The Magic Number
I witnessed an online conversation that irked me a bit. This in and of itself is not unusual. It is the internet, after all. Apparently, there is a school of thought that says you have to write a certain number of words before you start writing publishable material. I want to say the number tossed around was something like 500,000 words. To me, this is total bull.
It doesn't take a particular number of words or drafts to make something publishable. Every writer is different. There is no formula, no set answer. We're all making it up as we go along. The best a writer can do is keep writing and hope they can continue getting better at the craft. If you're looking for a short cut, you're going to be disappointed.
I do understand that this magic number being tossed around is actually large enough to encourage practice (and save some poor slush readers from barely first draft submissions) and all that. I get it. But, I started writing stories in elementary school. I'd have hit that "magic number" early in high school (probably). I've read the stuff I was writing then. Even though some of it was published, none of it should have been.
There is no magic number that, when you reach it, the gods of prose will bop you on your head with their scepter of skill and bestow upon you the magic ability to write well.
We live in such a strange time - instant gratification is the norm and no one wants to wait or work for anything if they don't have to. Good writing, good stories, aren't that. They take work and time. I imagine there are those few super prodigies out there who start out brilliant from the start (at least one has to exist somewhere, right?) but they are the exception, not the rule. I thought, at 17, that I had all the elements to be one of those prodigies because the very first short story I submitted to a real magazine was accepted. This story is one of the ones that I look at now and cringe mightily! At that age, I wasn't ready to really work for it. I wanted it and expected it to be easy. Ha!
The older and wiser me gets it and wants to pass the information along and I find myself getting yelled at over the internet because they don't want to hear that there is work involved beyond writing some magic number's worth of words. I'm getting older. I get irked easily. I found this incredibly irksome. Word counts don't matter! There are writers who can rip your heart out in ten words and writers who can't do it in thousands of words. Surely if there was a magic number, we'd all be superstars by now.
It doesn't take a particular number of words or drafts to make something publishable. Every writer is different. There is no formula, no set answer. We're all making it up as we go along. The best a writer can do is keep writing and hope they can continue getting better at the craft. If you're looking for a short cut, you're going to be disappointed.
I do understand that this magic number being tossed around is actually large enough to encourage practice (and save some poor slush readers from barely first draft submissions) and all that. I get it. But, I started writing stories in elementary school. I'd have hit that "magic number" early in high school (probably). I've read the stuff I was writing then. Even though some of it was published, none of it should have been.
There is no magic number that, when you reach it, the gods of prose will bop you on your head with their scepter of skill and bestow upon you the magic ability to write well.
We live in such a strange time - instant gratification is the norm and no one wants to wait or work for anything if they don't have to. Good writing, good stories, aren't that. They take work and time. I imagine there are those few super prodigies out there who start out brilliant from the start (at least one has to exist somewhere, right?) but they are the exception, not the rule. I thought, at 17, that I had all the elements to be one of those prodigies because the very first short story I submitted to a real magazine was accepted. This story is one of the ones that I look at now and cringe mightily! At that age, I wasn't ready to really work for it. I wanted it and expected it to be easy. Ha!
The older and wiser me gets it and wants to pass the information along and I find myself getting yelled at over the internet because they don't want to hear that there is work involved beyond writing some magic number's worth of words. I'm getting older. I get irked easily. I found this incredibly irksome. Word counts don't matter! There are writers who can rip your heart out in ten words and writers who can't do it in thousands of words. Surely if there was a magic number, we'd all be superstars by now.