80 | The Bare Necessities of Author Life

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The author world never stops telling us we need more. More books. More reviews. More ads. More content. More proof that what we're building is actually working. But what if the relentless pursuit of more is the very thing stealing the peace, clarity, and joy God intended for your writing life?

In this episode we're talking about the bare necessities of a faithful author life — what Scripture actually says we need, what we may need to release, and why simplicity might be one of the most overlooked disciplines in our writing and publishing lives.

We unpack the Mary and Martha story, the discipline of simplicity from 2 Corinthians and Matthew 6, and what it actually looks like to seek first in your day-to-day author life. Plus a practical three-question simplicity audit to help you identify what's draining your time, your peace, and your obedience.

"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary." — Luke 10:41-42

Mentioned in this episode:

🔗 The Revive to Thrive Way™

📗 FREE 'Discover Your Christian Author Brand' guide

Transcript

The author world is very good at convincing us we need more.

More books, more reviews, more followers,

more ads, more visibility,

more income streams,

more proof that what we are building here is actually working.

And before we know it, the thing God called us to do with joy starts feeling like a life we can barely keep up with.

But what if the problem isn't that you don't have enough?

What if the real issue is that you've been adding so much to your author life that you can barely hear God's voice through the noise anymore?

Today we are talking about the bare necessities of author life,

what scripture says we actually need, what we may need to release,

and why simplicity might be one of the most overlooked and undervalued disciplines in our writing lives.

So, friend, I can't wait to dive into this topic with you today. I think you're going to enjoy it. Turn up the volume. Settle in. This is the Anointed Scribe podcast.

I'm Urcelia Teixeira, ex real estate agent turned award winning Christian fiction author.

When I wrote my first novel on a bucket list whim, I had no idea it would spark a spiritual journey that would redefine my calling. But you know what, friend?

Self publishing wasn't easy. I got caught in the hustle, chasing rankings and sales while desperately trying to stay rooted in Christ.

Now, by God's grace, I'm building my author business his way. And now he's called me to help you do the same.

Welcome to the Anointed Scribe Podcast where faith meets business for Christian writers. Let's write, publish, and grow our author business God's way. Are you ready? Well then, let's get started.

Hey, it's your author friend, Urcelia, and welcome to the show.

If you're brand new here. Awesome. Welcome. I know God brought you here today for a reason, and I'm really, really glad you are here.

Consider yourself officially welcomed to the Anointed Scribe community.

We talk about building our author lives and businesses God's way here, not the world's way.

And I think today's episode is going to give you a lot to think about and hopefully you'll consider subscribing and following so we can keep this show on the air, right?

And not to forget about my regulars who show up here in my comments and inbox every single day. Thank you for coming back this week.

Today's episode was actually inspired by two things that collided in my heart this week.

A morning devotional that stopped me in my tracks and a movie I watched years ago. That I still think about to this day.

So let me start with a movie which will totally give away my age.

It's called the Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith. And I'm certain some of you might remember that I watched it years ago,

and certain scenes from that film have never really left me.

Not because they were dramatic, although they were,

but because they captured something so deeply human.

The exhaustion of trying to hold everything together while still reaching and hoping and believing that if you just work hard enough or sacrifice and push through enough,

that something will eventually give.

But here's the thing. There's a particular kind of tired in this movie.

Not just physical tired. I'm talking soul tired.

The kind that comes from carrying everything yourself while the finish line keeps moving.

And I think a lot of Christian authors know that feeling more than we'd like to admit, right?

Not because we're chasing wealth or fame in the way the world defines it because, but because the author world has its own version of more.

And it's relentless.

Publish more books because rapid release is what the algorithm rewards.

Or create more book launch strategies because the last one didn't quite go as planned.

Or my personal biggest pain. Post more on social media because it's the only way to reach your audience these days.

Participate in more newsletter swaps, do more ads, more promos, more reader magnets,

more marketing events, more consistency.

More. More. More. More of everything.

And underneath all of that, more is usually one of two things.

Either genuine ambition, a real desire to reach more readers and steward your calling well,

or fear,

the quiet, persistent anxiety that what you have right now is not enough,

and that if you stop adding, stop pushing, stop striving and hustling, you'll drop the ball and something will slip away.

And here's what I've come to understand the hard way.

When more comes from ambition, it can absolutely come from having direction and purpose.

You know what you're chasing and why, right?

But when more comes from fear,

from the anxiety that what you have right now is not enough,

it has no natural stopping point. It just keeps demanding.

And as the Bible teaches us, you cannot serve two masters.

Luke 16:13 says this.

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,

or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and money.

Now, Jesus is talking about money here, but the principle stretches further than our finances.

You cannot serve God and the relentless pressure of more.

You cannot build from surrender and from fear at the same time.

Eventually one of those Two things will take a lead,

and the question worth asking ourselves today is what's been taking the lead in your author life?

This is where the devotional I read this week comes in, because it introduced me to a phrase I want to unpack with you today,

and it's this the Discipline of simplicity.

Now, before I go further, I want to be clear about what Simplicity is not Biblical. Simplicity does not translate to laziness. It is not small thinking.

It is not profuse. Refusing to grow or giving up on your goals or deciding your calling isn't a big deal.

Simplicity is the discipline of removing everything that's cluttering or even smothering your obedience to God and to your mission.

I'm not talking about removing effort from your author life.

Hard work is not the enemy here, and I'd never suggest otherwise.

And I'm also not talking about removing ambition either.

The genuine desire to reach more readers, to write better books, to build something that lasts. I'm not talking about that.

The kind of ambition when it's surrendered to God is a gift,

not a problem.

What simplicity asks us to remove is the clutter, the noise,

the endless more. That was never God's idea for you in the first place.

Like the booktok account you started because everyone said it was the next big thing for authors,

or the marketing strategies you're running because someone else's success made you panic.

The output you're pushing because you're afraid that slowing down means that you'll fall behind. That is what simplicity prunes, not your work.

The weight that has attached itself to your work is what simplicity pulls apart.

And the devotional I read put it in a way that sat with me all day, and it said, at the core, core of a continual pursuit for more is a lack of faith in God's goodness.

If we truly believe God provides all we need, we would never step outside his provision and strive for more.

That's a convicting thought, right?

Because it means that every time we reach beyond what God has given us in this season,

every time we add another marketing strategy we don't have the capacity for.

Every time we launch a book from panic instead of peace,

every time we measure our KDP numbers against someone else's Facebook post instead of against what God actually called us to do,

we are in some small way questioning whether God's provision is enough.

And I know that's not our intention. I know most of us aren't doing that consciously and but the pattern is there, and naming it will make all the difference to how we write, publish and grow our Author business.

Luke 10:41 42 tells the story we all know about Mary and Martha.

Jesus arrived at the home of Mary and Martha.

Martha is busy preparing, serving, managing, doing all the things a good hostess does while Mary is sitting at Jesus fellow feet listening.

And Martha, frustrated, asks Jesus to tell Mary to come and help her.

And Jesus says,

martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,

but one thing is necessary.

Martha. Martha. Jesus says her name twice.

I believe not in irritation, but in tenderness,

as if to say, I see you Martha.

I see how hard you're working. I see that it comes from a good place.

And I want to tell you as gently as I can that you are missing the one thing that really matters most right now.

Friend, pay attention here. Jesus says one thing,

One thing is necessary, not five things.

Not a book marketing strategy and an author platform and your next book launch plan and a social media content calendar and an Amazon ad account and three book funnel newsletter swaps.

No one thing.

And what's that one thing?

A posture of sitting at his feet, receiving from him,

letting his presence be the anchor before anything else.

And I think for us Christian writers, this is one of the most profoundly radical invitations in scripture.

Because the author world is constantly telling us that more things are necessary.

More email subscribers are necessary, more books are necessary,

more ad spend is necessary.

But Jesus says no, only one thing is necessary.

Not that these other things are wrong,

but that they find their right place only when the one necessary thing comes first.

So what are the bare necessities,

if I had to name them for us as Christian authors? The genuine bare necessities of a faithful author life.

Here's where I'd start.

The first is having a surrendered heart before any book marketing strategy, before your book sales,

before your online presence, before any of it.

A heart that has genuinely placed your calling to back in God's hands and said,

this is yours Lord. I'll steward it faithfully, but I won't carry it as if it all depends on me.

That's the first bare necessity.

The second one is having a clear assignment,

not a five year business plan. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about just a clear sense in this season what God has actually asked you to write. What has he asked you to build.

Because when you know what your assignment is,

you can say no to the things that aren't serving your assignment right.

And saying no is not being a diva or that you are lazy. It's faithfulness to what God has given you to manage in this season.

The third bare necessity is having a faithful rhythm in your schedule.

Not frantic productivity from pressure or from fear,

not the output of someone who is trying to outrun their own anxiety,

but sustainable, consistent obedience,

showing up to your work daily,

doing it well, and trusting God with your production pace.

The fourth bare necessity is genuine service to real readers. And I want to sit with this one for a moment because I think it's easy to lose sight of. In the day to day grind of building a successful author business,

it's very easy to start talking about readers in terms of numbers.

How many email subscribers do I have? How many reviews has this book received?

How many people clicked through on that promotion?

And none of those metrics are wrong to track.

They tell you very useful things.

But the moment your readers become numbers to grow rather than people to serve,

something has shifted in the wrong direction. In your author business,

the reader God has called you to reach is a real person.

She's carrying something.

He's looking for something.

They picked up your book, or they're about to,

because something in what you write speaks to something in them.

And that is a very sacred thing.

It's worth more than your Amazon ranking.

It's worth more than a review count.

And keeping that in view, keeping the actual person in mind rather than the metric,

changes both the quality and the motivation of everything you write and everything you do to get in front of them.

And the fifth bare necessity is trusting God with daily provision,

releasing the need to control every outcome, every sales figure, every trajectory.

Living and writing in the kind of faith that says God knows what I need and he is faithful, faithful to provide it.

Today I'll do my part and I'll trust Him with the rest.

Those are, in my humble opinion, the bare necessities of a faithful author life.

Now, I want to be clear about something before we move on. These five bare necessities are not a guarantee of a certain income or a certain number of books published,

or a certain size of readership. I'm not promising you that. If you get these right, your book sales will suddenly take,

or your email list will triple, or your book launches will finally perform the way you hoped.

What I'm saying is that when these five things are genuinely in place,

when your heart is surrendered, when your assignment is clear, your rhythm is faithful, your readers are real to you, and your trust in God's provision is steady.

Everything else feels different.

The hard days are still hard, don't get me wrong.

The slow seasons are still slow.

But there's something underneath it all that holds, and that something makes the work feel possible rather than unbearable and overwhelming.

I want to sit with one Contrast for a moment as well, because I think it captures what this episode is really about.

I want to point out the difference between more versus Enough in a practical way that we can relate with.

More says, you are behind all the other authors.

Enough says God has given you exactly what you need for today to serve his kingdom.

More says, look at what they have.

Enough says, stay faithful to what God placed in your hands for this season.

Another example of More says that you need to prove that you are worthy of calling yourself an authority and that your business is working.

But Enough says success and obedience is not always immediately visible.

More says, add another thing if you want your goals to be met. But Enough says come back to the one necessary thing you need.

And I don't know about you friend, but I know which one of these sound more reasonable in a culture that rewards output and growth and scale.

But I also know which one produces lasting joy and peace and freedom and kingdom abundance.

Matthew 6:31 33 says,

do not be anxious saying, what shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or what shall we wear?

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your Heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,

and all these things will be added to you.

Seek first.

Those words matter more than we usually give it credit for.

Not seek also as in yes, I'll see God too, alongside everything else I'm managing. No,

not seek eventually,

as in once my income is more stable and my books are doing better and I have a little bit more breathing room, then I'll slow down and really focus on God.

No Seek first before you open the next marketing strategy document.

Before you check your KDP dashboard, before you scroll through what everyone else is doing on Facebook and start measuring yourself against it before you plan out your week.

God first.

Everything else must come second.

It will find its right place after that.

Get this order right and I promise you everything you do that day will feel a lot lighter and a lot more purposeful.

So let me give you something practical to take away from today. I want to invite you to sit with three questions this week. Not for you to go and feel guilty about the answers,

but just to get real before the Lord.

The first question is what is draining your time without it bearing any fruit?

Think about the tasks, habits, or activities that consistently take more energy than they give back.

The social media account you show up on every day that seems to connect you with real readers. The marketing strategy you keep trying to make work even though every attempt leaves you more drained than before.

The writing project you keep returning to out of obligation rather than calling those things feel like faithfulness. But if they're not bearing any fruit,

and they're not something God has specifically asked you to do,

they may just be clutter.

And clutter has a cost.

It costs you the time, energy, and focus that could be going toward the things that actually matter more to your mission.

The second question you need to ask is what is draining your peace?

And I want you to think about this one carefully, because it's more specific than it sounds. I'm not asking what stresses you out in a general sense. I'm asking about the particular thing,

the metric, the comparison, the expectation,

the strategy that when you encounter it, it takes the rest of your day with it. The thing that shifts your mood or unsettles your spirit and sends you into a spiral of second guessing before you even realize what's happened.

Maybe it's checking your Amazon sales rank first thing in the morning.

Maybe it's seeing another author announce a successful book launch.

Maybe it's the email list number that isn't growing as fast as you had hoped.

Maybe it's the gap between where you thought you'd be by now and where you actually are.

Whatever it is,

name it.

Because here's what I've come to understand about peace.

Peace is not a luxury for Christian authors who happen to have everything going well.

It is one of the clearest indicators that you are walking in step with God rather than running ahead of him or lagging behind in fear.

Galatians 5 describes peace as a fruit of the Spirit,

which means its absence is worth paying attention to.

If something in your author life is consistently stealing your peace,

that is no small thing, friend.

That is God trying to get your attention.

And the third question I need you to ask this week is what is draining your obedience?

This is the most important one, and also the hardest to answer honestly. Because the things that drain our obedience rarely look like distractions.

They usually look like you are doing good work, legitimate object author work.

Things that other successful authors are doing. Things that make sense on paper, Right?

But here's the distinction I want you to sit with. There is a difference between good work and assigned work.

Good work is anything that could reasonably move an author business forward.

Assigned work is the specific thing God has asked you to do in this particular season,

and those two things are not always the same.

So the question isn't whether what you are doing is good use of time in general. The question is whether it's what God has specifically asked you to steward right now.

Because if you are spending the best of your energy or something that wasn't in God's assignment for this season,

even if it looks productive, even if other people are impressed by it,

even if it generates some results,

you are still being diverted from obedience and no amount of output makes up for that.

So look honestly at where your best hours are going. Ask yourself, is this what God actually asked me to build right now?

Or have I just been busy?

Friend, you don't have to answer all three of these questions at once. It's a bit much, I know,

but I'd encourage you to take at least one of them to God this week and let them speak into it. You can save this episode and come back to it whenever you're ready to answer the next question or rework through them at any time.

And if you've been sitting with those three questions and something has surfaced that feels bigger than just clearing your to do list or switching up your writing routine. If you sense that what needs simplifying goes deeper than the surface of your author business,

friend, I want to invite you to take the next step with me inside the Revive to Thrive Way™ program.

This program is completely self paced.

It's my scripture rooted online course that helps you clear away the noise and the clutter and rebuild your author business from the foundation up.

You'll work through the pressure that's been driving your decisions.

You'll get clear on what God called you to be as an author,

and you'll begin making stronger decisions about your brand, your books, your marketing, and the direction of your business.

And I've kept it intentionally accessible.

So if you know this is the deeper work your author business needs,

you don't have to wait for the perfect season or a big budget investment to begin.

You'll find the link in the show notes whenever you are ready friend. Your author life does not have to be complicated.

It does not have to be a constant negotiation between your faith and who you are and who God called you to be and what the algorithm wants. It does not have to be a comparison with every author who seems to be further ahead either.

And it does not have to be a relentless pursuit of more.

The one necessary thing has not changed.

Seek him first.

Do the work God has actually asked you to do.

Trust him with the rest.

That is the bare necessities of author life and in my experience, it is both simpler and harder than anything the author world will ever sell you.

Simpler because the instruction is clear.

Harder because it requires letting go of the control we've convinced ourselves we need.

But here is what I know.

The author life built on those foundations surrendered, clear, faithful, serving, trusting.

That is the one that lasts,

that is the one that bears fruit,

and that is the one that keeps joy in your work even when the numbers are quiet.

May your pen stay faithful, your roots grow deep,

and every word you write bear fruit for his glory.

One more thing before you go. If you ready to get clear on who you are as a Christian author,

your message, your mission and the unique voice God has given you, I've created a free guide for you called Discover your Christian Author Brand.

It's yours at no cost and the link is in the show notes.

And when you're ready to go deeper to do the foundational work that changes not just how you write and market your books, but how you show up in this calling altogether,

the Revive to thrive Way™ is waiting for you. It's a self paced spirit led journey through the three core areas God walked me through that changed everything in my author business.

Head to anointed scribe.com/revivetothrive the link is in the show notes too.

I'll see you there.