Pandora's Star wasn't Peter F. Hamilton's first novel though. Midstar Rising was his first novel. If you're asking Word Count for first novels that is. It's funny, he has the same name as me.
This makes total sense to me. I can't say for sure how many words I wrote before I started feeling comfortable in the act of writing, but it must have been approximately five million. I think it's mostly about an author getting past all pretense and writing in his/her natural voice. Those five million words may all end up being throwaways in the end (or not), but they're the most important words a writer will ever set down.
