The size of my Residua has fascinated me for many a year. Actually, decade. It reached a million words in 2001 (“Word Count, Again,” November 25, 2001). It was twenty-six years of age, and I was fifty-five. Ten years later, in 2010, it reached two-million words (“Word Count, Again and Again,” September 20, 2010). Back then, my magnum opus was thirty-five, and I was sixty-four. But this is when I started worrying about my progress. Too many words, I started feeling. Way too many. When I reached three-million words in 2015, my project was already forty years old, and I was no less than sixty-nine. Ever since, I have done my best to curtail my writing urge. By and by, I started showing palpable results, too. At the present pace, I will reach four-million words no earlier than 2025. By today’s count, that amounts to a third of a million words to go. My Residua will be fifty at the time, and I will be seventy-nine. Given all the givens, though, I can only hope that I will become ever better at cutting the word count as years go by. At most a hundred pieces and as many addenda a year would be just to my liking (“Nifty Numbers,” March 1, 2016). With some luck, the four-million words mark will never be reached. Fingers crossed.

Addendum (December 31, 2025)

The fiftieth year of my writing project is close to its glorious end, and the word count is popping up in my mind once again. To my joy, I have not yet reached four-million words. Far from it, I am happy to report. Today’s count shows that I am close to fifty-thousand words short of this awesome number. And I remain hopeful that I will never reach it. It is my intention to wrap up this project of mine in four or five years, and my writing urge is under good control by now. Ten-thousand words per year is within my reach, and no kidding. One way or another, though, I am likely to be pretty close to four-million words by the time I am finished with my Residua. And a few thousand words here or there will change little, anyway. As ever, fingers crossed.