One Million Words
I read somewhere once, that to be a published author you need to have written one million words. It doesn't matter about what, or in what format, just that you have. I think the thought behind that is that you have practice with writing, it is a craft and art like anything else and it takes time to cultivate.
While this number sounds like a lot, I don't think that it really is. I think anyone with a true passion and compulsion to write, they can do this in a few years fairly simply. Honestly I think I hit this point before I was even fifteen years old. I was always writing plays in secret on notepads or in journals I was gifted. When I got older and got better at typing, this moved to the computer and I began trying my hand at novels. My poor father was subjected to reading the early versions of these and I still shudder at some of the things I wrote in my unpracticed early attempts, but thus is anything in life. The early stages are poor but hopefully over time they progress and we improve.
My first full length novel I wrote was inspired (I'll admit heavily inspired) by the Harry Potter series, which at that point was only 3 books long and not yet a movie. It is still my first love and where I really began to develop my passion. The names for characters were taken from the images of Pop Stars at the time that papered my bedroom walls, but it was where I learned to begin to tap into my own internal feelings and I'll admit, I was surprised what I found there. I've learned the most about myself through my writing, and those who have read the breadth of my work will agree. While I only have two published novels, there are far more in varying stages of completion from conception through missing a final edit.
The desire to write is more of a compulsion than anything else. When the urge comes on me I have to write, I have to put pen to paper, figuratively, to get words out into the world. Whether emails for work, a blog post, a snippet of a concept, or a full novel, it must come out and the urge will not be satisfied until I've had my fill. I don't know of other authors feel this way but it's how I work. I've had times where I've written thousands of words in a only a few days, pouring hour after hour into a story that must come out. When I'm not in a position to write, I roll the words around in my head examining them from all angles until I am at a keyboard and can breathe life into them.
A good friend of mine when I was younger also enjoyed writing. I remember her once saying how she could never write on a computer because the words looked so boring. I cannot stand to write by hand because it takes so long for the words to come out!
I'm not sure that what I write on here will be read by many or anyone, but it gives me great satisfaction to release some of myself into the world in the way I best know how.
While this number sounds like a lot, I don't think that it really is. I think anyone with a true passion and compulsion to write, they can do this in a few years fairly simply. Honestly I think I hit this point before I was even fifteen years old. I was always writing plays in secret on notepads or in journals I was gifted. When I got older and got better at typing, this moved to the computer and I began trying my hand at novels. My poor father was subjected to reading the early versions of these and I still shudder at some of the things I wrote in my unpracticed early attempts, but thus is anything in life. The early stages are poor but hopefully over time they progress and we improve.
My first full length novel I wrote was inspired (I'll admit heavily inspired) by the Harry Potter series, which at that point was only 3 books long and not yet a movie. It is still my first love and where I really began to develop my passion. The names for characters were taken from the images of Pop Stars at the time that papered my bedroom walls, but it was where I learned to begin to tap into my own internal feelings and I'll admit, I was surprised what I found there. I've learned the most about myself through my writing, and those who have read the breadth of my work will agree. While I only have two published novels, there are far more in varying stages of completion from conception through missing a final edit.
The desire to write is more of a compulsion than anything else. When the urge comes on me I have to write, I have to put pen to paper, figuratively, to get words out into the world. Whether emails for work, a blog post, a snippet of a concept, or a full novel, it must come out and the urge will not be satisfied until I've had my fill. I don't know of other authors feel this way but it's how I work. I've had times where I've written thousands of words in a only a few days, pouring hour after hour into a story that must come out. When I'm not in a position to write, I roll the words around in my head examining them from all angles until I am at a keyboard and can breathe life into them.
A good friend of mine when I was younger also enjoyed writing. I remember her once saying how she could never write on a computer because the words looked so boring. I cannot stand to write by hand because it takes so long for the words to come out!
I'm not sure that what I write on here will be read by many or anyone, but it gives me great satisfaction to release some of myself into the world in the way I best know how.
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