Writers write. That’s the bottom line.
I’ve been really glad to see my series on the Kardeshev Scale and the kingdom of God getting traffic! That’s been encouraging. My “Why Are Catholics Better at Soccer?” story, along with my piece called “God Has a Patronus” have also been doing well. I’ve been trying to write more fun pieces lately, while including more writing-focused posts as well.
Last week, my journalism writing picked up again, as I contributed to Christianity Today a couple pieces. As I mentioned before, I’ve also been writing quite a bit more on theology around spiritual gifts (not published on the blog), as well as how to engage with war reenactments as Christians. The latter is a question I didn’t think much about as a teenager, when I really enjoyed attending and learning from reenactments. Now I’ve been confronted with the question, and it’s been interesting to really consider the ins and outs of the issue. All this talk about Romans 13–submission to governing authorities–in the public sphere has also proved fascinating writing fodder, though I don’t know if any blogs will come of it. Check out all the new words and please share!
Words Per Day
Sunday, June 24: 0 words
Monday, June 25: 1,510 words (blog and journalism)
Tuesday, June 26: 256 words (blog)
Wednesday, June 27: 1,742 words (fiction)
Thursday, June 28: 1,346 words (journalism)
Friday, June 29: 934 words (blog)
Saturday, June 30: 0 words
Week 26 (June 24 – 30) Totals
Last week, I wrote 5,788 words and spent about 4 hours writing, averaging 1,543 words per hour.
2018 Totals
Since the beginning of 2018, I’ve written about 217,555 words and spent approximately 147 hours writing.
Published Writing From Last Week
Building (and Becoming) a Sanctuary for Refugees – We can be excited that the Church is a sanctuary. God is a fortress.
God Has a Patronus – “Patronus” is another name for the Holy Spirit. A patronus in the ancient Roman sense had the role of advocating for a client. It was not unlike a lawyer or a friend who comes to your defense. This seems a pretty solid parallel to both wizarding patronuses and the third person of the Trinity.
Global Christianity Breakdown by Denomination and Rite – The easiest way to break down Christianity into smaller parts is along the lines of the primary three Christian communities: Orthodox, Catholicism, and Protestantism. The Orthodox Church has 350 million adherents, Catholicism has about 1.3 billion members, and Protestants come in around a cool billion.
Ebola Deaths Rise As Patients Turn to Miracles Over Medicine – When disease erupts, a battle can wage between miracles and medicine, between physicians and faith healers. That conflict led to several deaths in the recent Ebola outbreak.
Writing Tracker – Week 25 (June 17 – 23) – Follow along as I track progress toward my writing goals. Here’s an update from last week.
Here’s What’s Coming Up
Looking ahead, I’m planning to continue plugging away at a couple fantasy novels. On the blog, I’ve got a series on repentance coming up. There should also 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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