Writers write. That’s the bottom line.
Last week was dedicated almost entirely to three projects. The first was a new story for Christianity Today, which came out earlier this week. The second was a City Living story for the Chicago Tribune, which should probably be printed within the next couple weeks. And the third was writing toward a little series I’m doing on the blog about the overlap between Christianity and social psychology’s terror management theory. (If you don’t know what that is, there’s even more reason to check out the blogs!)
I feel like I hadn’t written for media in quite a while, but that seems to be picking up again. However, as I’ve noted before, journalism writing takes considerably longer than blogging, which takes a fair bit longer than fiction writing, at least for me. You’ll notice below that I only averaged about 950 words per hour last week. Typically, I average more like 1,600. This drop is simply due to writing for media, which is a more rigorous process, at least for me, and requires that I slow down. Check out all the new words and please share!
Words Per Day
Sunday, May 27: 500 words
Monday, May 28: 2,055 words (blog)
Tuesday, May 29: 1,586 words (blog and fiction)
Wednesday, May 30: 1,430 words (blog)
Thursday, May 31: 600 words (blog)
Friday, June 1: 0 words
Saturday, June 2: 0 words
Week 22 (May 27 – June 2) Totals
Last week, I wrote 6,171 words and spent about 6 and a half hours writing, averaging 962 words per hour.
2018 Totals
Since the beginning of 2018, I’ve written about 183,402 words and spent approximately 120 and a half hours writing.
Published Writing From Last Week
How to Love the Alien and Fight Bureaucratization: Paternalism over Partnership – In my own experience in aid work and in conversation with many veteran colleagues, the heavy sociological question arises: Is aid colonial? The answer: sure, it can be—but it doesn’t have to be.
The Abandonment of Muslim Refugees – So far in 2018, barely 10,000 asylum-seekers have been granted reprieve in the Land of the Free. And of those, only 1,800 (17 percent) are Muslims, despite the fact that three of the top five refugee-creating countries are majority-Muslim.
Your Personal Den of Robbers – In the same way that Jesus cleansed the physical temple when he entered the courts to the sight of profiteering businessmen and swindlers, he is also interested in cleansing each of us of the “robbers” within us.
Western Europe’s Christians Are as Religious as America’s Nones (Christianity Today) – 13 percent of American “nones” say religion is “very important” in their lives; only 14 percent of Western European Christians say the same.
Gospel Offense and Christian Kindness – Gospel offense is not an excuse for Christian insensitivity. Gospel offense calls us into a deeper measure of Christian kindness.
Writing Tracker – Week 21 (May 20 – 26) – 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 have a couple more posts coming up in this little series on Christianity and terror management theory. I’m also really thinking the Kardashev Scale series of posts may be nearing completion. At last! There should be a number of media pieces on the way–so keep an eye on my blog Facebook page for that. And I’ve been thinking more about that movie I wrote about a while ago, “The Heart of Man,” and may write some more thoughts about that. 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.
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