Week 48: Crossing 80,000 word mark

Maximum number of words:	80,000
Words typed so far:	82,964
Words typed this week:	5614
Words lost this week:	0
Total increase:	5164
Days I managed to write this week:	3

Right that is over 80,000 words. So my thesis is now officially TOO LONG. Indeed it is almost 3,000 words too long. What is more it is going to get longer before it gets shorter. I have another almost 10,000 words to write before I can start editing down the too long chapters. At present my chapters on location, community and worship are 50% longer than they need to be and the methodology is around 100% too long. However I have another chapter to write before I can start chopping. This one on flows.

The other thing is the 5,516 words written this weekend. Given how slow I was before the holiday it really looks as if the holiday has done me good. However you might like to consider that I spent a lot of time reviewing the data chapters and such while away in preparation for this writing. This gave me a set of notes on which it was based and the 5,516 came easier than the previous writing.

So the then I have now finished my chapter on belonging and need to move onto the big theory one. This has been looking at small theory or I will be if my supervisor agrees on Tuesday.

Finally one point, this post also marks a year of writing. In that I have written over 80,000 words. Is it possible to write up a thesis in a year full time. It certainly looks like it from here.

Week 30: Dealing with the tradition

Maximum number of words:	80,000
Words typed so far:	54,562
Words typed this week:	2194
Words lost this week:	0
Total increase:	2194
Days I managed to write this week:	4

Despite having been to supervision this week writing wise it has been a pretty straightforward week. What I have had to do is to bring the theory and the description together and ask what does this say about the way tradition is experienced within the congregation. It is interesting that I found I think four separate things to say although the first three were how the tradition impinged on the congregation. The first was that a feeling of loss was exacerbated because of the tradition, the second was one of these daft situation where the tradition works against itself and the final one was where the tradition starts to interact with the local in an interesting way. The final was the need of the local tradition to sustain itself and the ways that congregations go about doing that. So I have made decent progress.

Unfortunately the chapter is too long and there are still bits missing, nothing major, but also quite a bit of repetition to be got rid of. Then there is the integration of the theory and the description. This can only happen at this stage, I need to have both written before I am able to link them. So next weekend which is a long one, I will be taking the chapter to bits and putting it back together again, hopefully with 5000 fewer words. Then it is off to the proof readers with it.