The First Million Words

I've heard it said many times that beginning writers need to get through at least one million words of trash before they can really find their voice. I was curious how far along I was toward this end, so I did some inquiry. I came up with a very conservative word count of all the creative writing I've done since 1998, when I was still a student in high school.

(My count excludes school work, of course, even though I'm sure I've accrued quite a lot of words in my seven years of higher education!)

I spent hours putting this chart together, going through every document I could find and getting a word count. I thought it would be interesting also to see how much I've written that was fiction or poetry, and how much of it was really notes or journal entries or something else.

After twelve years, I am still only halfway there. A million words doesn't sound like much, until you get down and start counting. A million words is ten full-length novels.

I could be wrong, but might this concept of "a million words of trash" actually be an exaggeration after all? I encourage other writers to find their word counts and see how they stack up. It is a lot of work, but at the very least, you will learn something about your writing habits. And when you're through you can congratulate yourself on how much you've accomplished, and how much you've grown.