I'm reluctant to even mention it, but I've just passed my first million-word milestone. Why am I reluctant?
When I was writing my first novel, four years ago, I had no idea what to expect of the writing life. I was immensely gratified with the production of a book I wanted to read, and my fans have been kind enough to agree, picking up the whole series over time, novels and shorter works.
At that time, a million words seemed an impossible distance away. More experienced authors muttered things like, “The first million words are just a start,” and I couldn't believe them. How could that be?
But they were right. I'm most of the way through my seventh novel, with two more planned for the year, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface of what I need to learn to grow as a writer. I'm more humble now, but looking forward to the second million, and the third. This post is more of an homage to how I felt when I was getting started, than how I feel now.
BTW — How long does it take to write a million words of fiction? At my current rate of about 750 words/hour, that's more than 1300 hours, one word at a time. At 40 hours/week, that's only 33 weeks. Doesn't seem like that much, when you put it that way, does it?
