I recently read that a writer must first write ONE MILLION words of crap before their writing becomes any good.
Wow. One Million words is A LOT.
Sure, the more you write, the better you get ... but one million words? Really? That seems like a lot. Let's tally up my total to see if I'm anywhere near this mark.
I've completed 6 books during my 3 years of writing (and this is with actually taking a year off). And I've started a slew of other ones. Here they are:
Completed Books:
Lost & Found (MG) 32,773
Recaptured Dreams 68,540
PG 83,352
Broken Ties That Bind 90,541
All American Girl 90,449
Crucible 75,216
WIP's (things I've started or am currently working on):
Vaughns 5,630
Seduction of MJ 2,159
Lorcan Warlocks 9,687
Saving Ezra 16,360
Urban Cowgirl 6,901
Life Goes On 855
Touch of Heart 18,783
For each completed book, I'm going to add an additional 7,000 words. Because let's face it, in those first stages, lots of stuff is deleted and added. I like to call that stuff word vomit. :-) Typos fall under that catagory, too ... but, er, that's another topic.
So, the rough number of words I have written is (drum roll please ...)
543,246
Hmm ... so I've written SIX books and still only reached the halfway mark? *shakes head*
Now ... did I write crap to begin with?
YES.
Am I still writing crap after a half a million words?
NO.
And every time I tap away at the keyboard, I'm getting better, and better, and better, and better. And I'm better than the first book. WAY better. *pats self on back*
So, I don't think a million words is the magic number. I do believe everyone has a magic number, but depending on you, that number may be small or large.
What do you think, peeps? What's your magic number? Have any of you hit the one million mark? Tell me. (Although I'm pretty sure there is one of you out there that has ... ahem, Dr. B.)
~JD
PS If you missed the Author Interview with Christi Goddard yesterday, go check it out here.
18 comments:
I'm sure every word I've written is crap. Thank God there's life after crap...it's called editing. Great post.
Oh dear! LOL!! I have a feeling over my lifetime I've written a gazillion words of crap! LOL!!! About 20 of these were good words!
Of course you are getting even more brilliant lovely JD! Keep tapping out those wonderful words of yours! Take care
x
I remember when that one million words article was making the rounds. If I count all the research papers and term papers and and essays I've written throughout school and include that with all my stories and novels and poems, maybe then??? But I don't think the research papers and essays count since that's not fiction. So no, I don't think I'm anywhere near a million words of fiction!
I haven't reached that "magic" number yet. But I do believe there is a point in which it finally does click. I'm at that point and it's a wonderful feeling. :D
I don't think there is a magic number, but it sure takes A LOT of practice. A lot, a lot of practice!
Wow. One Million. Crap that's a lot.
Personally I think that each word we type, each MS we finish gets us better.
Even after we surpass one million words.
way to break it down!
do they count like every word you write? like starting at age 5?
I got half way there with one book, but I'm not sure that's a good thing.
There's a 10,000 hour rule I like better. I'm MUCH closer to that number. :)
I think holding up a number...any number...and stating you can't be considered pubishable until you hit that number...IS CRAP!
Okay. So, you got me curious. I didn't do this exactly or scientifically, but I took out a calculator and estimated each novel's word count (so 32,270 was just 32,000). I got a total of 310,000. No million for me either. (This is also not counting many short stories and the words lost in editing.)
But you're right, I think it's subjective. My writing skills have certainly improved on book #8 compared to how I wrote my first novel.
Wow, my total would be far less than yours. Oh, crap...
I never really believed in that 'million words' thing. Every person is different, and that includes the ability to adapt and learn from mistakes. It's such a generalization of people that I am surprised so many people believe it.
i'm actually pretty close to 1 mil, but i can't get a straight number since a lot of the stuff i wrote when younger was on floppy disks and now is lost
Lol, so I wonder when these one million words start... do they start the minute you sit down and say, "I'm going to be a writer?" Or do they start before that? Do they start in the first grade when you're having writer's workshop and learn about how stories tell events, or in the 6th grade when you learn that your characters should be different from each other? I don't think any of these lessons is less important than the stuff I've learned writing as an adult...so maybe the million words starts earlier?
hi miss justine! for sure im no place near a million words. and for sure mostly what i write is crap but with all the stuff im learning from my blogger friends like you im getting better all the time so i dont think i got any number to reach. all i gotta do is keep on learning and writing. im wondering who said you gotta do that many words and how they decided that??
...hugs from lenny
Wow! One million? (I hope this is a give or take a few hundred thousand statistic.) But writing is definitely a learning process - in many ways. Probably one that never really ends.
If you count all the stuff I've deleted I;m sure I was well over a million before I published my first book back in November. But if you only count final numbers I;d be somewhere around the half million mark like you.
Post a Comment