The number one million has always fascinated me. It’s a
large enough number to seem unimaginable, yet small enough to be reachable.
When I read about school children who collect a million pennies or bottle caps,
I marvel at their determination and am somewhat jealous of the awe they must
feel when they finally reach their goal.
And in order to make this more challenging, not every word I
write throughout 2009 will count towards my goal. I’m still working on refining the list, but,
as of now, I’ve decided to count blog posts on 500 Words, any fiction or
non-fiction work of which I’m currently or will begin writing, any screenplay I
choose to write, any interview /feature I write for Groovevolt.com (though not
the daily news pieces) or other sites to which I contribute.
Excluded from the count will be any emails, Facebook
updates, notes, etc. Only the words written between January 1 and December 31,
2009 will count for projects currently in progress. (I will note and post the
current word count of the project prior to January 1, 2009 in order to ensure
the integrity of the project.) I will try to update 500 1,000,000 Words at
least several times a week and perhaps will put up a Facebook Group as well to
detail my progress.
I realize that some might see this as a vanity project and
might wonder why they should care. While, admittedly, I am hopeful to score
some sort of publishing or film deal out of this endeavor, the genesis for
1,000,000 Words came from a friend – more specifically, as a result of the
passing of a friend. Some of you might be unaware that I lost my best friend,
Anthony DeCarlo, December 28, 1998. Just like the number one million is unimaginable,
so too is the idea that 10 years have passed since his death.
