1,000,000 · 4:07am May 8th, 2016
Run. (verb)
1. Move at a speed faster than a walk, never having both or all the feet on the ground at the same time
2. Move about in a hurried and hectic way.
In the annals of literature, run isn't the kind of word that we give a second look. It's in a first-grade primer, the kind of word that is a foundation of our language.
It's an important word, but in so many ways it's a nothing word. There are dozens, perhaps hundreds of other ways to describe the motion of running. Indeed, here on FimFic, trot or gallop or lope or canter might all be more useful, and, indeed more common.
In fact, it's the kind of word I'd never give a second thought, except for one little thing: it's my millionth word.
There are published authors who haven't written as many words.
I'm still not sure how that makes me feel.
Now, I know that the FimFic word counter isn't exactly a 'word' counter. The first draft of Canonical Mute Vinyl Scratch Breaks Up with Fanon Mutavia had seven words, according to FimFic. And you're probably lucky that it does count some symbols as words, because I was originally going to write a breakup story in Morse Code.
And I know that some things probably should count. Fimfic Authors are in Your Bed, for example, has a lot of words written by a lot of guest authors.
Offsetting that, though, I've got another super-secret account, and several stories published in other places, and those ought to count towards my word total, right?
If I was super obsessive (like Twilight) and a computer nerd, I'd write a script to get a valid word count. And then I'd debate over whether or not I ought to count blog posts in the total.
But I'm neither of those things, and FimFic's million is good enough for me.
So let's all raise our glasses to the second million, eh?
From the wiki
Secret accounts? You intrigue me.
Its a strange feeling.
You made me check my own count. I'm over 600,000.
Good enough (more then good, even) for me too, so heres my congratulations!
Yeah, double quotes count as words
"Bob"
is a three-word story, so my (checks) 1.3 mil probably work out to around 800k. Still, most published authors write an *insane* amount of stuff you don't see. Sarah Hoyt's Blog probably clocks in at that, with her wordcount in published stories may run over a half-mil, and that's stuff that brings in income. Stories go into the box, they get full re-writes, they mutate into strange things that you really don't want to show to anybody, etc...
dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/37540750/_ponies/applejack%20cider.gif
3929031 seconded, and when I saw this blog post, I instantly thought of the green run in Silver Glow's journal and wondered what that was about. Now I know, and I'm very happy for you!
Congratulations on 1,000,000!
Despite my crappy short stories not garnering me a relative ton of followers and being generally inferior to your short stories; because you have a decent number of long form stories too I actually have a higher follower-to-word-count ratio than you.
Congrats.
You got me curious now too. Mine's not nearly as impressive.
Damn, that beats my 0 word count by, a lot!
They are just lazy and uninspired.
Onto the Pony Planet.
3929031
Only one secret account.
3929036
I wonder what it would feel like to have a million word story?
3929040
I bet a lot of people just did.
3929061
Thank you!
3929075
Only sometimes, though. It's weird. Smart quotes don't, dumb quotes do. Some combinations of dots and dashes count as words, others do not.
Yes. There are currently fifteen documents on my desktop that are 'in progress.' Probably I'll eventually get tired of seeing them there and clear off my desktop, until the process starts anew.
3929175
3938526 There was a point about 375K into Night where I realized that if I really, really wanted to, I could make it a million words long. It would have made a lot of things worse and some things better, but a terrible idea overall. I thought about it, if I'm honest.
If only to see what it was like.
I imagine it's a lot like finishing any long work that takes up a significant portion of your life/creative energy. A feeling of sorrow and a little accomplishment.
3929279
It would hardly be a super-secret account if everyone knew about it, right? Only five people (I think) actually know for sure.
Thanks!
3929281
A lot of people do. Meh, I do what I know how to do, and people that like it follow me.
3929375
It's funny, it sort of sneaked up on me. I was in the 800k-something range, and then Sunday night I happened to look at my story page for some reason, and there it was at 999.9xx, and I was like, damn, gotta do something special.
3929379
If I remember my multiplication correctly, it's infinite times larger.
3929412
Or maybe they go more for publishable quality, and I just go for . . . well, whatever.
3929488
I promise an update before I hit the two million word mark.
3938534
I don't know about finishing things, but . . .
You remember a little bit back I blogged about my potato chip truck? Well, that was one of the vehicles I always wanted to own (and I do, now). The other--the last one--was a square-body Suburban (1973-1992 style). A couple of years back, I finally bought one. When I drove it home, I suddenly realized that I now owned, or had owned, every vehicle I had ever wanted to own. It was a feeling both of sorrow and accomplishment.
3938571 I used to think the "journey not the destination" thing was silly, but now?
Heh. Faulkner once compared the feeling of finishing a novel to having to take your favorite kid out back and putting them down. Which is horrifying and morbid, but he was a weird and grumpy guy. He's kind of totally right too.
3938557
Don't promise what you can't deliver. :)
3938943
lol I hope I can get it done before I hit two million.
3938963
1 million words of onto the pony planet.
3938979
Counting related stories, we'll be over 500k at the next update.
3938996
But what have you done for us lately?
I mean poor Dale hasn't seen any action since November.
3939101
I know.
3938556
I totally know what it is! It's This!
just kidding, I always make that joke about side accounts
3938557
You had me excited there.
Then I remembered precisely how far away 2 mil is.
3939213
Nah. It would probably have more clop than that.
Unless he uses it for his meme splurges instead.
3938533
Yeah, I always notice how word counts on here differ from MSWord. I've also seen a few stories that report a different total word count than the sum of their chapters.
3938571 that's so poetic.
Interesting side-note: I read somewhere that Dr. Seuss wrote his books because of how mind-numbingly boring primers like the Spot books were.