I was at 14,800 words (and change) last night. I banged out some dialogue this morning before work, and just realized that Meet the Larssons is now over 15,000 words long, which, according to Scrivener, translates to approximately 70 pages. The longest piece of fiction I’ve ever written, a coming of age novel that I stopped working on 15 years ago and never finished, was 75 pages, and it took me months of inconsistent but tortured effort to get that far, and finally, with a great sigh of relief, I gave up on it.
On the other hand, it was an inconsistent and tortured story about inconsistent and tortured people. No reason the writer should have been spared.
The Unfocused Life 