A few weeks ago, my publisher sent me an award that simultaneously made my heart explode and had me bursting into surprised tears.
I have officially published one million words!
Just that morning, I’d been struggling through a tough chapter and I’d taken one of my many “procrastination breaks” to read a blog post written by an author, talking about how after hitting the “one million word” mark in their publishing journey, they felt like they’d finally discovered their authentic writing voice. I’ve seen this before, and every time I’ve been like “wowza, one million words?? I’ll probably be 80 when I hit that”…and then 30 minutes later this award showed up on my door.
I had not a single idea that I’d published a million words — had not believed it possible. And if you ever need a reminder that this life is just one step at a time, then this is it. Because so much of this job is broken down into small, tiny deadlines: 500 words a day, or one chapter a day, or one blurb, then an hour of line edits, then another blurb, then 500 words a day again. Whenever I hold my finished book in my hands, it’s truly hard to remember the four-five months prior of endless word count goals, and rewrites, and untangling tricky plot holes, and pacing in my office, and tearing through notebooks trying to remember a random note I’d thought of in a dream.
But it does, truly, all add up into something magical. As is the case with every beautiful thing we do in this life, one step, one day, one hour at a time. The accumulation leads to something amazing, and it makes the arduous journey all the more worth it.
Theo and Daria’s book will be my 13th published novel. In the meantime, those million words were set in Big Sur bookstores and funky beach towns; on hiking trails beneath the Redwoods and at a dog rescue in Miami. They told the stories of private detectives from Philly, recovering stolen books, and of big wave surfers in love with their bodyguards. Oh, and we can’t forget the tattoo artist falling for a polite, suited-up Englishman or the marriage-obsessed good girl falling for a cocky bad boy. Or a retired boxer and the girl of his dreams, racing up the Rocky steps together.
Ever since I was a kid, I have known that books are magic, that stories can change our lives, that words can change the world. I know that, because ever since I was a kid, books have been everything to me. To be able to write books, for a living, is a dream I never thought possible. All of you make that dream a reality, so please allow me to heap endless amounts of gratitude upon you. Thank you, thank you, thank you, for reading.
Here’s to a million more words. ❤️