Writing Tracker – Week 21 (May 20 – 26)

Writers write. That’s the bottom line.

I’m going to blame my drop-off on the holiday weekend, which was too beautiful to spend indoors. Even so, I still pumped out an average of more than 1,000 words per day, even though I took a few days off. In a departure from the last month or so of writing, I shifted back toward blog-writing this past week. I put in a bit of time on my current fiction project, but I got on a roll with the blog and just kept going. It’s definitely true that sometimes I just get in a groove on a subject–fiction, blog-related, or even journalism–and then I’m totally in it for a few days or weeks or longer. I hope to find more balance across my writing categories at some point, as it seems most weeks are dominated either by blogging or by fiction-writing or, less often, by content for media outlets.

Getting back in the blog rhythm helped me churn out some interesting pieces related to online Bible studies (and why we should be careful with them) and God as not only the author of our faith, but also its editor. I continue to work through my “Refuge” series, for which posts come out every Monday, and these Writing Trackers. Check out all the new words and please share!

Words Per Day

Sunday, May 20: 0 words 

Monday, May 21: 744 words (blog)

Tuesday, May 22: 1,251 words (blog and fiction)

Wednesday, May 23: 2,892 words (blog)

Thursday, May 24: 2,859 words (blog)

Friday, May 25: 0 words 

Saturday, May 26: 0 words 

Week 21 (May 20 – 26) Totals

Last week, I wrote 7,746 words and spent about 4 hours writing, averaging 1,721 words per hour.

2018 Totals

Since the beginning of 2018, I’ve written about 177,231 words and spent approximately 114 hours writing.

Published Writing From Last Week

How to Love the Alien and Fight Bureaucratization: The Tyranny of Donors – The Church has every reason to want insight and evidence about the effect of its giving, but let’s complement our generosity with trust that good work can and is being done, even if aid workers don’t snap the photograph to prove it.

7 Cautions Before Starting an Online Bible Study – Online Bible studies can be great. They can also be detrimental. Here are seven of the red flags that helped me think better about a blog-based Bible study. If you’ve ever considered starting or joining one, I hope you’ll find some wisdom here as well.

The Editor of Our Faith – To one degree or another, all Christians can agree that God is the author of faith. And yet, so often we mortals long to be our own editors. We want to say, “Okay, God, that’s a decent first draft, but hand over the manuscript of my life and let me really add some action!”

Writing Tracker – Week 20 (May 13 – 19) – Follow along as I track progress toward my writing goals. Here’s an update from the sixth week of the year.

Here’s What’s Coming Up

In the near future, I’m planning to continue plugging away at a couple fantasy novels. On the blog, I’ll have pieces related to the prospect of resettlement for refugees and how the North American church can say “Welcome.” I’m also planning a cool series, hopefully for next week, about something called Terror Management Theory. Basically, it’s the idea that human beings instinctively want to live, but know they are going to die. I look at how Christianity helps to resolve that cognitive dissonance.

Believe it or not, but I still haven’t forgotten about my series on the Kardashev Scale, which I’ve been steadily working away at, and how it might come into contact with the Kingdom of God. We’ll see if I keep going with the pieces related to Bonhoeffer’s theology and how it may be applicable today, and what the gig economy might mean for Christians specifically.

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. If I’m not, they can give me the necessary encouragement/kick. Posting my stats also keeps me personally motivated. 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.