Climbing over a thorny fence sometimes gets you snagged.
Your clothes get caught on a barb and you can’t continue until you free yourself.
Every creative endeavour has its own unique fences and barbs to navigate. Sometimes technical, sometimes emotional, sometimes spiritual.
That’s why some folks get partway and stop halfway. They get snagged!
Caught in a thought? Stopped in your tracks by attacks? Pressured to procrastinate?
It’s time to get unsnagged and continue in your resolve to reach your destination.
Why resistance builds as a project progresses:
1. More detail is required as a project grows and develops – it takes energy and attention to organise and we fall into paralysis by analysis.
2. Doubt creeps in and we question why we’re even doing this in the first place. The devil prowls around seeking to gobble up your faith and smother your initial resolve to stomp on his gnarly head.
3. The valley of ignorance opens up before us and we don’t know what to do next (this often presents itself as a technical chasm outside our skill set).
What do you do in such situations?
1. Don’t get lost in the details. Do your best, but don’t overthink. You can course-correct a moving vehicle, but it’s almost impossible to steer a stationary one. Keep your projects moving, even if execution is imperfect for now.
2. Keep your faith boots firmly on and trample your way through satan’s lies. Surround yourself with a like-minded faithful community of creative believers.
3. Do due diligence and learn some new skills. Sometimes it’s also good to ask not how but who. It’s easy to get caught saying “I don’t know how” instead of asking “Who will help me overcome this impasse?”
Are you an anointed author?
This is one reason I created the Anointed Authors program.
I know how difficult it can be to begin a book, and to continue all the way to completion and publication. There are so many snaggardy fences that stand between that first fleeting idea and pressing publish.
Most people give up long before their precious thoughts and stories are shared.
It’s also why having a cohort community of fellow travellers is often the key to breaking through. Our authors have found this aspect the most rewarding of all.
Who do you know who has been where you want to go? Reach out to them and get unsnagged.
Have you connected with other Christians on the creative road? Look for opportunities to do so and do all you can to encourage on another.
Like a car that’s come to a grinding halt sometimes you need some extra pairs of hands to get your wheels moving again.
Doors are now open for my September intake – we’ve got just 19 places (one has already gone) for first-time Christian authors to take their book ideas to the finish line.
Check out the Anointed Author’s page today and see what other writers and authors have been saying about their recent experience as they followed the pathway to published.
Always believing for your best,
David
