Tuesday, January 3, 2012

A half-million words (sort of) and counting

I bet you’ve heard the saying that goes something like: you must write a million words before you can consider yourself a writer. I’ve also heard it as “You must write a million words of crap before can write something publishable" and a few other variations. The author of this wisdom depends on which source you check. But the sentiment is the same - a writer must write. A lot.


Just for fun - and not because I’m procrastinating again or anything - I decided to guesstimate how many words I’ve written. You know, not including grocery lists, high school essays, love poems, and the like.


Let’s see…. I have:


1 parenting guide 50,000 words

4 activities books (x 30,000) 120,000

3 activities (younger readers) (x25,000) 75,000

2 teacher resources (x25,000) 50,000

1 MG novel (unpublished but done!) 40,000

1 YA novel (unpublished but done!) 45,000

At least 40 articles/essays (x750) 30,000


That’s come up to (hmmm...stupid math...carry the one, add to the next column…)



410,000 words!



*fist pump* Cool! I’m (sort of) almost half way there!


How many words have you committed to paper since you’ve decided to get serious about writing? I think it’s always valuable, especially when we’re struggling to get where we’re going, to go back and see just how far we’ve come. Seems like a new year is the perfect time to do this.

3 comments:

  1. Woohoo, congrats on the 410k words, Carmella! :-)

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  2. Wow - that's impressive, Car. I'm scared to see how many words I've written and rewritten - too many too count.

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  3. That is so awesome. I love how you counted up your words. It's very inspiring.

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