Wordcount Wednesday

So I decided I need to add a feature to my blog here. We have the following regular features here at the Least Read Blog currently:

• The Christian Science Fiction/Fantasy Blog Tour (which happens monthly)
• Sermon podcasts (every Sunday or Monday, depending on when I can get to the editing unless I called in a guest preacher)
• Book reviews (whenever I finish reading a book)
• TV show musings (whenever I feel the need to ramble)
• Movie reviews (again, whenever I see one)
• Whatever else is rattling around in my brain (and there's not that much)
  

Only the first two items of this list happens regularly, and only one of them happens weekly. I decided I needed to add another regular feature, something I could do every week. I notice in that little banner up there that one of the things I'm supposed to talk about in this blog is writing. And sure, maybe I've done that in the blog tour posts, but I really don't talk a lot about my own writing.

That's part of the problem. I'm sporadic when it comes to my writing. I don't keep up with it like I should. I think I need some sort of accountability to keep me honest and keep me working.

So I've got two problems. And I think I came up one solution for both problems. Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the latest feature of this blog: Wordcount Wednesdays. Every Wednesday, I will post the current word count of whatever it is I'm working on. If I'm rewriting or editing, I'll post my progress on that too. If I haven't done any work in the previous week, I'll admit to that freely and with great shame. Those who read my blog regularly, feel free to take me to task if I start to stray. I need a good kick in the rear every now and then.

Let's set a benchmark then, shall we? My current project is entitled Numb. It's Christian science fiction (I'm a glutton for punishment), set a few centuries in the future. The tag line for the story is this: A surgically modified assassin fights to save the woman he loves from his superiors. Now that I see it, it's not good enough. It really doesn't explain the assassin all that well. I'll need to work on that.

As of today, at 11:13 PM CST, I have written a grand total of 41,988 words in the first draft. I'll be honest, I'm not all that pleased. I had slated this one for about 75,000 words and I hoped to be done months ago. Hopefully I can make it through soon.

But there's one other thing. If I can, I'll throw in some rambling thoughts about writing in these updates as well. Ideas on craft, discoveries about my writing, that sort of thing.

We'll start things slowly this week. Let me introduce you to my writing partner ... Boba Fett.

That's right, I write with the bounty hunter himself, the unmodified clone of Jango Fett, the man so great that not even being eaten by a sarlacc could keep him down.

Sadly, Fett does not give me a lot of writing advice, especially since I wind up cramming him head first into my computer when it's time to write. In this case, Boba Fett is actually a flash drive.

I used to use one on a lanyard to store all my writing projects, but after my brother-in-law gave me this recently, I knew I had found a great addition to my writing routine.

Like I said, start light this week. Tune in next Wednesday for the next update. And maybe I'll shake loose some odd thoughts I've been having about what video games can teach us about writing.