# Who said, "Your first million words don't count?" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298 "2012-04-09T20:48:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Captmathman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captmathman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captmathman)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/1 "2012-04-09T20:48:21Z")
I’ve long held that Robert Heinlein once gave this sage advice to aspiring authors: “Your first million words don’t count.” My wife recently repeated this to a third party, but insisted that it was originally spoken by Ray Bradbury. In an effort to clear things up, I went online to discover the truth. Seems that Bradbury was the correct answer. As was Heinlein. I could find no authoritative source to provide an attribution. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/2 "2012-04-09T20:50:48Z")
I have a hard time seeing how it could be Heinlein, considering that he sold his first story the first place it was submitted to. Very much the exception, of course, but still, I can’t see him giving advice whose opposite worked out so well for him. ---
**Author:** ![Silver\_Tyger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/fbc32d/32.png) [@Silver\_Tyger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Tyger)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/3 "2012-04-09T21:20:49Z")
Looks like it was Bradbury, from Googling, but I can’t find a source. ETA: Might also be Jerry Pournelle. Again, no source. [Random site with it.](http://quillandkeyboard.blogspot.com/2010/12/quote-of-day_03.html) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2012, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/4 "2012-04-09T22:44:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I have a hard time seeing how it could be Heinlein, considering that he sold his first story the first place it was submitted to. Very much the exception, of course, but still, I can’t see him giving advice whose opposite worked out so well for him. Except that’s not true. Yes, “Life-Line” sold first time out, but he had already submitted _For Us the Living_ unsuccessfully to everybody but the University of Pitcairn Island Press, and had a number of other non-sales in his early years. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 11:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/5 "2012-04-10T11:55:38Z")
> [@Silver\_Tyger](#): > > Looks like it was Bradbury, from Googling, but I can’t find a source. > > ETA: Might also be Jerry Pournelle. Again, no source. [Random site with it.](http://quillandkeyboard.blogspot.com/2010/12/quote-of-day_03.html) I believe it was Pournelle, but I can only remember reading it in one of his Chaos Manor columns in Byte magazine. I don’t remember if he was quoting someone else, or whether it was originally his. This half-quotation, which I can find in several places on the internet, seems to suggest it was his, but I don’t quite remember how it ended: [http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jerrypourn330129.html](http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jerrypourn330129.html) > [@](#): > > I think it takes about a million words to make a writer. I mean that you’re going to throw away. > Read more at [http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jerrypourn330129.html#B5b5VRe42EfSQ3CK.99](http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/j/jerrypourn330129.html#B5b5VRe42EfSQ3CK.99) ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/6 "2012-04-10T12:09:34Z")
Ray Bradbury used to say this at speaking engagements in 1973. I was there, so my post is my cite. ---
**Author:** ![JSexton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@JSexton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JSexton)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/7 "2012-04-10T22:14:50Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Ray Bradbury used to say this at speaking engagements in 1973. I was there, so my post is my cite. Could he have been quoting someone else? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2012, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/8 "2012-04-10T22:29:42Z")
> [@JSexton](#): > > Could he have been quoting someone else? If he was, it was without attribution. I just wanted to add 1973 as a datapoint; if someone else finds an earlier cite, I suppose Bradbury could have heard it somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Captmathman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a8b319/32.png) [@Captmathman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captmathman)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-said-your-first-million-words-dont-count/618298/9 "2012-04-13T16:27:21Z")
Hmm. Elmore Leonard notes a similar quote, which he attributes to John D. MacDonald [here](http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/weblog/more/elmores_first_million_words): “John D. McDonald said that you had to write a million words before you really knew what you were doing.”