Once upon a time, I can’t remember when but it would have been more than a decade ago, I read that a writer should write about a million words before attempting to get published. Yes, one million words. Sounds like a lot but if you break it down it is only 2800 words per day for one year.

Some might call it a writer’s apprenticeship. Have you ever come across this?

I have to wonder, how many  words have I written? I’ve thrown out about half a dozen manuscripts over the past fifteen years, I’ve written on numerous blogs, plus the free writing, journals, article and much more. There’s bound to be a few million there.

Now that I’m older and wiser, I think it’s mostly a load of baloney. While I don’t think you should publish the first thing you write, I don’t think you have to wait till you’ve written a certain amount of words.

A writer’s apprenticeship never ends. If we want to continually become better writers we never stop learning about the craft, we constantly work on expanding our vocabulary, we play around with sentence structure, we are never-ending apprentices in a growing community.

That means, you hit publish when you’re ready.

I recently read an interview in Writer’s Digest (May/June 2015) with Susan Mallery, where she says it’s as important to study the craft of writing once you’re published as it was when you were dreaming of being published, she says, “I’m a huge believer in studying craft, and still study craft.” Susan Mallery has written over 150 books. I think it might be worth listening to her advice if you want to be a great writer, and more importantly a writer that readers love to read.

So whether you’re on your first book, your twentieth or your hundredth, there’s likely something that you can still learn. It’s your responsibility as a writer to continue learning, to persevere with the writer’s apprenticeship for as long as you wish to continue writing.

What do you think? Does a writer’s apprenticeship ever end?