Writers write. That’s the bottom line.
Last week was the first week of 2018 in which I took days off. This was for personal reasons, including attending my sister-in-law’s wedding. Weddings are such fun, beautiful things, especially when they’re rooted in Christ. Anyway, I didn’t write anything on Friday or Saturday. It’s not a habit I want to get into, but it was for good reasons in this case. Last week, I wrote about the languages of politics, which turned out to be one of my more popular posts of late. I also continued work on tentative series related to the theology of Black Mirror and how the Kingdom might operate at various levels of the Kardashev Scale, which is a sort of futuristic gauge on the progress of humankind in the universe. I also did some editing and a tiny bit of writing for a larger fiction project I’m working on. Overall, it was my weakest writing week of 2018 thus far, but that doesn’t mean things are falling off; it just means important things took the place of writing!
Words Per Day
Sunday, January 21: 358 words (blog)
Monday, January 22: 1,517 words (blog and fiction)
Tuesday, January 23: 950 words (blog)
Wednesday, January 24: 647 words (blog)
Thursday, January 125: 2,006 words (blog)
Friday, January 26: 0 words
Saturday, January 27: 0 words
Week 4 (Jan. 21 – Jan. 27) Totals
Last week, I wrote 5,748 words and spent less than 4 hours writing, averaging 1,528 words per hour.
2018 Totals
Since the beginning of 2018, I’ve written 28,188 words and spent approximately 18 hours writing.
Published Writing From Last Week
Refugees Are People, Not Data – The problem of refugeeism is so big and so beyond many of us, how can we possibly understand, let alone relate? In this piece, I tried to bring the reality of refugeeism down to a more personal level. We mustn’t think of displaced people as statistics, but as real people with real stories and real futures.
The Three Languages of Politics – I recently read a book by this title, written by Arnold Kling. It’s a fascinating lens through which to understand the American political landscape. The basic premise suggests Americans of different political camps have a hard time understanding each other or working together simply because we speak different socio-political languages. Progressives speak a language of oppressor-oppressed. Conservatives speak a civilization-barbarism language. And libertarians speak liberty-coercion.
10 Ways to Stay Motivated – I actually wrote this toward the beginning of the year when I was thinking about resolutions and having an investment strategy to move toward my long-term goals. It’s a list of 10 helpful techniques to stay fueled when it would be easier to give up. I’m already benefiting from some of these. How about you?
Writing Tracker – Week 3 (Jan. 14 – Jan. 20) – Follow along as I track progress toward my writing goals. Here’s an update from the third week of the year.
Here’s What’s Coming Up
In the near future, I’m planning to write more in my series about Black Mirror and the Kardashev Scale, and how both of these interact with the Kingdom of God. I’m also working on a piece about the Church as the best first responder for refugees, and what the upcoming Olympics have to do with Jesus Christ. Please share and read along!
Why Sharing Your Goals Is Important
Accountability: Because my writing goals for 2018 are to 1) post at least twice per week on this blog and 2) publish a book online, I know that I need to hold myself accountable and be held accountable by others. Making my writing statistics is one way for me to do that. With my writing production out in the open, others can see if I’m keeping up and, if I’m not, give me the necessary encouragement/kick. Posting my stats also keeps me personally motivated, as I don’t want to be embarrassed by falling behind my goals in public.
Inspiration: Assuming I can maintain my writing production at a level I’m satisfied with, I hope it will be an inspiration to other writers. I work full-time and have a number of ongoing commitments, but because writing is important to me, I make the time. You can too. Even 15-minute writing sprints over the course of weeks and months really adds up.
Data Tracking: I love seeing trends in data almost as much as I love writing. Amateur data analysis is incredibly easy today, and I love to see my numbers crunched. It’s fun and fascinating, but it also helps me write. Tracking my writing means I know how much I can write per genre, per hours; I know my pace; I know how much time I’m actually dedicating to writing; and I can see how my writing accumulates and improves over time.
Yay for word counts. I’m doing the same thing (not in quite as much detail) as I start writing my dissertation this year and the satisfaction I get when I reach my word count goal for the day keeps me going.
Awesome! I find it rewarding to track word counts (if a bit distracting). So cool to see how things accumulate, and to find patterns in my writing. I imagine that must be doubly true for something as significant as a dissertation. What is the focus of your research?