my first month’s newsletter should arrive later this week.
I won’t be offended if you don’t sign up, but I do hope you will!
It is neither a secret nor a surprise that I – and many writers – struggle with the promotional aspect of publishing books. Especially for those of us who are introverts, holing up and scribbling (or typing) away for hours… days… months on end can feel like lovely self-indulgence at times. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still hard work – especially once you hit editing stage – but it’s largely hidden and ‘safe’. However once our precious books are finally published and we just want a good rest to recover from the exertion of it all, that can be when the even harder work begins: the excruciating torture of promotion and advertising our work in order to persuade countless people, both friends and strangers, to part with their hard-earned money in order to read what we have produced. *Shudder*
And having had time off after Finding Jesus in the Wilderness came out (because I was genuinely exhausted… and then it was Christmas…) I entered this year with absolutely zero momentum or motivation. But it’s something I know I need to do. So at a recent prayer zoom for writers (thank you Kingdom Story Writers), I asked for prayer that God would find a way to help with my motivation (I think I actually asked for Him to give me a loving kick up the behind!) Then this weekend I met with the KSW team to plan our upcoming retreat (in May – watch this space for more info to come soon). Oh it is so GOOD to meet with like-minded fellow Kingdom writers! We did achieve the planning needed, but also enjoyed plenty of rich time together sharing encouragement and practical advice which gave me some ideas to get me pointed in a helpful direction.
And after everyone had left and I got some time to chat with God, He took me to the well-known verses from Mark 4:21-22, “He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.”
Talk about motivation (or a kick up the behind, if you prefer)! I do believe that in the books that I have written I have done my best to shine my light as clearly and openly as I can. I don’t think I have tried to conceal or hide them (though the ‘bowls’ of shame, imposter syndrome and self doubt, and the ‘beds’ of laziness or procrastination are always lurking as temptations). But I can see that I do need to make a conscious decision to lift up the light in my books and put it on a lampstand: to do everything in my power to help people see what God has given through me.
And that is all the motivation I need. So I am in. I’m asking God to give me a budget and a strategy in order to promote my books and shine His light as bright as I can… and then trust Him with the rest. I don’t fully know what that will look like, but I do think it will involve an upcoming blog tour, plus possible newsletters, giveaways, reviews, opportunities for support etc. All things that will probably still make me cringe inwardly. But I am going to do my best to be brave nonetheless and embrace “project lampstand”.
“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt 5:16)
A couple of months ago, a lovely friend asked if I could give her some writing feedback. Once I retrieved my mind from its initial imposter-syndrome flight of panic, I replied that I was really happy to do so (and then resumed panicking). Once she sent her work over and I had a look (I really hope she publishes: it was so good!), I surprised myself by realising that imposter or not, I actually did have a couple of structural ideas that might help her. And as I jotted down some notes I realised that over my many years of blogging I have developed a kind of approach to writing blog posts that can be described by analogy. It’s not precise, but I think it holds up as a general approach…
For me, blogging (especially for my In The Secret Place blog) is a bit like inviting my readers to take a journey with me. It’s usually a journey that I have been on myself, from which I have now returned in order to share the highlights with them – minus all the stumbling about, dead-ends and boring bits (the benefits of editing).
So when I write, I have a destination in mind: the main point that I’d like to show them. And while I write, I keep checking my metaphorical compass to make sure I am still heading towards our destination point. I haven’t always been great at this, but I’d like to think I have improved.
The introduction (and often the title) establishes our starting point and reveals (or at least hints at) where we’re going – it whets the appetite and gets the reader on board. I don’t want us to take too long wandering about without a clear direction, otherwise they might lose interest, so I try to introduce the main point/ destination within a paragraph or two.
Once we’re into the main body of the text, I see that as the active walking part of the journey where we cover most ground. It doesn’t have to be dry and linear like walking along a tarmac road – my favourite walks are often meandering cross-country ones with beautiful scenery to look at along the way. So I try to visit the stops that generally lead towards our main destination: a/ in a logical order that progresses. b/ enjoying the scenery (illustrations) along the way but not getting so engrossed in detail that we tire and/or fail to reach our destination. Pace is key – we must keep moving. c/ keeping my compass (main point) to hand so we don’t go too far off on a rabbit trail. Meandering/ digression is fine, as long as we are still generally heading in the right direction and not jolting the reader by realising the destination is now out of sight/ a different way entirely.
And when we arrive at your destination we stop and drink in the view, appreciating where we came from and establishing that we have arrived, for that sense of completion. This is the summing up/ conclusion.
I personally think this analogy works for those writing longer books too – you can just afford longer side-trails etc. Blog posts are like short outings/ day-trips, whereas books are maybe more like walking holidays that give space to explore more widely around the destination, or just to take a slower, more detailed approach to the same destination.
Fellow bloggers, what do you think? Do you have a different approach, or does the journey analogy work for you too?
I have two blogs: one here on my writer website, which is about my writing journey, and my ‘In the Secret Place’ blog where I write about the things that God and I chat about. So when I talk with Him about my writing, it can cause a conundrum: where to post? Well today I am posting here because I think it will be an encouragement to other Kingdom writers, mostly…
You probably know that last week I published not one, but two books. Other writers – particularly the self-published ones – will know that this is a far more exhausting process than most people realise. And coming as it did at a time when I was dealing with other intense life situations, I felt utterly worn out by the day after publication day. Fair warning: what follows is self-pitying, which I wouldn’t usually share – but I believe it’s important to acknowledge the temptations we face when we are exhausted…
In my depleted state, my emotions were running high. I had poured myself into this book, not just for the year that it took to write and edit it, but also the previous two years’ experience of struggle and pain in the wilderness that I wrote about. I’m still in it – God asked me to write while I was still in the wilderness myself, so I did, thanks only to His grace that kept me going – and by the end I felt every bit of how much it had cost to publish this book. I was completely spent. It wasn’t even just the book: I had slogged away to produce endless promotional material for Social Media, because when you don’t have a famous name or a big publishing house behind you, that is what is required to get your book in front of people. But I find it utterly soul-destroying and only do it because I want to be faithful to get the message out that I believe God wants to bless His people with. And all that promo, the year of writing/ editing, and the years of suffering? It all led to a couple of dozen sales (so far). That’s it. The temptation to judge success by numbers of sales is a cruel one indeed.
I know God is in this book. I know (because all readers so far have said) that it is a deep resource of treasure for those who will read it. But I also know (partly because of the crazy levels of opposition that have arisen) that the enemy does not want people to read it. And honestly, I feel too exhausted to fight back. And so in the temptations to self-pity that followed, I heard – or felt – the nasty thought cross my mind: “Why bother? What was the point of all that cost – for nothing?” When we are tired and our guard is down, the enemy is skilled at making his voice sound like our own thoughts and feelings.
Now, I do know it wasn’t for nothing. I know there are people out there whose lives have already been changed by reading the book. So that alone means it was worth it. And honestly, I do know that the true judge of success is whether I obeyed God and did as He asked – which to the best of my ability, I believe I did. So it’s all good: my feelings will calm down as I recover, and all will be well. But God in His endless compassion and mercy did not leave it there. In a prayer meeting last night with some beautiful writer friends, every one of whom is bravely sacrificing themselves in order to write words that will give honour and glory to God, God showed me a picture of Mary with her broken alabaster jar, pouring perfume over Jesus’ feet and weeping as she did so (John 12:3). His hand rested lovingly on her head and He was breathing in the beautiful aroma. Then I heard the lyrics from an old song: “you don’t know the cost of the oil from my alabaster box.” And the point was this: He DOES know. Even if nobody else does. He sees the cost, and receives it as a fragrant offering. We are all broken vessels. Maybe another day I’ll share the values of alabaster – or you can look it up and see what God shows you through it. But what God showed me was the high value He places on the perfumed oil produced by crushing, then poured out through our brokenness. He sees that our writing for Him IS costly and He receives it as worship, as we value Him far more than whatever it costs us to write.
And this morning as I thanked Him for last night’s picture He spoke to me again. Some of it was personal, to be treasured in my heart only. And some of it I felt permission to share, in the hope that it will speak to and encourage you also. He said, “I see your sacrifice, beloved, and I receive it. It is a beautiful fragrance to Me, fully acceptable in my sight. Now as I receive it, trust it fully to My hands, and let it go. I have received it all, so it cannot be wasted. Even if nobody else sees it (which is not My will) that is not your concern. You have poured it out at My feet: it is spilled; you cannot scoop it back into a container to hold on to now. It is My treasure, for Me to do with as I will. And I thank You for it, for it is a most precious gift to Me. Thank You, My love.”
What a blessing. How kind He always is! I don’t know whether or not He will ask me to do any more ‘promo’ – that’s up to Him. All I know is, the matter is settled in my heart. My books are an offering to HIM, and their value cannot be measured in how many people do or do not see/ buy/ read them. As usual, the enemy’s temptations have been silenced by God’s Word. I am so grateful. And the cost? Well I could never out-give what He has given me! So it was totally worth it.
Rachel Yarworth, Writer 