I’m Writing a Book

I’m about 15% complete of a first draft of a book I am writing. You are probably thinking, “Travis isn’t that smart about anything, what could he possible write about?” And you are absolutely right. And those are exactly the excuses I have been using for the last year while this idea has been on my heart. So I am not writing a book because I am qualified to do so, but I am writing this book because this book is not out there and it is needed desperately. So I’m writing it out of the need, not because of my qualifications.

The book is called Freshman 15. It is a book written for college students/graduating high-school seniors. The concept is this: in the Bible, when someone gave glory to something, it was said that they were giving weight to it. Something they valued greatly was a “heavyweight” in their lives. Something that they did feel as significant would be considered a “lightweight.” So the title is Freshman 15 and the tag line will be something like: “how to put it on in all the right places.”

In college, my theory is that everyone will spiritually put on weight, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It can be the greatest thing ever. In the book, I am going to talk about the fifteen things that I have experienced or witnessed to be the things that make or break someone in college. One chapter will be on purity. One will be on the closest friends you have. One will be on the question if it is OK to socially drink or not? But each chapter will stand alone but are one of the fifteen most common things that I have seen either grow a person closer to Christ or completely lure them away from following Jesus.

The statistic that only 20% of church kids continue going to church once they go to college scares me to death, and I benefited in college finally realizing what God said about a lot of the issues I was struggling with. Unfortunately, most college students will receive “God’s Little Devotional Book for Graduates,” or “Chicken Soup for the College Soul,” or something else that is pretty fluffy if you ask my honest opinion. I haven’t seen a resource that deals with the real issues and allows someone to interact with the Scripture concerning the major issues. That’s what I hope Freshman 15 can be.

After each chapter, I am going to include some discussion questions so that groups could do a small group Bible study around the topics. My prayer is that this book could truly save someone from making some really bad decisions in their college tenure. I am shooting to have this book done for Submerge (Greenwood’s spring break week). That goal is going to be really hard, but I keep wondering if this resource could help one high school senior going into college, then it would be worth staying up a little longer for the next few months.

Here’s how you can help:

  1. Pray. I would love to ask you to pray for this project. I am not doing this to have something to do, I’m doing this to hopefully keep some college students following Christ. So I would ask that you pray that the words that I choose to use will be able to reason with students to make Christ first. Pray that I use my time wisely to get this done expediently.
  2. Comment. What do you think about this idea? I would love to hear your feedback. I would also love to hear what you think needs to be included in the book. So comment away.

Thanks for reading this post. I really do thank you for your support and prayers! I’ll periodically post some excerpts or progress reports on here. So I would appreciate you coming back to the blog and praying for this project.

9 thoughts on “I’m Writing a Book”

  1. its gonna be THE best book ever! im sooo glad youre writing it!! 🙂 i cant wait to read it buddy-o!! and yes you are one of the smartest people i know!!!

  2. hey travis…..well, the only reason I am awake at this ungodly hr is bc I am at work, it is quite a slow evening so while I was parusing around on this thing I happened to find this little blog about your book and about the fact yall are having a baby, so #1 Congratulations to yall, very exciting I'm sure, and #2 I kinda had to read twice when I saw the title of your book…….I think it is a fabulous idea and a lil funny bc just last yr. I got so fed up with college hoochiemama mainly freshman girls that I thought seriously about writing a book of advice/tips for college freshmen girls…….there is sooooo much they don't know. Anywho, wanted to tell ya good luck and great idea…….

  3. hey travis…..well​, the only reason I am awake at this ungodly hr is bc I am at work, it is quite a slow evening so while I was parusing around on this thing I happened to find this little blog about your book and about the fact yall are having a baby, so #1 Congratulations​ to yall, very exciting I'm sure, and #2 I kinda had to read twice when I saw the title of your book…….I think it is a fabulous idea and a lil funny bc just last yr. I got so fed up with college hoochiemama mainly freshman girls that I thought seriously about writing a book of advice/tips for college freshmen girls…….the​re is sooooo much they don't know. Anywho, wanted to tell ya good luck and great idea…….

  4. hey travis…..well, the only reason I am awake at this ungodly hr is bc I am at work, it is quite a slow evening so while I was parusing around on this thing I happened to find this little blog about your book and about the fact yall are having a baby, so #1 Congratulations to yall, very exciting I'm sure, and #2 I kinda had to read twice when I saw the title of your book…….I think it is a fabulous idea and a lil funny bc just last yr. I got so fed up with college hoochiemama mainly freshman girls that I thought seriously about writing a book of advice/tips for college freshmen girls…….there is sooooo much they don't know. Anywho, wanted to tell ya good luck and great idea…….

  5. Great idea man! (Although I don’t when you’ll find the time!) I see that need at Erskine every day — although I see many students at Erskine who have grown up in the church, there is very little sense of being sold out for Jesus. There is too much religion and not enough Christ.

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