Insecure Writers' Support Group (IWSG) is a
really awesome meme that you should be doing along with the rest of us
writers. Unless you truly are happy with your writing and don't feel the
need to vent about your insecurities because they don't exist for you. But, really.... Don't they?
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.
IWSG is hosted by Captain Ninja Alex at his blog, Alex J. Cavanaugh.
Nah... I haven't actually written one million words since my last blog post back in September. But, I have decided since then to work my way toward that ultimate goal. I recently read an author's response to a post over on Kindle Boards, and it just made sense that experience trumps everything. And, 1,000,000 words equals those 10,000 hours meant to be spent on becoming an expert in anything.
So, I literally tallied up every word I could find evidence of having written in the past 1o years (since 2004). What a project! Whether fan fiction or original, whether goofing around, or serious, if it was FICTION, it was added to my lifetime word count chart. I didn't go back further than 2004 because I simply don't have anything I wrote that far back anymore, sadly.
I will say that my current total is a little bit higher than I thought it was going to be. Not by much, but slightly, so this actually encouraged me rather than derailed me. But, I'm still nowhere near 1,000,000 words written total. That needs to change and it will now.
Doing this has made me realize that WHAT you write isn't even half as important as the fact that you simply DO it. Just do it! Just write fiction, and it doesn't matter if it sucks or is so amazing, J.K. Rowling will be mad with jealousy. Just write because you cannot add to your word count total that which does not exist.
I have to say, it helped me make a big shift in getting over some of my writing anxiety. Now, I just write and write and write until something someday will be good enough to edit into publishable condition. Someday, it will just have to happen.
And, if I write another 4,000 words before the year is over, I will have surpassed my word count total from 2012, which was my best writing year, by 500 words! (I didn't realize I was so close to having written as much as I did that year. This chart shows you everything that is true!)
My other big ah-ha from discovering how many words I've actually written is that I have a lot more compassion for myself. I realize it is so very, very wrong for me to expect perfection from myself when I am such a rank amateur. That might sound like something that should depress me, but it really doesn't. I can't logically expect to be so good at something that I don't have enough experience at to be considered a true professional. Now that I understand this, I'm easier on myself about making mistakes. You can't expect a toddler to run as fast as a teenager, ya know?
Have you ever tallied up your lifetime word count goal? Anywhere near 1,000,000 lifetime words written? (Maybe it's just me who's so far behind. :(
I have not tallied up my word count. Do minutes count? lol I did those for twenty years. Seriously, before I retire in a few years I'm going to do one set of minutes like they're a novel. *grins evilly*
ReplyDelete@Donna: Whatever is the equivalent of 10,000 hours will count. :)
DeleteI'm around the half-way mark to 1,000,000. So I'm half-way good? Lol! If you keep writing and reading, you will eventually make your goals, I just know it! =)
ReplyDeleteWhat an amazing post! It never occurred to me to tally up words. I hope you're tallying up revisions, too, because chances are there have been different versions of stories and novels along the way - you may be closer than you think to that magical million!
ReplyDelete@Lexa: Yep, definitely tally up every word written of fiction, including the words you had to delete and rewrite. If you wrote it at any time, it counts! ;)
DeleteGood point! If we haven't practiced enough, we shouldn't expect to be pros.
ReplyDeleteNever added up my word count. Do blog posts count?
@Alex: I don't count blog posts because I'm not writing fiction when writing blog posts. I count only fiction because of how intricately different it is compared to all other forms of writing. Lots of writing in general doesn't really help with one's story and fiction crafting.
DeleteI've seen some toddlers who run very fast. ;)
ReplyDeleteI have kept track of my word counts since I started writing with publication in mind (January 2009), which is just over 1,000,000 words. I have estimated what I have written in fiction, though, from when I started writing fanfiction and roleplaying groups from 1999-2008. There were many, many days that I spent 8-10 hours writing during that time, and I figure I probably spewed out anywhere from 5 million to 10 million words during that time or even more. It was an insane amount of writing in those days when I had nothing better to do than play around in other people's worlds. LOL!
I wrote 1 million words in 2013. It was a goal I set in December of '12 and I kept a spreadsheet to stay on track... and I hit the million in November. It can be done! Now I have a pile of revisions that is STILL threatening to consume me. I think those words have been instrumental in making me a better writer. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI've probably way surpassed a million words, buuuut...that's because I've been at this for twenty-five years. Boy, do I feel old.
ReplyDeleteKeep going! Every word is bliss!
I never took the time to tally up my word count. It just matters about the quality of the words and the story, I guess. Good Luck!!!
ReplyDeleteKathy, you've got me thinking. On books alone I've probably written...(counting on fingers) 250,000 words. That doesn't count 7 years of blogging. Hmm... I better get cracking if I want to reach 1 mil.
ReplyDeleteWhat an interesting project! I would have no idea where to start with that tally; I used to write web articles and I don't have most of them anymore. But very motivating to keep on keeping on with the words. I agree, pushing forward and not getting stuck for too long makes for so much progress.
ReplyDeleteHere's my IWSG post
Love your mantra, Just Do It! Good luck on your goal!
ReplyDeleteThat's a really cool idea. Now I want to go find out how many words I've written.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea, Cathy! I'll never be able to add up all that I've written, but I can certainly tally up the count on what papers, letters, and manuscripts I have stuffed in file drawers ~ oh, and then there are the journals. This could be a big project. Maybe I'll tackle it as I clean and organize all those files. A tally like a carrot urging me on.
ReplyDeleteI just had to calculate the words/hour for those 1,000,000 words and 10,000 hours ~ with a calculator because so many zeros make my eyes spin: 100 words/hour. Even I write faster than that ~ on a good day! My brother keeps track of the days he has been alive. Last summer he was at over 22,000 days. 10,000 hours is 416.7 24-hour days. I bet I've surpassed 1,000,000 words, especially as a number of those days were all-nighters at a number of universities. You given me so much fun, and a temporary excuse to ignore my beeping dryer and the clothes waiting to be hung. Thank you! And happy holidays!
What a great idea! I've never tried this, but I could see that it could be encouraging (or discouraging). I write kidlit, so my word count might be lower.
ReplyDeleteLoved what you said about just "do it"! So true. I'm convinced that just taking the time to write makes you better.
I know I've written millions of words over the 30 years I've been writing, going just on all the known word counts of my books' first drafts and then guesstimating the length of everything I've handwritten. I'm blown away by the sky-high word counts of some of the people on the NaNo message board for overachievers. How can anyone have written over 800,000 words, or even a million words even, within only 30 days? Even I don't write that fast, and I've written several hundred thousand words in only a few months!
ReplyDelete@Carrie-Anne: I know what you mean about the NaNo overachievers. They write way too many words in one month! It makes your head spin. This 1 million mark is easy stuff for them.
DeleteI think you writing 1,000,000 word is more than possible. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnna from Shout with Emaginette
I can see how writing so many words in the long run would be a good thing, but its still just a number.
ReplyDeleteWrite what you love cause you love to write.
Keep moving forward.
Heather
@Heather: While I agree that 1 million words is still just a number, gaining experience counts for a heck of a lot, and that's what all those words are for.
DeleteWhat an excellent goal to have! And it IS so important that we just KEEP WRITING rather than worry about exactly what we're writing. A little bit every day ... I added up the word counts I can remember and it seems I've just passed the halfway mark. Yeah! Another couple of years and I'll be there :D
ReplyDeletenice to meet a fellow IWSG-er. this post makes me want to go count how many words i've saved just on my laptop.
ReplyDeleteI really should get to doing this. Everything I've ever written since deciding to become a writer is in a neat little folder on a drive on my computer but of course I am a writer so I've been procrastinating in calculating it all up :) Some fantastic revelations. I couldn't agree with you more that you just need to keep writing regardless of how bad it is because eventually with all the reading and writing that we do, we're bound to find something awesome.
ReplyDelete@Lan: That shouldn't be too hard to tally them all up, then. It's so interesting to figure out what you've actually written and see how some years were good and others weren't. I hope it motivates me to write much more next year because I'll know how 2015 will shape up by comparison to the previous years. :)
DeleteI think I probably only have about 200K total words in my manuscripts now, but I've completely revamped them so many times I've probably written over 500K words. Does that count, or or do I still have a long way to go?
ReplyDelete@Ken: Of course those words count! Even if they don't exist anymore, every word you wrote has to count because they impacted you. They taught you and gave you experience. You're half way there already, Ken. ;)
DeleteAwesome post. NaNo helped me to get words down despite all the self-doubt I usually slap on my writing. Plus, I blogged a bunch that month too. I just figure that writing is like most things in life, the more your do it, the better you get. And, like you alluded to in your post, it takes time. :)
ReplyDelete@Elise: Thanks! It's helped me to realize I have a long way to go before I should even begin to feel like I have a grasp on this type of skill. I'm still nowhere near 1 million words, after all.
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