A long time ago I thought to myself that I would write a book. Decades passed and I never found the time. In 2007 I asked God specifically to give me direction for the next phase in my life. I heard nothing. The harder I worked to hear, the quieter it became. The only thought that came to my mind was to write that book. It was so faint I almost dismissed it. I thought surely God would speak louder if this was an important next step…but He didn’t.

 I was so overwhelmed with the idea of writing a whole book that I resolved to write teachings. I set a date and began my day two hours earlier to write. It was an act of discipline not inspiration.  

 It took a few months of hard plowing – believe me I wanted to give up and get the extra sleep – but it paid off. Finally, I had a breakthrough and I knew that writing was my destiny! I accidently walked into my calling. The persistent dream in my heart was the whisper of God to live my highest and best life and I almost missed it!

 If you have a dream that you keep putting off, ask yourself how you will feel at the end of your life if you never tried to accomplish it. Be encouraged by my story and just begin.   

My Journey of Writing

Many have asked how long it took to write my first book. It took me two years. I have a full time job so I started by coming to work two hours early. My goal throughout the project was to write two hours per day. Overall I exceeded my goal because I started coming in earlier and writing longer. When I finally sent the book to be typeset (it was completely edited and ready to go) It had been 768 days, 1,310 hours which averages to 1.70 hours per day of writing. Even so, during that time, I let the book lay undisturbed for several small intervals. About four times I walked away for 2-5 weeks. This allowed me to clear my head so I could see it with new eyes.

When I first started to write I was all over the place. I had no idea what I wanted to write (kind of important) or how to do it! It was an act of my will to concentrate and write something! About 1-2 months in, I knew that I was writing the creation story. It’s a little comical. I kept trying to write something important and I realized that in order to explain this I would need to explain that …and before I knew it I was at pre-creation with the Godhead! It was an inspiring moment when I realized my theme!

My style changed constantly. I started by writing teachings and then changed to a story and then I rewrote the story as a narration by God the Father. My voice kept maturing and growing and I re-worked the style every couple of weeks as I would get better. It was hard work!

Probably 500-700 hours were spent in study. I use PC Bible Study and I literally dissected Gen 1-3 word-by-word. I did the same on Lucifer and every other topic I had to write about. I read hours of theological commentaries. Usually, in the act of writing, I would get “inspired” and my jaw would drop with the revelation. Then, I would begin the study cycle to see what Bible scholars said on the subject (if anything). Occasionally, I would find a early church history theologian who had been on the same track and get excited. Always, I would endeavor to stay humble and refuse to write something that did not stand up to scriptural scrutiny.

Some days writing was like torture. It was hard and I had to fight to stay awake and press in. If needed, I would stop and exercise on my bike for 10 minuets, take a walk or drink a cold smoothie.  

Forget about writers block! When it happened, I would refuse to accept it. I would study more or pray. Another really helpful tool was playing worship music in the background. In fact, I wrote the whole book listening to Jason Upton. When things were really hard, I would finally remember – oh yeah – music! Worship music always broke me through.

I am now writing book number three! (Teason is in editing and my book on gender identities is right behind it). Now that I have trained myself to get up before dawn to write, I can’t shake the habit (and I don’t want to).  Now days, I have so many things to write about and not enough time! I am also writing better but still improving with every day! I don' think that will ever end!