NOTE: I started this post on October 1st and posted it on October 3rd.
He must have known the answer to the question--NO--because he has been reading the Mildred faithfully and anyone who has been reading the Mildred knows that I haven't finished story #1 yet.
I told him, no, I haven't finished it yet, but it is going well and I am enjoying it.
How many pages do you have left to write?, he asked.
Um, that's difficult to say, because I have long sections already written...
He interrupted me. How many pages?
Six, I said, though I'm pretty sure that was an underestimation.
Then he proceeded to try to figure out, based on my past performance, i.e., how many pages I had written in the past 18 months, how long it would take me to write the six pages and finish the story.
The end of October, he said. You will not finish that story before the end of October.
No way, I said, indignant. I'm finishing it October 7th.
But, unfortunately, I think he may be right.
October 7th is Wednesday and I haven't written anything new since our dinner. (I have revised a paragraph, though. I must stop revising.) October 7th is also the first meeting of my class, and I had wanted to have Story #1 finished by then. Oh, well... But it's still possible! I have five days--six, including tonight. I believe! I believe!
The whole conversation made me uncomfortable, but it is interesting to think about page counts, etc., because it is unreasonable for me to think that I can change the way I write, the speed at which I write, my process, etc. etc., whenever I need to. I will say, though, that the time it takes me to write a story from beginning to end decreases with each story that I write. Story #1 is much easier for me to work on than my previous story, and Story #2 will be easier to finish than Story #1 (I hope, anyway).
No writing last night.
You inspire me, Madeleine. I am also trying to finish writing a long thing. Today I said I would write 1000 words. I think I wrote 700 words. This made me happy enough. And also I revised and that also made me happy. I said I would be done with my long thing by the end of the summer and now it is fall and I am saying I will be done by the end of the fall.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I love your blog. I left it open on the computer the other day and my husband who is a poet trying to write stories found it and I heard him laughing out loud for a long while.