by A.C. Williams @ACW_Author

“I’m writing the story God gave me.”

If I had a dollar for every time a writer has said that to me, I wouldn’t need a royalty paycheck. This is something most aspiring Christian authors say pretty regularly. Hey, I’ve even said it. And it’s not that the statement is untrue—not at all—but I have begun to suspect that we use it as an excuse to be lazy.

I work with writers on a daily basis, brilliant, gifted storytellers of every age and demographic. Some are multi-published; others are working toward their first novel. Recently, really this year specifically, I have started hearing this statement a lot.

“This story came from God” or “God gave me this story, so I’m writing it with Him.” Honestly? I love everything about that. Because of our faith, we can hear directly from God and use the gifts He’s given us to tell a story.

That’s a miracle. And it shouldn’t be ignored or dismissed or taken for granted. But it also begs the question, then what?

God gave you a story? Awesome. You wrote it down? Wonderful. What next?

Generally most writers want to publish. Why wouldn’t they? If God gave them the story, surely He gave it to them so they could share it with others.

Does that mean you grab some A.I.-generated cover art and slap the pages of your manuscript together in some kind of formatting and toss it out on Amazon for the world to access?

You could. There’s nothing stopping you, really. And you’ll only get dinged for using A.I. cover art if you get caught. But what will happen to your story?

Some data crunchers estimate that a new book is added to Amazon’s catalog every five minutes. Every five minutes.That means, in the time it takes you to read this blog post, a new book has been added to Amazon. And actually, that statistic is ten years old, so it’s probably outdated. It’s probably more than that now.

If you want your story to be visible and accessible to the most people possible, you really can’t sit back on your blessed assurance and claim whatever happens is God’s plan.

I mean, I say that. Obviously, God can do what He wants with whatever He wants, but we know from Scripture that He doesn’t bless laziness. And He doesn’t bless those who steal from others. And He doesn’t reward those who waste His resources.

I try not to wax eloquent about matters of faith in blog posts like this, but with the prevalence of this mindset taking over the Christian industry, I think it’s something we need to discuss.

If you truly believe that God has given you a story, the best course of action you can take is to invest in that story. Write it to the best of your ability. Hire an editor who will partner with you to accomplish what you feel God has led you to do. Hire a cover designer who understands your vision. Then publish it, either traditionally or independently, and work to make sure everyone knows about it.

Yes. I said, hire. With money.

Don’t rely on artificial intelligence to build the story for you. Don’t rely on generative programs that steal art from hard-working illustrators and graphic designers so you can save a buck. That’s not being a good steward; that’s stealing.

And if you say you don’t have the money, wait until you do. It takes just as much faith to wait as it does to forge ahead in your own strength with your own resources.

But that mindset flies in the face of what is currently happening among many Christian writers.

Far too often, when editors who truly know the industry and who truly understand storytelling suggest to authors what needs to change in their manuscripts, the authors disregard it. They claim the editors don’t understand. Or they say that since God gave them the story, the editors don’t have the right to change it.

But what if your story is bad? What if your story is confusing? What if your story doesn’t communicate what you think it communicates?

Isn’t it possible that you still have some growing to do as an author?

It’s just much easier to fall back on the belief that God gave you the story, so you don’t have to change it. And since He’s God, He can use it. Why should you have to work?

Don’t misunderstand. Your heart story matters. That story God gave you that changed your perspective or transformed your life wasn’t in vain. But it was for you.

God can tell you something that’s specific for your life, and that message doesn’t necessarily have immediate meaning to anyone else unless you tailor the language to resonate.

Study the greatest storyteller in history, Jesus Himself. Look at His words. Look at how He spoke and who He spoke to. He didn’t just tell the same stories to everyone. He was specific. He knew His audience.

That’s our challenge.

That is the job of an editor. Another pair of eyes, another heart and soul to connect with the story you’re telling, and if they can’t connect, isn’t it possible that nobody else will either?

If God has given you a story to write, write it. Learn from it. Absorb it. But understand that some God-stories are for you, and if you want to share them with others, you have to take YOU out of it. Because it’s not your story; it’s God’s story.

Right? Isn’t that what we keep saying?

And the best way to make sure God’s story is clear is by enlisting the help of an experienced editor who knows your heart.

Sure, some editors are a bad fit, and it may take some time to find an editor who gets your vision. But once you do, when you’re working with an editor who is on the same page with what God is doing in your life, listen to them.

Isn’t it possible that God led you to that editor to make your story the best it can be? To create a story that will resonate with the message God has for the world?

Think about it. Pray about it. Don’t be so focused on achieving a goal that you neglect to do things God’s way in God’s timing. And don’t point back to God saying that He’s the one who gave you the story if you aren’t willing to invest your time and effort into making it worth reading. If you’re going to claim that God gave you the story, you need to treat it as though it belongs to Him; that means stewardship. That means your ego is no longer part of the equation.

Your heart story may have come from God, but don’t fool yourself into believing that it’s your story that will change someone else’s life.

A.C. Williams is a coffee-drinking, sushi-eating, story-telling nerd who loves cats, country living, and all things Japanese. Author of more than 20 books, she keeps her fiction readers laughing with wildly imaginative adventures about samurai superheroes, clumsy church secretaries, and goofy malfunctioning androids; her non-fiction readers just laugh at her and the hysterical life experiences she’s survived. If that’s your cup of tea (or coffee), join the fun at www.amycwilliams.com.