Writing is the Dangerous Way to Tell the Truth to Yourself. Followed by a Call for Christian Ghostwriters.

“You can’t handle the truth!”

Remember that iconic moment?

From that one movie where Tom Cruise plays a military lawyer and Jack Nicholson plays the colonel who despises him?

Who just tricked him into admitting that he ordered the crime Cruise’s clients were being tried for?

It’s quite a moment. Nicholson’s character describes the reality that certain members of the military bear the responsibility of knowing.

They bear the responsibility of realizing evil so that the average American, who “can’t handle the truth,” doesn’t have to.

Did you know that within yourself is both the military unit on the border AND the blissfully unaware citizen who sleeps inland in supposed safety?

Why do I bring this up?

Because writing.

Writing about what you’ve been through is one way to introduce those two parts of yourself.

I’m a ghostwriter and I’ve learned that I need to plan and budget for the fact that a certain percentage of my clients are not going to finish the books we start together.

It’s not because they are lazy.

It’s not because they are undisciplined.

It’s not because there is anything wrong with them at all.

It’s because one part of them had the benefit for a long while of getting to sleep in (relative) peace inland while their border patrol kept the danger at bay since childhood.

But now…they are writing. And writing is dangerous because it’s one powerful way of slowing down the brain so the unconscious can be introduced to the conscious.

Because the blissfully ignorant part of you is not actually so ignorant. Just repressive. It doesn’t want to think about what’s going on at the borders. It knows all of it deep down, because it’s been running inland for a long time trying with all its might to tune out the knowledge of evil.

I’m not a therapist, but I wish I were sometimes, because when clients quit, I wish I could enter in right there with the perfect therapeutic thing to say. Not because I’d like them to finish the project, but because I am a pastor. Everything in me shows up when I notice the pastoral moment. But some pastoral moments are also therapeutic moments that seem to require some understanding of clinical psychology that I don’t have.

***Now, you may be asking, isn’t it enough to be a pastor and know the Bible? Can’t God handle this issue? That’s a fair point. But I’ve been pastoring 24 years and I’ve seen the damage done when pastors arrogantly block parishioners from getting psychological help because they think “God is enough.” God is enough, but somehow that hasn’t stopped the person from developing mental/emotional illness, and a narcissistic pastor has just made them worse….Rant over…

Back to writing.

This is a beautiful thing, because self-integration is a beautiful thing. I love, love, love what writing does.

It brings to light the truth.

Ultimately, I don’t think it’s ever great to suppress truth. From my understanding, for anyone doing that—suppressing truth—it was likely necessary for a while for survival. But eventually, disintegration hurts you, keeps you stunted.

Think about my dear clients who quit the book they told me God called them to write.

Do you think it’s not stunting them somehow to attempt to live ignorantly? We all know it is, because we all know people we can clearly see doing that. We see the damage done when suppressed/repressed truth pushes its way out at the worst possible times.

When repressed anger gets unloaded on a child.

When repressed fear shipwrecks a potentially great relationship.

When repressed hatred turns to self-hatred.

If your writing brings up things that scare you or overwhelm you, I’d like to encourage you from experience.

Everything in you is trying to convince you this knowledge, if brought to light, will kill you.

It won’t. It might if you leave it in the dark.

That voice is demonic. Satan, the ruler of darkness, doesn’t want you looking under the hood. He loves what he can do with all that trauma when you’re not looking.

But there is another voice if you belong to Jesus. His voice. The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is truly enough. Again, it may still be that the Holy Spirit will use a wise Christian psychologist to help you, but that doesn’t change the fact that He is enough for you.

Ask anyone who has been willing to face the dark truth, you can handle the truth. Because you already are handling somewhere in yourself.

Like the prodigal son, sometimes when we write, we “come to ourselves.” That is the time not to look away. Not to quit. But to run to the Father and keep writing until all is light within.

Jeff

A CALL FOR CHRISTIAN GHOSTWRITERS

I believe any Christian’s life could be a book.

The reason is that your story is God’s story.

The deepest and most eternal truths are being played out through your life.

The knowledge that is transformational is inside you and your story will be the key to the reader’s own transformation.

That doesn’t mean that you are called to write a book.

Writing a book is hard, and a book is only necessary in certain situations.

You might need to write a book if:

1. God has told you to in some way.
2. You know your story is unique and too powerful to waste.
3. You have a reason to need a book (like I did when I wrote my book on how to write a book. I needed it to help me get clients. [If you want a free pdf of it, let me know and I’ll send you one]).
4. You have discovered at least some of the point of your suffering and would like to share it so others might not have to suffer in the same way.
5. You want to explore the heck out of your story and the thoughts you’re having about your story (because you don’t know what you know until you try to write a book).

But then, even if you decide to write a book, you might not have time to write it yourself, or you just don’t want to take the time to learn the craft of book writing. You’re doing other things.

It’s not an easy thing to do. I’ve been telling people lately that writing versus writing books is like doing carpentry versus building a house. Sort of the same, but one is a lot more complicated structurally.

That’s where we ghostwriters come in.

I love that God has given me the ability to do something for my clients that helps them fulfill a call on their life while leaving them free to do the other stuff they’re called to do.

One of my clients is building retreat centers to help people heal of trauma.

Another client is neck deep in important prison ministry.

Dozens of my clients have been pastors doing the work of ministry.

Some have plenty of time, but don’t write well. They have a message, but no way to get it into a book.

There are tons of reasons writing a book themselves is not right for someone, even though they feel called to get their story and message into a book.

That’s why ghostwriters are important. God has given someone skills to help someone else spread the truth. It’s an awesome privilege to do that.

AND THAT IS WHY………..

I am looking for a handful of writers who would like to learn the craft and business of Christian ghostwriting. I never have less than 15 books in production, and I can only help so many. But if I can train up others to take this on, imagine how many people we could help.

My goal is to help a few writers get up and running and well on their way to a ghostwriting business that supports them.

When I started ghostwriting on Fiverr back in 2019 as a full time pastor, it was a hobby.

Then it was a “tent-making” job as I stopped being a full time pastor due to the income (I’m still a pastor of a church, just not getting a full-time salary).

Then I realized I am reaching more people through the books I’m writing with clients than I am planting one church at a time. I’ll always be a pastor, but this ghostwriting thing is part of my calling to bear truth in the world.

And for those of you who are wondering, my clients give me credit as their writing partner. No one is trying to pretend, and even back before I insisted on this, no one was trying to get away with something. They just want to share what God has given them.

If you’re reading this and thinking you might want to do this FREEEEEEEE training with me, send me a message.

Why FREEEEEEEE?

Because I don’t know if I can teach this. I don’t know if I can take a good writer and make them a successful ghostwriter. I’m trying it out. If I succeed with a group of writers, I’ll do another round and charge 1 million dollars.

Just kidding. But I’ll probably charge something.

Here’s what people will learn.

1. How to write books.
2. How to write in someone else’s voice.
3. How to think about writing things you don’t totally align with (because you will).
4. How to find clients.
5. How to relate to clients.
6. How to help clients actually finish their part.
7. How to shepherd the clients who struggle because they are writing about things that trigger them.
8. How to run the business systems of a ghostwriting agency.
9. How to have a sales call that is not a sales call.
10. How to love the people you write for.
11. And so much more……

I plan to do this on every other Saturday morning for 10 sessions starting out and then see what happens.

If you want to talk about it, send me a message.

Jeff

‍

‍